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PocketBeagle: the Brand New Raspberry Pi Zero Rival

By on September 23, 2017
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BeagleBoard.org has revealed its latest development board named PocketBeagle. It’s an ultra-tiny and open source USB-key-fob computer that’s crafted for DIYers, hobbyists, and educators.
Talking about the dimensions, PocketBeagle measures 56x35x5mm. This small size makes it flexible enough for electronic projects like gaming, drones, 3D printing, robotics, etc.

PocketBeagle is based on Octavo Systems OSD3358-SM 21mm x 21mm system-in-package, which gives it 512MB DDR3 RAM, 1-GHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, and  2x 200-MHz PRUs. It comes with integrated power/battery management as well.

PocketBeagle comes with 72 expansion pin headers with power and battery I/Os, USB, 8 analog inputs, 44 digital I/Os and digital interface peripherals.
You don’t get onboard WiFi or Ethernet port, but you can plug the board into a PC as a USB key-fold. The board runs Debian GNU/Linux, and it can run any BeagleBone Black software that doesn’t need any unavailable expansion pins.

Outside the SiP module, BeagleBoard.org has added a power-ready micro-USB host/client port and microSD slot, the inclusion of which makes the PocketBeagle more like a Raspberry Pi Zero than the more COM-like Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3.

This development board uses a simple and open source hardware design, thanks to a well-documented processor. The board ships with EAGLE and KiCAD files.

Available for $25, PocketBeagle can be bought here.

About Luca Ruggeri