Gumstix

Gumstix is a trade name for a very small computer product line, which is a motherboard-and-daughtercard alternative to SBCs (Single-board computer) based on Intel XScale processors (200MHz and 400MHz). RAM memory is 64 MB. It has the Linux operating system pre-installed and the motherboards measure just 80mm x 20mm x 6.3mm. A range of daughtercards are available which can extend the I/O function of the system in a wide range of possible ways. I/O options (via daughtercards) include synchronous and asynchronous serial, USB, Ethernet and/or wireless interfaces

Motherboards

The gumstix line features two main motherboards: connex, and basix. Both motherboards feature an Intel XScale® PXA255 processor running at 200Mhz or 400Mhz as well as 64MB of SDRAM, the 2.6 Linux kernel and a userspace toolkit based on the uclibc C library with the Busybox utilities. The software is a full-blown Linux environment and a huge range of Linux applications can run on the device.

To all motherboards, expansion cards can be connected via an onboard 60-pin Hirose I/O header or, on the connex, via a 92-pin bus header. Both the basix and the connex feature an Infineon Bluetooth™ Module as an option and draw less than 250mA @4V at 400MHz without Bluetooth while running and less than 50mA while idling, waiting for input.

connex

The connex motherboard features on-board 16MB strataflash, an onboard 60-pin Hirose I/O header, a 92-pin bus header for connecting additional expansion cards and Infineon Bluetooth™ as an option.

basix

The basix motherboard features 4MB strataflash, an onboard 60-pin Hirose I/O header, an onboard MMC slot and Infineon Bluetooth™ as an option. Basix-xm extends the 4MB of flash to 16MB.

Expansion Boards

The gumstix is designed for flexibility of function with a range of cards which can be connected to the motherboard for modular expansion. Some cards provide simple I/O transceivers, while others provide more complex functions:

GPS
Audio
Servo motor controllers
Analog to digital converters
General-purpose digital I/O
10/100 Ethernet
10/100 Ethernet with MMC
dual 10/100 Ethernet
WLAN 802.11(b)/(g)
Compact flash
MMC/SD/SDIO
Robotics
Robotics with audio

Software Development Kit

The gumstix SDK is available here, at no charge and without requiring gumstix hardware.

External links

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