I will try to contribute w the little reading i've done on this topic.
PRUs Characteristics
1) Features deterministic instruction set, dedicated I/Os & access to all resources of SoC.
2) PRUs consist of RISC cores, which if I understood correctly reduces the workload on the main CPU.
3) They are designed for Real-Time applications w high Determinism or Implementation of custom/additional Peripherals
Here are a coupla links that you might find helpful :
Hope this helps!
Latest images are here:
http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
The git locations have updated builds by several months:
https://github.com/beagleboard/image-builder
Debian 7.8 is the most recent, but I don't know what compiler.