CircuitCo has just introduced BlueSteel-Basic, a development board based on the Beaglebone Black but with a Blue PCB, no HDMI output, and no eMMC flash that’s destined to be used by OEMs in their products. LinuxGizmos also reports that BlueSteel-Basic is to be followed by BlueSteel-IT, an industrial temperature grade (-40 to 100°C) board based on the Beaglebone Black, and Bluesteel-Core, a computer-on-module (CoM) based on Ti Sitara AM335x that are scheduled for July 2014.

Let’s checkout BlueSteel-Basic specifications:

SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 @ 1GHz (2000 MIPS) with PowerVR SGX530 3D GPU (20M Polygons/S)

System Memory – 512MB DDR3L @ 800MHz

Storage – micro SD slot

Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45)

USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x mini USB 2.0 port

Debugging – Serial header and optional on-board 20-pin CTI JTAG

Expansion Connectors Signals: Power 5V, 3.3V, VDD_ADC (1.8V) 3.3V I/O On All Signals McASP0, SPI1, I2C, GPIO (69 max), LCD, GPMC, MMC1, MMC2, 7 AIN (1.8V Max), 4 Timers, 4 Serial Ports, CAN0, EHRPWM(0,2), XDMA Interrupt, Power Button, Expansion Board ID (Up to 4 can be stacked)

Misc – Indicators: 1-Power, 2-Ethernet, 4-User Controllable LEDs; Buttons: User input, boot, and power.

PMIC – TPS65217C PMIC regulator and one additional LDO

Power Supply – +5V via miniUSB USB or DC Jack, 5VDC external Via expansion Header

Dimensions – 8.6 x 5.3 cm – 6 layers PCB

Weight – TBD

And if you’d like to get a clearer picture of the differences between BeagleBone, BeagleBone Black and BlueSteel-Basic, there’s a table that for that!

BeagleBone BeagleBone Black BlueSteel-Basic Processor AM3359ZCZ72, 720MHz AM3358BZCZ100, 1GHz AM3358BZCZ100, 1GHz HDMI No Yes No DRAM 256MB DDR2 400MHz 512MB DDR3L 800MHz 512MB DDR3L 800MHz Flash uSD 4GB eMMC, uSD uSD Onboard JTAG Yes, over USB Optional Optional Serial via USB via header via header PWR Exp Header Yes No No Power 300-500 [email protected] 210-460 [email protected] TBD

Just like the BeagleBones, BlueSteel-Basic will be open source hardware simply because it’s exactly the same as the BeagleBone Black, but without the components required for HDMI and eMMC flash. That also means the capes, Beaglebone’s expansion boards, will be supported. The board will also leverage all the software brought to the the BeagleBone Black with support for Debian and Angstrom, but also Android, Gentoo, ArchLinux ARM, Minix, and more. You can find more technical details on BlueSteel-Basic Wiki.

BlueSteel-Basic will cost the same as BeagleBone Black Rev C, that is $55 and start shipping on June 30. You can pre-order BlueSteel-Basic on Boardzoo.