One wonders why they didn't combine the due and the beagle bone - it would have only simplified things.
Could it be that there are incompatibility issues between it and the older arduino ?
Could it be that there are incompatibility issues between it and the older arduino ?
The microcontroller can take care of the realtime interaction, while letting the ARM processor running Linux handle the higher level logic.
Of course, it's easy to debate how much your average Microcontroller project really requires a dedicated realtime processor, but that's neither here nor there.