On 7/31/22 12:14 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
It's like Pi, I believe, another ARM based Linux device.
ACK
I started using the BBB some years ago when the Pi was using a chip whose specs were secret. Supposedly that's been cured. The BBB is built on TI silicon that comes with a downloadable 5000 page reference manual.
I can appreciate that desire ~ requirement.
There's a cost-reduced model called the BeagleBone Green which is just as good for most purposes. It's what David Gesswein recommends for his MFM emulator.
ACK
Adafruit is a good source of these things. Among other things they sell an RS232 "cape" (the BB name for plugin option cards), which is an RS232 level converter and DE9 connector that ties into one of the on-chip UARTs. Some years ago I built a variant that connects to all four UARTs, to make a 4 port mux for PLATO terminals.
"hat" "phat" "cape" The System on a Chip (SoC) ecosystem has it's own terms. None of them are hard after introduction. But they can be confusion inducing until introduction.
The standard Linux is Debian, preloaded and of course you can install whatever else you want in the usual easy way.
Now I wonder what I'm conflating. I was thinking of something else that's /not/ running Linux but frequently used for tings. AT Tiny?
I barely know anything about the SoC ecosystem. I largely consider the Raspberry Pi and (now) the BeagleBone to be SFF SBCs that can do many things when I need device about the size of (a pair of) a deck of playing cards.
-- Grant. . . . unix || die
