Embedded Computers

In this chapter, we are going to cover embedded computers. These are small and low-cost computers that can be embedded into enclosures we can build, hence their name. There are quite some embedded computers around, but we will focus our discussion on the popular Raspberry Pi and the Bela. The Pi is one of the most popular Single Board Computers (SBC), with a big community of makers, including part of the Pd community. The Bela is built on top of the BeagleBone Black mini-computer and adds a stereo audio input and output, 16 digital inputs outputs similar to those of the Arduino, 8 analog inputs, and 8 analog outputs. It comes with Pd installed and a user-friendly IDE for easy project development.