BeagleBone

BeagleBone#

TI Sitara-based SBC family from BeagleBoard.org. Distinguishing feature is the pair of programmable real-time units (PRUs), 32-bit cores that run independently of Linux and can drive hard-real-time signal generation, bit-banged protocols, and deterministic data acquisition. The operator’s choice when Linux jitter is the enemy and a microcontroller would be too small.

Lineup#

Board

SoC

RAM

Note

BeagleBone Black

TI AM3358, Cortex-A8 @ 1 GHz

512 MB

4 GB eMMC, two PRUs, 65 GPIO. The long-running default.

BeagleBone Black Wireless

TI AM3358, Cortex-A8 @ 1 GHz

512 MB

Adds Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (no Ethernet).

BeagleBone AI-64

TI TDA4VM, 2× Cortex-A72 + 2× C7x DSP + accelerators

4 GB

Edge AI/ML with deterministic real-time. PRUs included.

BeaglePlay

TI AM6254, 4× Cortex-A53 @ 1.4 GHz

2 GB

Newer general-purpose board; Wi-Fi 5, BLE 5, sub-GHz.

PocketBeagle

TI AM3358, Cortex-A8 @ 1 GHz

512 MB

55 × 35 mm. No on-board storage; runs from microSD.

I/O#

Interface

Notes

Two 46-pin headers

65 GPIO total, dedicated UARTs, SPI, I2C, CAN, PWM, analog inputs.

PRUs

Two 200 MHz 32-bit cores, each with their own GPIO and shared memory; programmed from Linux via the remoteproc framework.

USB

One host, one client (mini-USB). Client port can do USB-gadget mode (network-over-USB by default).

Network

Gigabit Ethernet on the Black and AI-64.

Storage

On-board eMMC + microSD slot.

The Black’s P8 and P9 headers carry seven analog inputs on dedicated pins, useful for direct ADC work that needs no extra hardware.

Operator use#

  • Hard-real-time signal generation. Bit-bang a protocol from a PRU when an MCU is too constrained and Linux is too jittery (custom 1-Wire variants, weird radio framings, high-speed LED driving).

  • Analog data acquisition. Seven on-board ADCs, polled from Linux or a PRU.

  • Industrial control endpoint. EtherCAT, Modbus, CAN; the Sitara family is a workhorse in industrial automation, and the Bone inherits the SoC.

  • CAN-bus pentest rig. AI-64 with dual CAN-FD ports.

Tools#

Tool

Effect

Official Debian images

The default OS. Ships with the right kernel and device-tree overlays for PRU and analog work.

config-pin

Configure pin muxes from the shell.

BoneScript (Node.js)

Older but still-supported scripting wrapper for GPIO and ADC.

libpruio, rpmsg, prussdrv

Toolchains for talking to the PRUs.

can-utils

Drive the on-board CAN interfaces.

adafruit-beaglebone-io-python

Python GPIO and ADC wrapper.

References#

Contents