PandaBoard

Key takeaways

PandaBoard belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect PandaBoard to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of PandaBoard from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The PandaBoard was a low-power single-board computer development platform based on the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 system on a chip (SoC). The board has been available to the public at the subsidized price of US$174 since 27 October 2010. It is a community supported development platform. The PandaBoard ES is a newer version based on the OMAP4460 SoC, with the CPU and GPU running at higher clock rates. Like its predecessor, it is a community supported development platform.

Features

The OMAP4430 SoC on the PandaBoard features a dual-core 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU, a 304 MHz PowerVR SGX540 GPU, IVA3 multimedia hardware accelerator with a programmable DSP, and 1 GiB of DDR2 SDRAM. The PandaBoard ES uses a newer SoC, with a dual-core 1.2 GHz CPU and 384 MHz GPU. Primary persistent storage is via an SD card slot allowing SDHC cards up to 32 GB to be used. The board includes wired 10/100 Ethernet as well as wireless Ethernet and Bluetooth connectivity. Its size is slightly larger than the ETX/XTX Computer form factor at 4 in × 4.5 in (100 mm × 110 mm). The board can output video signals via DVI and HDMI interfaces. It also has 3.5 mm audio connectors. It has two USB host ports and one USB On-The-Go port, supporting USB 2.0.

Operating systems The device runs the Linux kernel, with either traditional distributions or the Android or Mozilla Firefox OS user environment. Optimised versions of Android and Ubuntu are available from the Linaro Foundation. Linaro has selected the PandaBoard to be one of the hardware platforms they support with monthly build images. OpenBSD supports PandaBoard. FreeBSD added PandaBoard support in August 2012. The Genode Operating System Framework added support in release 12.05 (May 2012). A version of RISC OS 5 is actively developed. QNX Neutrino 6.5.0 SP1 and 6.6.0 have Board Support Packages for the PandaBoard and PandaBoard ES.

Graphics The PandaBoard has an integrated SGX540 graphics processor and provides 1080p HDMI output. This GPU supports OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.1, OpenVG 1.1 and EGL 1.3. The situation for Linux - X11 utilizing hardware floating point libraries is PowerVR's SGX540 GPU hardware is unusable without a GPU driver. Furthermore, PowerVR will not release documentation so that an open source driver could be produced. This all adds up to the GPU hardware being unavailable, so the above-mentioned features of course will not function. To be perfectly clear, a Pandaboard es will not play any low quality video, so 1080p output via the HDMI is certainly and proven not possible. Due to PowerVR making the driver unavailable, and withholding the documentation on the GPU hardware, the only alternative is the difficult and inefficient reverse engineering method to develop a GPU driver. An effort was started in July 2012, but as of June 2013 there is no visible progress. The Linaro Linux project had a Linux X11 software floating point GPU driver available, but all current efforts with ARM Linux seem to be utilizing the hardware floating point libraries. The soft/hard floating point systems are not compatible.

Clock The PandaBoard has a real-time clock, but it does not have a battery to save the time when power is removed. As an alternative, a software clock can set the clock time at bootup based on the time of the last modification to the file system so that times stored in files will be more reasonable. NTP can set the correct date and time if the PandaBoard has network access to an NTP server.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with PandaBoard

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what PandaBoard claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to PandaBoard before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about PandaBoard ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of PandaBoard

In research: PandaBoard appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses PandaBoard in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: PandaBoard is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Embedded Linux, Linux-based devices, Open computers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for PandaBoard outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study PandaBoard in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what PandaBoard means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain PandaBoard out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is PandaBoard in simple terms?

The PandaBoard was a low-power single-board computer development platform based on the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 system on a chip (SoC). The board has been available to the public at the subsidized price of US$174 since 27 October 2010.

Why does PandaBoard matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study PandaBoard?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on PandaBoard.