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Pi vs BeagleBone-Black

Former Member

So, just over a year on from the initial availability of the R-Pi and the new BeagleBone Black is upon us.  They've obviously taken a leaf out of the RPF's playbook and produced a cost reduced version at a price only marginally above the Pi.

 

I find it interesting that the compromises are very different, for example there's a proper PMIC and the ethernet is not troubled by being connected to USB, however the on-board HDMI seems less capable.

 

Other differences are in the documentation, I'm currently viewing the pcb gerbers for the beaglebone..  Have yet to see any sign of those for the R-Pi a year later. There's even an up to date devicetree capable kernel too.

 

Technology has also moved on somewhat, we get a 1GHz Cortex A8 which is better than the Pi, along with various other stuff and lots more GPIO's too.

 

Ok, so it's clear that I like the look of the new beaglebone, and given the price I'm likely to put any further R-Pi plans on hold until I have a chance to play with this. It's also making things like the Olinuxino-maxi I bought recently look very slow/expensive while still being cheaper than the similarly specced Olinuxino-A13

 

Some details of the beaglebone-black here http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack

 

What do the rest of you think ?   I don't expect this to displace the Pi anytime soon, but I expect it to be very attractive to those people who don't simply want to put XBMC on it and duct tape it to the back of the TV..

  • in reply to gsgill112

    Gurinder Singh Gill wrote:

     

    In short what i think is , Raspberry Pi has a Awesome User base and Really Awesome Community, it is an amazing platform to learn but doesn't have enough juice when it comes to heavy apps/compiling,etc. Its, heart i.e. the broadcom chipset is really closed source so no datasheets and etc..

     

    where as in contrast if you know basic linux then BBB is really great as it packs the real juice and you can do almost anything using BBB

    Basic linux skills apply equally to BBB or R-Pi,  from linux they really don't look that different.  If you have Raspbian on the Pi and Debian on the BBB the differences are negligible and mostly hardware thinks like not being able to hook up a RPi Camera to a BBB etc.

     

    Community wise, they don't seem greatly different. Due to the low cost, both have a large contingent of people who otherwise wouldn't be using linux or an Arm board striving to learn, making a lot of the same mistakes.. Both also have a group of more or less helpful people who know a bit more, or who appear to speak with some level of knowledge/authority.

     

    As for the broadcom chip being closed, it's not really much different elsewhere. Other SoC's may give you more details of the Arm side, but few give any details on the GPU. As the RPi has just about enough details for the Arm to make it useful then the argument there is reduced to us asking for more.. There will always be parts will remain closed on most all of them.

  • in reply to andycrofts

    Andy Crofts wrote:

     

    Things that makes me reluctant to move from the Pi seems to be the bad posts re. the BBB’a Ångström distribution. I really NEED the I/O the BBB gives for my project, but the OS ‘fight’ seems to be a mishmash from which to choose… Reckon I’ll just wait for the dust to settle.

    The angstrom stuff will sort itself out in time.. In the meantime, if you're familiar enough with Raspbian on the Pi you'll find yourself quite at home with Debian on the BBB as Raspbian is just a RPi specific rebuild of Debian.

    All of the OS choices will have one issue or another, the only thing that really matters is whether any of them impact your particular use case.  If they do, then all you really need to do is take some time to research your alternatives.  Familiarity with Raspbian on the Pi is likely to make Debian a good choice.

     

    Waiting for the dust to settle seems likely to mean you'll have more choices. Whether that's a new Pi, a new Beagleboard, a Cubieboard or whatever.. Choice is good.

  • in reply to Former Member

    The ages-old maxim "horses for courses" always applies, or alternatively its engineering version:  "Know the requirements of your problem, then pick the solution that best satisfies them".  Fanbois can be detected by entering their favourite duck on the Formula 1 grid, and arguing strongly that ducks are always best.

     

    Neither the BBB nor the Pi are appropriate solutions if one needs fast access to local hard disk or SSD --- the candidate boards which provide SATA typically use Freescale or Allwinner SoCs.  Likewise, no known ARM-based board is currently able to utilize more than a fraction of the bandwidth of a gigabit Ethernet connection, so the solution space for fast networking still belongs mostly to x86.  Neither is much use when you need lots of memory either.  Although this situation is highly likely to change, that's where we stand currently.

     

    In any case, Pi and BBB have both been out for ages, on the timescale of change in this industry.  A more interesting question is what those two manufacturers have up their respective sleeves.  They're both under pressure now from the march of progress.

     

    Morgaine.

  • in reply to morgaine

    Well, Everything depends upon  Requirements , in my opinion ,

    1. If you are using batteries/ Solar to power the board, I would suggest go with Pi, during my practicals with these boards image , I found that by 6v ~300mA I was able to boot up Pi but my BBB didn’t even responded !! image

     

    2. On the contrary if you want more GPIO's and Don’t want to have 10 different things for getting Started (in case of Pi you have to purchase charger/ SD Card with contrast to BBB where you just need BBB)

     

    3. I personally prefer BBB, as it serves my purpose .

     

    All other SBC' are costly for example FREESCALE /Allwinner SOC will be in $60 to $100 but it sorely is worth working on these . image

  • in reply to andycrofts

    Andy, if you need a board with aflexible PSU take a look at the Olimex boards. They accept inputs from 6 - 20V and have an on-board step-down regulator. When you say you "need" it, I expect you are therefore willing to

    All the boards I've used: Pi, BBB, Olimex and Cubie have advantages and disadvantages. The Pi has the best support, but the worst features. All the others have onboard flash, which is best for 24*7 operation (And can run Android, if that's your thing). However they don't have the extensive access to their chips' facilities such as SPI and/or PWM.

    At present I'm favouring the Olimex boards for my projecs, as they have a nice range of LCDs that just plug straight in.

  • in reply to Former Member

    It's worth noting that not all Olimex boards handle 6-20v input, the Lime (http://olimex.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/a10-olinuxino-lime-eur-30-open-source-hardware-linux-sbc-first-prototypes/) is 5v only. Given the proposed cost, it seems to be the one most likely to be in direct competition with the Pi & BBB.

     

    I'm curious why you say boards other than the Pi don't have access to things like SPI. The BBB for example has extensive support for this sort of stuff due to supporting the various capes. I've yet to come across any of the other boards that are lacking in these areas either, usually it's just a case of loading the appropriate driver and doing what's needed to configure it.

  • in reply to gsgill112

    Gurinder Singh Gill wrote:

     

    Well, Everything depends upon  Requirements , in my opinion ,

    1. If you are using batteries/ Solar to power the board, I would suggest go with Pi, during my practicals with these boards , I found that by 6v ~300mA I was able to boot up Pi but my BBB didn’t even responded !!

    the BBB has an onboard LIPO charger, which at face value makes it much better for battery powered applications, see http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/single-board_computers/next-gen_beaglebone/blog/2013/08/10/bbb--rechargeable-on-board-battery-system

    Generally, from what we've observed, the BBB also draws less current than the RPi.

     

    As for running off 6v batteries, the BBB is a 5v only device and the PMIC has over-voltage protection, so I'd not be particularly surprised that it does what it's designed to do and shuts down when too many volts are applied.

  • I Would still chose the pi over the beaglebone just because of the knowledge base and interfaces available. If I was real knowledgeable and wanted to go on my own then maybe the later would be a good choice.