14 DAY TRIAL // I am sure that by now everybody that is slightly interested in tech has heard about the ARM Cortex family of processors, these being used in a wide series of consumer products, from set-top boxes and tablets to smartphones, PandaBoard just releasing an Cortex powered single board computer to assist programmers involved in open source mobile software development.
Based on an Texas Instruments OMAP 4 processor that uses two ARM Cortex A9 processors, each of them running at 1GHz, this board delivers rich multimedia and 3D graphics support as well as WLAN and Bluetooth connectivity for a pretty low $174 price tag, making it appropriate for a wide number of developers, even hobbyists.
Other features include 1GB of LPDDR2 memory, two HDMI v1.3 output, a DVI-D connector for dual display output and a full size SD/MMC card cage as well as an open source hardware design, arguably the most important feature of the PandaBoard.
Two USB ports as well as an Ethernet interface are also available, 1080p content playback being also possible tanks to a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core built by Imagination Technologies that also supports HD video recording.
Other headers are also available all throughout the board, so users can connect an LCD screen, a camera or any I2C, GPMC, USB, MMC, DSS and ETM peripherals they may need.
“We’re pleased to see more and more Linux-based projects and products spring up in the embedded space,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation.
PandaBoard looks to be a great addition to the Linux developer community and will give developers access to TI’s OMAP platform in a low cost way.
We expect mobile developers to make good use of it in their embedded Linux efforts,” concluded Mr. Zemlin.
Thanks to its attractive price and open source hardware support I am sure this will be quite an attractive buy for those involved in open source mobile software development.