The BeagleBone was designed with prototyping in mind. If its shape and size look familiar to you, it's probably because the board was designed to fit inside an Altoids tin, which is great for both transportation and making custom enclosures. All of the expansion pins are broken out on to two female headers with a 2.54 mm pin pitch, which is one of the most commonly used spacings in the hobby and DIY world, and mating male header pins can easily be soldered by hand to add-on boards or wires. The board can be powered through USB or with a standard DC barrel jack, and power can also be supplied through the expansion headers.
