Re: Getting started with embedded programming

[Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>]

On Sat, 25 Nov 2017 14:10:57 -0800 (PST), Andrew Shvets
<andrew.shvets@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

>
>Thank you for your reply.  Honestly, I don't really have an answer to any of those questions.  At the moment, my biggest project is a simple "Hello World!" application.
>

	Definitely not "embedded" unless you intend to wire up some sort of
serial 2x16 LCD display (by the time you get to a color graphics touch
screen I consider you back into "full computer" territory <G>)

>Eventually, I would like to make something that can work with input from 3 small digital cameras.  However, that is a way off.

	How do the cameras interface... and transfer files... There may not be
much beyond a USB cable and generic web-cam software.


	And as has been mentioned -- what type of peripherals do you need. The
R-Pi is strictly digital inputs, but in R-Pi 3 format does have a quad-core
64-bit processor (albeit the normal NOOBS/Raspbian OS is only 32-bit, so
doesn't take full advantage). And multiple USB ports.

	The BeagleBone Black only has a single core 32-bit processor, but has
on-board eMMC (leaving the SD slot free for data-logging; or for booting OS
trials before flashing to the eMMC). OTOH, the BBB does have built-in A/D
conversion/capture.

	Since both of those run versions of Debian, they do have a version of
GNAT available for them. Access to GPIO/peripherals will either be via the
sys filesystem (open/read|write/close) [which can be done with normal I/O
operations] or use tricky operations to memory map the GPIO block for
low-level (faster) I/O.

	The BBB also has a pair of "PRU" units (Programmable real-time units)
but I don't think anyone has ported an Ada compiler to them. They have
access to the GPIO bypassing the Linux OS.


	Below those are boards using ARM M-series processors -- and no OS. GNAT
has been ported to some of the STM-series boards (along with Arduino Due
and Zero -- though I think the Arduino ports do not support tasking). {Pity
the book didn't include the TIVA TM4C123G (and 1294/129E) since I have
2each of them).

-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
    wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/