Beagle Board has partnered with Seeed and StarFive to bring out the best in their next-generation beagle board – BeagleV development board. This high-performance development board is based on the RISC-V architecture that aims to take open-source to the next level. The manufacturers intend to aid developers to enhance and innovate various solutions more flexibly but at an affordable expense.
Taking a peek at the specifications of the BeagleV development board
At the heart of the BeagleV development board is the powerful SoC manufactured by StarFive. The SoC comes with the SiFive RISC-V U74, Vision DSP Tensilica-VP6, NVDLA Engine 1 core, and neural network engine, making it one of the most powerful single-board computers that are based on the RISC-V architecture. Thus making it a perfect edge computing device with powerful AI capabilities and efficient execution.
BeagleV development board supports mainline Linux with an optional memory of 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4. It also has a dedicated jpeg and a video encoder/decoder supporting H.264 4K at60fps. It consists of dual channels of ISP, each channel supporting up to 4K at30 FPS. Also, for interfacing a camera and a display serial with the processor, it has 2 MIPI-CSI and 1 MIPI-DSI. It is equipped with 1x HDMI 1.4 support; even though HDMI 1.4 is much slower than HDMI 2.0, it supports up to 1080P at 60FPS. BeagleV is compatible with MIPI-CSI TX for video output after ISP and AI processing.
Analyzing the Peripherals
BeagleV has four USB 3.0 ports that provide a bitrate of 5Gbits/s. The onboard ethernet port for high-speed internet connectivity runs at 1Gbs. However, the practical speed remains around 940Mbs. It also comes with a 1×3.5mm Audio Jack. It is compatible with OTP and TRNG that assist in seeding security algorithms. DMAC and QSPI are also compatible with BeagleV.
As for the GPIO header, there are 28 GPIOs, I2C, I2S, SPI, and UART to cater to this exceptional board’s communication needs. SD card slot on the device allows the booting functionality. The development board also supports Wi-Fi 2.4GHz b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.2. Charging is through a USB Type-C (5V/3A).
So this RISCV-V based single board computer aims to be the first affordable RISC-V computer for running Linux. RISC-V has garnered the interest of the masses. It bypasses established silicon manufacturers such as Intel or AMD, allowing companies to bring in their silicon processors without licensing fees for the core. So if this powerful board succeeds and fairs well in the market, it may prove to uplift open-source software in the industry. The BeagleV 4GB variant will be sold for $119, while the 8GB RAM will be priced at $149. However, this is an introductory offer, and the prices may increase once this offer ends. To avail the offer, you can fill out the form provided by BeagleBoard. For more information on the product, please visit the product page.
Prerna Anegundi is an engineering student currently pursuing Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. She has expertise in creating content that is oriented to embedded systems and IoT devices. Alongside this, she’s a home baker and owns a bakery “The Spongy Affair”.
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