USB-powered Beagle Board from Digi-Key Unleashes Community Development with Laptop-like...

USB-powered Beagle Board from Digi-Key Unleashes Community Development with Laptop-like Performance and Expansion for $149

Digi-Key to supply Beagle Board based on TI's OMAP3530
applications processor featuring the ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A8 core
THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn.--(Business Wire)--
Passionate open source developers and hobbyists can now realize
their creative design ideas without being restricted by expensive
hardware development tools, lackluster performance capabilities, high
power consumption or stifled design environments. Open platform
innovators will now have the expandability of desktop machines without
the expense, bulk or noise as Digi-Key Corporation announces today it
is shipping the $149 Beagle Board, which is a powerful, low-cost and
fanless embedded development board smaller than a drink coaster.

"We are very excited about offering the Beagle Board to our
customers," said Mark Larson, Digi-Key president and COO. "Not only do
I believe that this innovative, yet economical, development board will
be of consequential interest to the thousands of design engineers
Digi-Key does business with every day, but it will appeal to the
growing base of university students who recognize Digi-Key's
commitment to serving them as well."

The pocket-size, USB-powered Beagle Board is based on Texas
Instruments' (TI) low power OMAP3530 applications processor, which
features an ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A8, 2D/3D graphics engine and
high-performance TMS320C64x+(TM) digital signal processor (DSP) core.
A live demonstration of the Beagle Board can be seen in TI booth #1232
at the Linux World Conference and Expo (www.linuxworldexpo.com) in San
Francisco, August 4-7, 2008. For more information on the Beagle Board,
please visit www.digikey.com/beagleboard.

A small group of enthusiastic engineers interested in creating
powerful, open and embedded devices worked together on the concept and
realization of the Beagle Board. The resulting 3 inch by 3 inch board
bridges desktop and embedded development by allowing developers to use
the same peripherals and usage mode for flexible USB and standard PC
expansion. With a full computer in their hands, developers are able to
design to their specification and collaborate with the open source
community on creative new applications.

"Having access to a Beagle Board enabled me to implement support
for the Cortex-A8 in the OpenEmbedded build system and the Angstrom
Distribution," said Koen Kooi, student at Universiteit Twente and core
developer of OpenEmbedded. "This gives developers easy access to the
tools needed to get the most out of the OMAP3530 device and integrated
C64x(TM) DSP, which makes it a great board for low-power software
defined radio projects. I am eager to collaborate even more within the
community to come up with some additional great applications with the
Beagle Board."

Achieve laptop-like performance with OMAP3530 applications
processor

The Beagle Board gives the open source community access to the
industry's highest performance ARM-based system-on-chip (SoC) broadly
available today, the OMAP3530 device, which integrates a 600 MHz
superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 core that utilizes highly accurate branch
prediction and multiple instruction pipelines. As the superset device
of TI's OMAP35x platform, the OMAP3530 device provides more than 1200
Dhrystone million instructions per second (MIPS) to run a full Linux
operating system with desktop windows managers and office
applications, and also integrates an OpenGL(R) ES 2.0 compatible
graphics engine to achieve photo-realistic, real-time pixel-shaded
graphics for gaming and 3D user interface acceleration. A 430 MHz
C64x+ DSP core is capable of handling high-definition (HD) video
(MPEG-4 decode at 720p) for embedded applications, such as home media
centers, robotics, web kiosks and digital signage.

Where technology meets imagination

Now equipped with the technology, designers are challenged to use
their imagination on how best to experiment with the size and
performance of the Beagle Board by only using standard PC peripherals.
Developers can utilize the standard expansion buses to add their own
peripherals they already own via standard expansion buses, such as a
high-speed USB 2.0, MMC/SD/SDIO and DVI-D. In addition to utilizing
the DVI-D port to add a digital monitor, an S-Video port can be used
to add a TV or the USB miniAB connector can be used to add a
high-speed hub for a keyboard, mouse, WiFi or Ethernet connection and
web camera. The MMC/SD connector can be used to add multiple gigabytes
of storage or SDIO-based WiFi and Bluetooth functionalities.

The Beagle Board allows developers to take their projects with
them on the go, as they no longer need to worry about a large power
supply, because there are several ways to power the board through the
USB connector. For instance, the board can be connected to a laptop,
to a car adaptor to run off the car power, to a battery-based cell
phone charger or a solar-powered backpack.

Community driven support and expertise

The Beagle Board aims to engage passionate developers and fuel
their innovations in the open development community, whether they are
designing projects for work or fun. Developers can quickly maximize
their design concepts by tapping into the expertise and support of the
some of the industry's top Linux programmers already experimenting
with the Beagle Board. With communities hosting the latest software
developments, live forums and chats for easy collaboration, developers
have easy access to support and exchange of ideas. Users are
encouraged to join active, existing communities already participating
in the project (http://beagleboard.org).

Pricing and availability

The Beagle Board (Digi-Key part number 296-23428-ND) is now
available for $149 from Digi-Key Corporation at www.digikey.com. For
community information, mailing lists, links to discussion forums and
updates on Beagle Board development, please visit
http://beagleboard.org.

About Digi-Key Corporation

One of the world's fastest growing distributors of electronic
components, Digi-Key has earned its reputation as an industry leader
through its total commitment to service and performance. As a
full-service provider of both prototype/design and production
quantities of electronic components, Digi-Key has been ranked #1 for
Overall Performance for 16 consecutive years from among the nation's
more than 200 distributors (EE Times Distribution Study/ May 2007).
Offering more than a million products from nearly 400 quality
name-brand manufacturers Digi-Key's commitment to inventory is
unparalleled. Access to the company's broad product offering is
available 24/7 at Digi-Key's top-rated Web site, www.digikey.com.

Trademarks

TMS320C64+ and C64x+ are trademarks of Texas Instruments. ARM and
Cortex are trademarks of ARM Limited. OpenGL is a registered trademark
of SGI. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.

Digi-Key Corporation
Media Contacts
Steven G. Tsukichi, 218-681-8000, Ext 1001
Vice President, Strategic Operations
steve.tsukichi@digikey.com
or
GolinHarris
Helen Tso, 713-513-9578
htso@golinharris.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008