GCC 10 Lands Support For Targeting TI's 32-bit PRU Processor

New to the GCC 10 compiler code-base this week is a port for the Texas Instruments Programmable Real-Time Unit (PRU) processor found on various boards, including the likes of the BeagleBone Arm SBCs.

The TI programmable real-time unit (PRU) is a processor on some TI boards that offers two 32-bit cores running at 200MHz. The PRU offers single-cycle I/O access and full access to the system's internal memory and peripherals. Texas Instruments has offered a proprietary toolchain for writing Assembly code to run on the PRU while now an independent developer has landed the GCC port for targeting this unique processor.

Back in June of last year I wrote about the initial GCC compiler port to TI's PRU while now nearly one year to the day this new back-end has been merged.

The BeagleBone line is among the boards featuring a TI PRU. Over on BeagleBoard.org and elinux.org they have more information on this PRU.

The new port is in the GCC code-base as a new feature for next year's GCC 10 release.