Development Board

It's difficult to make a recommendation without knowing what you're trying to do or what's important to you.  Want the lowest cost board?  Get the hawkboard.  Want the highest performing board?  Get Beagleboard-XM.

Hi,

i'm going to add more detail.
I've to develop a mp3 (wma, and other) docking station. I've to read file from an USB pen (FAT32 formated) or from a PC host, so I need an USB OTG port. I need an ethrnet also. Then i've to print to screen (a small LCD) information about now playing and folder contents.

I read about beagglebord and  hawkboar. It's seem that the beagleboar is documented and supported better then hawkbord, are you on the same way?

what the reference IDE for develop Linux on omap?
is it possible to use CCS4 or later wiht debugger?

thanks,
Alex

Alessandro Giovannini said:

It's seem that the beagleboar is documented and supported better then hawkbord, are you on the same way?

The beagleboard has been around longer so it's more mature.  That's definitely a safe route as long as you don't mind spending a little more money. 

Alessandro Giovannini said:

what the reference IDE for develop Linux on omap?

All the projects are just straight makefiles in general.  That said, you can use the Eclipse IDE and have a "standard make project".  That provides a much nicer way to manage your code.

Alessandro Giovannini said:

is it possible to use CCS4 or later wiht debugger?

In your scenario I recommend using CCS 5:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php?title=Category:Code_Composer_Studio_v5

It's still considered "beta" right now but it is based on the latest Eclipse IDE.  You'll be able to use gdb to debug.  There's an article on the topic here:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/How_to_Run_GDB_on_CCSv5

Alessandro Giovannini said:

I've  decided to use Eclipse IDE (at least until the first relase of CCS5).
Can I use Eclipse IDE with JTAG debuger XDS100v2  (Model D) located at http://www.blackhawk-dsp.com/products/usb100v2D.aspx ?

The Eclipse IDE does not have TI-specific stuff in it.  That's exactly what CCS 5 is.  In other words CCS 5 takes Eclipse and adds a ton of TI plugins to it which would give you support for XDS100v2, TI compilers, etc.  You should use CCS 5 for this purpose.  FYI, you can dual install both CCS 5 and regular Eclipse though I suspect you'll end up just using CCS 5.

Alessandro Giovannini said:

Which linux distrubution do you advise me to use? Can I found a reference vmware image?

I recommend using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.  Here's a related wiki page:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/How_to_Build_a_Ubuntu_Linux_host_under_VirtualBox

I would definitely go XM.  It's significantly improved over the C4 version and software compatibility will be no problem.  There are a few differences in xloader to account for different/faster mDDR.  The intent is to use the SD card for your nonvolatile memory which is awesome since you can swap cards in and out!

Correct, there is no integrated flash on XM.  It's so much easier with the removable SD card though...  You can get everything setup on your PC, plug it into the XM, and you're up and running!