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Hacking_and_Penetration_Testing_with_Low_Power_Devices

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14 CHAPTER 2 Meet the beagles<br />

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS DEVICES<br />

In part to showcase some of their chips <strong>and</strong> to encourage their use, Texas Instruments<br />

(TI) allows some employees to develop <strong>and</strong> promote open hardware computer boards<br />

featuring TI products (see http://beagleboard.org/about for more details). These<br />

boards are developed by a US-based nonprofit corporation known as the Beagle-<br />

Board.org Foundation. At the time of this writing, two TI employees are devoting<br />

considerable effort to the BeagleBoard.org Foundation. Jason Kridner serves as community<br />

manager <strong>and</strong> Gerald Coley is responsible for hardware design.<br />

BEAGLEBOARD-xM<br />

The very first board developed by BeagleBoard.org is known as the BeagleBoard.<br />

The BeagleBoard was released in July 2008 <strong>and</strong> is still available today. Based on<br />

the 720 MHz TI OMAP3530 Cortex-A8 processor, this board features 256 MB<br />

RAM, 256 MB flash memory, HDMI video, S-Video, USB On-The-Go port, USB<br />

host port, SD card slot, RS-232 port, <strong>and</strong> stereo audio. The list price for this<br />

75 mm by 75 mm board is $125.<br />

An updated board known as the BeagleBoard-xM was released in September<br />

2010. The BeagleBoard-xM is billed as a $149 desktop replacement (Figure 2.1).<br />

I will summarize some of its features here using the BeagleBoard-xM System Reference<br />

Manual, which is available at http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?<br />

title¼BeagleBoard-xM#Rev_C2.<br />

Texas Instruments bills the 1 GHz DM3730 processor found in the BeagleBoardxM<br />

as a digital media processor (see http://www.ti.com/product/dm3730 for full<br />

details). This processor features a NEON SIMD coprocessor, which can significantly<br />

speed up multimedia applications <strong>and</strong> mathematical calculations (http://www.arm.<br />

com/products/processors/technologies/neon.php). This processor utilizes a package<br />

on package (POP) design. The 512 MB RAM chip is installed on top of this chip.<br />

This processor is more than sufficient to run a full-featured Linux <strong>and</strong> st<strong>and</strong>ard penetration<br />

testing tools. The BeagleBoard-xM is pictured in Figures 2.2 <strong>and</strong> 2.3.<br />

FIGURE 2.1<br />

Major differences between the BeagleBoard <strong>and</strong> BeagleBoard-xM.

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