Micro Python – shrinking Python down to run on a micro controller (Damien George)

Damien George, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, has rewritten Python to be optimised for running on a micro controller.  For example, the small computers that you might find in your washing machine, sometimes only have 64kb of RAM, so are generally controlled by programs written in C.

MicroPython is implemented on Python 3 and includes the usual Python features, such as:

  • floating point
  • complex numbers
  • bignum
  • math apps
  • generators
  • classes

Uses 528 bytes of RAM at standing and MicroPython will run on various operating systems as well as bare metal.

There are some differences, like not redefining built-ins functions and Micro Python uses garbage collection.  For more information https://github.com/micropython/micropython/wiki/Differences

The open source project at: http://github.com/micropython has been well received with over 1200 stars and 170 forks.

The Pyboard

  • is Python on bare metal, USB port, SD card port, accelerometer, 192k RAM or can can run stand alone from a battery.
  • made by Geltech
  • £28 per board
  • Light version is coming that is a lot cheaper, expected to be around £20

More information: http://micropython.org/