New PandaBoard ES arms open source mobile developers with TI's OMAP4460 processor

DALLAS, USA: Pandaboard.org announced the general availability of PandaBoard ES, the next-generation open mobile software development platform based on OMAP 4 technology from Texas Instruments Inc. (TI).

Priced at a low $182, PandaBoard ES is the industry's first board to rely on TI's OMAP4460 processor. The OMAP4460 processor's smart multicore architecture includes two ARM Cortex-A9 cores running at up to 1.2 GHz each, and excels at offloading tasks from the CPU and GPU to free them for more intensive applications. Pandaboard.org also announced that the original PandaBoard is the first and today's only open source development tool to be supported in the Android Open Source project running Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich"), giving developers a jumpstart on related software development.

PandaBoard ES is software compatible with PandaBoard, easing project migration from the original board to the next-generation version. Pandaboard.org will continue to support both boards via its fully-established community of Linux experts. Current and new developers designing on mobile open source software distributions such as Android, Linaro and Ubuntu can register projects and access support information.

PandaBoard's next-generation advancements
At the center of PandaBoard ES sits the OMAP4460 processor, delivering a 20 percent increase in overall performance and a 25 percent increase in graphics when compared to the original board's OMAP4430 processor. The OMAP4460 processor is complemented by TI's latest power management technology and dual-channel LPDDR2 memory for faster processing. Also new to PandaBoard ES is the introduction of a SysBoot switch, allowing for the manual switch of boot order depending on the application's need.

Courtesy of TI's WiLink 6.0 combo connectivity solution, PandaBoard ES is one of the only open mobile development platforms offering Bluetooth low energy technology hardware support, giving developers the opportunity to craft new applications on this emerging technology. PandaBoard ES also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies.

For mobile multimedia developers seeking external display flexibility, the next-generation board offers Display Serial Interface (DSI) support along with the original PandaBoard's HDMI, Digital Video Interface (DVI) and DPI support.