Serial Cable for booting FreeBSD on the BeagleBone Black

[Dr. Rolf Jansen]

I ordered my BeagleBone Black, and I will receive it next week.

I read on https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/BeagleBoneBlack about booting the BBB with FreeBSD, that I need to:

   "Connect a serial cable such as the FTDI TTL-232R 3.3v
    or the Adafruit 4-pin cable"

I am sorry, for needing to ask the obvious:

- connect the serial cable to where and for what purpose?

- what is required on the other end for establishing the
  facility which the BBB needs for booting?

- none of my machines got a RS232 connector, I even can't
  remember when I dropped out the last one that got RS232.
  (for sure this was in the last millennium).
  Is this really required?

Many thanks in advance for your advices.

Best regards

Rolf