Hmm. Wiki says that a "GumStix" is a linux 2.6 processor, with flash, on a circuit board the size of a piece of gum. With 256 Meg or 512 Meg of memory. Price around $100 each, but I didn't go too deep into that.
The nice thing about the BS2 is its reliability, predictability, and low power. It may run at 2000 Basic Instructions per Second, but there's no Dynamic Ram refresh cycle in there, no display to be driven, no disk drive to be accessed. And it takes very little power. Compare that with a multi-megahertz Linux processor -- I don't know. Seems like hitting a fly with a hand-grenade.
But once you've GOT the hand-grenade, do you still need the fly-swatter? Well, I think so. I'm not sure what market the GumStix product is chasing, or how the BS2 could apply to that. I suppose the BS2 would make a great real-time slave processor for the GumStix -- or the GS would make a good blue-tooth, web, or IP interface for the BS2.
I was thinking more on the lines of utilizing the gumstix as the master processor with perl as the coding language and a basic stamp as the slave to control sensors, steppers, solenoids via serial communication or i2c. I needed something with a little more chutzpah for calculating 32-bit optimization routines, quaternions, matrix multiplication, etc...
Ryan,
you mentioned, "there are much better 'blocks' then gumstix". could you please explain.
Looks fairly easy there is a least one expansion board (waysmall original) that has rs232 ports on it. http://www.gumstix.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Schematics. Why not just use serin/serout to transfer serial commands to read/write to the stamp. This assumes you know how to write scripts on linux to access the serial ports. The gumstix web site seems chuck full of info, and the parallax web site has plenty on serial interface.
boomanchoo said...
I was thinking more on the lines of utilizing the gumstix as the master processor with perl as the coding language and a basic stamp as the slave to control sensors, steppers, solenoids via serial communication or i2c. I needed something with a little more chutzpah for calculating 32-bit optimization routines, quaternions, matrix multiplication, etc...
Ryan,
you mentioned, "there are much better 'blocks' then gumstix". could you please explain.
I also enjoy the 'black magic' that is PERL [noparse];)[/noparse]
I view the gumstix as a 'building block' for a system (and there are MANY such products floating around)-· I am a big believer in building to what my purpose is- ie identify my goal so that I can pick the tool best suited for the job- in most cases where I would consider a gumstix I have found a better 'tool for a particular job' , either in cost/benefit or features.· It may be right for you, I don't know what your goals are.· Lets just say they aren't the only game in town, by far.· It may work out for you, but consider your options first, that's all. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
brs
Posts: 33
Comments
The nice thing about the BS2 is its reliability, predictability, and low power. It may run at 2000 Basic Instructions per Second, but there's no Dynamic Ram refresh cycle in there, no display to be driven, no disk drive to be accessed. And it takes very little power. Compare that with a multi-megahertz Linux processor -- I don't know. Seems like hitting a fly with a hand-grenade.
But once you've GOT the hand-grenade, do you still need the fly-swatter? Well, I think so. I'm not sure what market the GumStix product is chasing, or how the BS2 could apply to that. I suppose the BS2 would make a great real-time slave processor for the GumStix -- or the GS would make a good blue-tooth, web, or IP interface for the BS2.
Ryan
Ryan,
you mentioned, "there are much better 'blocks' then gumstix". could you please explain.
I view the gumstix as a 'building block' for a system (and there are MANY such products floating around)-· I am a big believer in building to what my purpose is- ie identify my goal so that I can pick the tool best suited for the job- in most cases where I would consider a gumstix I have found a better 'tool for a particular job' , either in cost/benefit or features.· It may be right for you, I don't know what your goals are.· Lets just say they aren't the only game in town, by far.· It may work out for you, but consider your options first, that's all. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Ryan