Also, perhaps obvious, perhaps not. The AM335X is a very complex processor. Writing bare metal code the these processors would not be a trivial task. But anyone who has written code for just about any micro controller knows that yes, perhaps some MCUs are semi complex, but usually they're very manageable.
On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 3:22 PM, William Hermans <[email protected]> wrote: > *I am wondering if the Cortex A chip on the BBBlack can be used as a >> strict micro controller, i.e. without an operating system?* > > > It can, but you have to understand that the AM335x processor is a general > purpose applications processor. So when compared directly with specific > purpose type processor such as the TI TM4C micro processor, it can be > slower at some, or perhaps all real time tasks. > > However, something that perhaps you may not be aware of. The AM335X comes > with two PRU's on die. These *P*rogrammable *R*eal-time *U*nit's can be > used outside of Linux, and offers a small instruction set where many > instructions are single cycle( 5ns ). In short, this on die real time > controller is a simplified instruction set Cortex M3, that sits on the L3 > interconnect bus of the main AM335x processor . . . So it can control just > about anything, but some things are slower than single cycle access. > Particularly, from what I understand, any interaction over the L3 > interconnect will be slower than single cycle. But it's still fast and very > deterministic. > > On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 3:00 PM, Rick White <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I am wondering if the Cortex A chip on the BBBlack can be used as a >> strict micro controller, i.e. without an operating system? >> >> Rick W >> >> -- >> For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "BeagleBoard" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
