Disclaimer: WHAT FOLLOWS IS PERSONAL OPINION ONLY
Ben,
I'm familiar with the gumstix platforms. They use the Intel Xscale
parts, which are a derivative of the ARM architecture 5T. I've played
with XScale parts since before they were on the market. I'd suggest
that the Gumstix platform is perhaps overpowered. The thing that drew
me to the Fox platform here is the simplicity of the required
peripherals. The part they chose is a true System on Chip. By using a
MultiChip module, all you have to provide is a crystal and 5V and the
rest takes care if itself.
I actually prefer the ARM based architecture of hobby implimentations
rather than the mips chosen by these people, but the peripherals
implimented in this part are superior to the Gumstix. Gumstix uses the
Intel PXA255 part which was intended to go into PocketPC type devices.
As such It basically has USB and bluetooth interfaces. For simplicity
of prototyping a robotics system, You want certain interfaces.
Personally, I want the following
2 to 4 UARTS
I2C BUS
10+ GPIO pins (should support at least 3 external interrupts)
USB HOST
MMC/SD/CF slot
MiniPCI - desireable but not neccesity
10/100 Ethernet At least 1 port 2 would be better
Single voltage In DC (Pref 6V or 9V)
Linux Kernel Port with Device drivers for available interfaces
Cross Compilation tools
One of my biggest complaints of the gumstix platforms is that they are
USB client only and require additional purchases if you want ANY
peripherals. They do support an LCD display, but in my mnd that is not
nearly as important as simple access to some of the other peripherals.
In general, I guess I feel like the PXA255 was the wrong choice for a
robotics controller. the Intel PXA series is a Good handheld PC chip,
especially if you can find someone who implimented USB host mode, but it
wasn't meant to be a general purpose Embedded controller chip. Intel
doesn't make one that is, their 2 most prevalent XScale lines PXA and
IXP are meant for Cellphone/PocketPc and Network routing respectively.
-Mike
[The BLINK tag in HTML] was a joke, okay? If we thought it would
actually be used, we wouldn't have written it! --- Mark Andreessen
On Wed, 2006-03-01 at 13:01 -0800, Ben Barrett wrote:
> Mike, have you seen the latest gumstix platforms?
> http://www.gumstix.com/
>
> They've really catered to the robotics hobbyists with their recent
> offerings :)
> No SCSI but an even lighter-weight platform. These use the Intel RISC
> chips, similar to what is in a lot of handhelds.
>
> Ben
>
>
> On 3/1/06, Mike Cherba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I like the little SBC inside. 100MHz MIPs with Ethernet, and
> USB. Did
> you see the other available interfaces? I2C, IDE, GPIO, SCSI,
> External
> IRQs. This would make one heck of a robot controller. Pair
> it with a
> USB Wireless device and a USB disk and you're
> golden. Unfortunately, I
> coulnd't find a US source. Maybe I'll have to order one from
> Europe.
> -Mike
>
>
> On Wed, 2006-03-01 at 10:50 -0800, larry price wrote:
> > http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3880195342.html
> >
> > Single Board computer, looks pretty snazzy.
> >
> > with board and serial I/O it totals 173.00EUR
> > (around 205.66USD)
> >
>
> http://store.acmesystems.it/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1
> >
>
>
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