BeagleBone Black as microcontroller

General Discussion
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Hi All…I very much appreciate the BeagleBoneBlack’s PRUs having shared memory with the application layer. I often have projects though where the capabilities of linux are not needed (no graphics needed, no ethernet. for example, and would rather have the system boot up right away. I would still want an application layer that had shared memory space with the PRUs.

So at the risk of asking a naive sounding question, is there a method in place to use the AM335x as an embedded processor without an linux level operating system? I am picturing a scenario where I connect with the Arduino IDE (or similar) and am able to program both the application layer and the PRUs?

Thanks,
Alan

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Might be better off using an simple microcontroller and let that communicate with your main board.

Pretty sure you can get the uC up and running reliably in much less time than the SoC with PRU.

When you go more deterministic the SoC it will not run efficiently. SoC will shine when you need networking and stuff like that and some interaction with the real world. Since you don’t need the key features of the SoC no point in wasting time on getting things to run correctly and tested. Simple is better.

1 Like
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Yes you can, look in how to use bbb as a bare metal - but for that you will need a probe to develop and debug + code composer studio

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Thanks very much, Alan