[NTLK] Gumstix computers

Someone posted a link to these guys here on NewtonTalk a while back.
They make tiny, tiny motherboards and daughterboards for building
Linux computers with various capabilities that are roughly the size of
a pack of gum.

The curiosity got too much, and I ordered the LCD pack:

http://gumstix.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=202

This includes a 600 MHz Xscale CPU, 128 MB of RAM, 32 MB of flash, 3
serial ports, an ethernet port, a MicroSD port, and a Samsung LCD
touchscreen, as well as a power supply and various cables.

As mentioned, it runs Linux, and you can flash it with a variety of
different builds, such as one that includes an X11 server, or one with
direct framebuffer access for the screen.

It seems like a really viable platform for Einstein. I can't remember
if Einstein does JIT for the Xscale CPU though, and I don't have a
heck of a lot of experience with cross-compilation. I'd be willing to
work with someone else who knows more about this stuff and see if we
can bootstrap it on this tiny thing. It would be pretty awesome to
see in action.

The display is 480x272 which is close, but 48 pixels narrower than a
real Newton. It's 4.3" diagonally.

The only bummer is I think my LCD might be defective. It never seems
to power-up, not the backlight or anything, so I might have to get
that exchanged.

But I've logged into the computer over the serial port. It's crazy
how small it is.

Steven

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Received on Tue Jul 22 19:07:31 2008