New low-cost CraneBoard offered by Mistral Solutions simplifies design on TI's AM35x Sitara(TM) ARM® microprocessors
ARM Cortex(TM)-A8-based open source development board supports broad range of differentiated peripherals, large software ecosystem and offers collaboration with BeagleBoard.org community
DALLAS, Dec. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Mistral Solutions announced CraneBoard, a new low-cost ARM®-based development board, offers designers a fully open source printed circuit board (PCB) and design to reduce development costs. CraneBoard provides a cost-effective, alternative development option to Texas Instruments' (TI) AM35x Sitara(TM) ARM® Cortex(TM)-A8 microprocessors (MPUs) evaluation module (EVM). It also utilizes community support and resources from the popular, open source BeagleBoard community. The CraneBoard is available today from Mistral and a number of distributors, including DigiKey, starting at $199.
Based on TI's AM35x Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 MPU, the CraneBoard provides new features not available on existing open source, low-cost development boards, including Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Controller Area Network (CAN) bus interfaces. Both the PoE and CAN interfaces can be used in industrial applications such as human machine interface (HMI), and CAN is also suitable for automotive applications.
The CraneBoard offers numerous integrated peripherals and provides users with flexible power options, such as a power-over-DC wall adapter, PoE enabled by TI's TPS23750 PoE controller, and USB, which allows for portability. An expansion port allows the ability to easily add functionality such as an LCD panel, along with wireless and audio capabilities and is compatible with other ARM Cortex-A8 open source boards. A complete open source board support package (BSP) for Linux is available from CraneBoard.org.
By leveraging BeagleBoard.org , TI Sitara ARM MPU and ARM communities, CraneBoard users can share ideas, projects, and engage in discussions with fellow developers to utilize knowledge and resources for design and development. The CraneBoard also provides a reference platform for hardware and software developers to easily duplicate these designs, allowing them to go to market faster. By utilizing AM3517 Sitara ARM MPU advanced packaging, designers can implement low-cost, four-layer PCB designs. Additionally, the CraneBoard is code compatible with other TI ARM Cortex-A8-based devices, allowing designers to add varying functionalities and utilize previous code investments, while designing with confidence for future devices. For more information on the CraneBoard, please visit CraneBoard.org.
CraneBoard features and benefits:
Features Benefits
Provides users with full featured
operating systems and faster user
600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 interface transitions
256MB DDR2 SDRAM and 256MB Allows developers to utilize low
NAND Flash memory cost memories
Takes advantage of TI's Via Channel(TM)
package technology to allow a
simple 4-layer PCB design that
users can easily reference to
Open source PCB reduce PCB costs
Enables communication with numerous
devices and customization for
Robust peripherals proprietary interface
--Three power sources (wall
adapter, USB and POE)
-- 3.3V I/O
-- CAN Bus
-- On-chip Ethernet
-- USB Phy
-- Integrated OTG Phy
-- JTAG
Vast library of Operating
system (OS)/real-time
operating system (RTOS),
codec libraries and demos Broad software ecosystem to make
available designing fast and simple
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Developers can easily migrate from
Code compatibility with TI ARM the CraneBoard to other platforms
Cortex-A8 devices with maximum code reuse.
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Pricing and availability
The CraneBoard is available starting at $199 from Mistral and a number of distributors, including DigiKey. For community information, support and updates on CraneBoard development, please visit http://www.craneboard.org.
About Mistral Solutions
Mistral Solutions is a technology design and systems engineering company providing end-to-end solutions for product design and application deployment. Mistral is focused in three business domains: Product Engineering Services, Defense Solutions and Homeland Security. Mistral provides total solutions for a given requirement, which may include hardware board design, embedded software development, FPGA design, systems integration and customized turnkey solutions. Mistral's strategic partnerships with leading technology companies help provide customers with a comprehensive package of end-to-end solutions.
Mistral Solutions is a broad market OMAP Technology Center (OTC) offering services in the area of software and hardware design, development and consulting on the OMAP(TM) platform.
Trademarks
Sitara is a trademark of Texas Instruments. ARM and Cortex are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Akhila D S of Mistral Solutions, +91-80-3073 1557, akhila@mistralsolutions.com; or Christi Davidson of GolinHarris, +1-972-341-2584, cdavidson@golinharris.com, for Mistral Solutions; (Please do not publish these numbers or e-mail addresses.)