Good information and thank you Jason for sharing. I see there is also someone else producing miniature versions of the BBB, but . . . not my own thing.
Personally, I would like to see other "upgrades" as well, but I voiced those last year, and from the response I received from Gerald seems to indicate that my own wishes are not inline with beagleboard.org's current roadmap. However, the minnowboard MAX is a perfect fit( even though using a different processsor architecture ). Personally, I never would have guessed last year at launch that the BBB would take off like this. But very pleased that it did. On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 4:18 PM, Charles Steinkuehler < char...@steinkuehler.net> wrote: > Great writeup Jason! > > Most of the info exists in bits and pieces around this forum and > elsewhere, but it's a great all-in-one summary. I really like that > you're sharing the plans for moving forward and reasons for some of the > decisions. Open communities thrive on information and communications! > > On 4/13/2014 6:12 PM, Drew Fustini wrote: > > Excellent, I think this really helps to clarify a lot of the questions > > hanging in the air. > > On Apr 13, 2014 6:07 PM, "Jason Kridner" <jkrid...@beagleboard.org> > wrote: > > > >> Just about to post this to http://beagleboard.org/blog, but it > >> wouldn't hurt to get a bit of community feedback before pushing this > >> out there.... > >> > >> Dude, where's my BeagleBone Black? I hear that question a LOT. No, we > >> weren't sleeping, but sometimes it takes a minute for a plan to come > >> together. And don't you love it when a plan comes together? > >> > >> Your BeagleBone Black is on the way and below are the whys and hows. > >> > >> Buying a BeagleBone Black back around October last year was easy---and > >> then suddenly they were gone. Having a big launch and then slowing > >> down to a more steady pace of production is what is normally expected. > >> Demand was strong, but distributors were showing a small amount of > >> stock and people were getting their boards on demand. Based on the > >> status, distributors had requested CircuitCo (the Richardson, Texas > >> based manufacturer of all official BeagleBoard.org boards) to provide > >> boards at a certain pace, and production dropped from about 6,000 a > >> week at launch to around 3,000 a week. > >> > >> Then came Radio Shack, filling their stores with Make's Getting > >> Started with BeagleBone kit. Then the Christmas rush. Then the Georgia > >> Tech massively open online course on control of mobile robots hosted > >> on Coursera. We had a couple of small production boosts, but haven't > >> been able to make any dent in the demand. Everyone is starting to find > >> out what BeagleBone Black can do, using it in their classes, hobbies, > >> prototypes---and products. > >> > >> When it comes to those people using a BeagleBone Black in an end > >> product, well, the BeagleBoard.org terms and conditions clearly say we > >> aren't responsible for the quality in those cases. Nevertheless, the > >> quality speaks for itself and many people are choosing to simply drop > >> them into things beyond just a few prototype units. In practice, we'll > >> never know unless you try to return a bunch of boards at once for > >> repairs. Our desire is that people using the boards in products work > >> directly with a contract manufacturer or distributor to enable boards > >> builds to be planned out in time and with terms and conditions that > >> won't hurt BeagleBoard.org's ability to supply classrooms, hobbyists > >> and professionals building prototypes. Still, if distributors show > >> stock, I expect people building products to continue to chew up some > >> of the board supply. > >> > >> While these people building products are certainly sucking up a lot of > >> boards, it is clear they aren't the only source of the high demand. > >> Some of our distribution partners, most notably Adafruit and Special > >> Computing, put quantity limits of one board per customer on their > >> orders to help keep supply going to individual makers. I took a look > >> at Adafruit's website while they were showing some sock and observed > >> board disappearing at the rate of about 2-3 PER MINUTE. One tweet from > >> me and they were sold out again. > >> > >> This all leads to the obvious conclusion: we need more capacity. To > >> accomplish this, we are taking a multiple prong approach of increasing > >> capacity at CircuitCo as well as bringing on an additional > >> manufacturer. These two prongs are summarized below. > >> > >> Prong #1 - Ramping up production at CircuitCo > >> > >> Ramping up production costs money. More test equipment is needed. > >> Orders on various parts must be accelerated. Additional staff must be > >> hired to run additional shifts. CircuitCo has been fantastic at taking > >> the risk for us, but the margins for BeagleBone Black aren't the > >> friendliest for them to take on these additional costs. At initial > >> launch, it is a benefit for them to get exposed to more customers for > >> their core business, complex circuit assembly and engineering > >> services, but shipping more of the exact same board isn't going to > >> give them a lot more exposure. > >> > >> We're really close to shifting the distribution shipped on our boards > >> from Angstrom Distribution to Debian. Feedback from different people, > >> especially Adafruit, tells us this will improve usability in the > >> largest segments of our community. Angstrom Distribution is much more > >> customizable and is very friendly to professional developers looking > >> to tweak the most out of the system, but for many novices it > >> introduces a barrier to learning. Debian is the basis for Ubuntu, > >> includes ARM Cortex-A8 support in their mainline and is very familiar > >> to a huge population of developers. It also takes a bit more space on > >> the flash storage to provide the best user experience. > >> > >> To provide the best experience of using Debian on BeagleBone Black, we > >> are connecting the switch-over to an increase in the on-board eMMC > >> flash storage from 2GB to 4GB, leaving more free room in which you can > >> work. The eMMC is faster and more reliable than micro-SD cards, so > >> this is adding a lot of value---and a little bit of cost. > >> > >> These BeagleBone Blacks with Debian and 4GB eMMC will be called Rev C > >> and they will likely cost a bit more at most distributors. This extra > >> money is helping CircuitCo pay for the additional expense of the eMMC, > >> but also to cover costs for ramping production to higher-than-ever > >> rates. > >> > >> With the additional capacity CircuitCo is bringing on, we expect to be > >> able to fill all end-user back-orders for the Rev B boards by early > >> May and shift all production to Rev C. With around 150,000 boards on > >> *distributor* back-orders, we'll be working with distributors to > >> quickly accept board shipments such that CircuitCo isn't sitting on > >> any units. > >> > >> Come mid-May, you should be able to easily get your hands on a Rev C > >> board. Some distributors are already taking back-orders for them now. > >> We'll continue to try to push as many boards as we can through > >> distributors *not* taking back-orders as well to make sure there is a > >> continuity of supply. > >> > >> Prong #2 - Enabling production of the BeagleBoard Compliant Element14 > >> BeagleBone Black > >> > >> We've launched a BeagleBoard Compliant logo program, > >> http://beagleboard.org/logo. Element14 is currently the exclusive > >> licensee of this logo program and has agreed to pay a small royalty to > >> the BeagleBoard.org Foundation as part of this license. It means that > >> we've verified they can produce quality clones of BeagleBone Black. It > >> will be up to them to maintain the quality. As with everything going > >> on around BeagleBoard.org, we'll be closely monitoring the public > >> BeagleBoard mailing list, http://beagleboard.org/discuss, for any and > >> all feedback. > >> > >> Element14 is the parent company for Embest, who has been making > >> BeagleBone Black replicas for the China market since the initial > >> launch back in April of last year, so they have some experience > >> already. This move takes them beyond just China and will keep them in > >> more lock-step with software and hardware revisions coming from > >> BeagleBoard.org. To satisfy demand, they initially offered some of the > >> Embest-branded boards in the US market, but you'll see the future > >> BealgeBoard Compliant boards will be branded as "element14 BeagleBone > >> Black". > >> > >> Element14 has a world-wide reach and a notable production capacity. > >> With all of the growing demand for BeagleBone Black, they will need > >> it. I consider this a huge win for open hardware! > >> > >> --Jason > >> > >> -- > >> For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss > >> --- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > >> "BeagleBoard" group. > >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an > >> email to beagleboard+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > >> > > > > > -- > Charles Steinkuehler > char...@steinkuehler.net > > -- > For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "BeagleBoard" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to beagleboard+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
