- Gumstix
Infobox_Company
company_name = Gumstix, Inc.
company_
company_type = Private
foundation =2003
location =Portola Valley, California
industry =Computer systems
products = Complete computer systems; gumstix basix, connex and verdex motherboards; and a series of I/O daughtercards and accessories
key_people = Gordon Kruberg, CEO
Steve Sakoman, Head of Software
Don Anderson, CMO | services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = Under 10
homepage = [http://www.gumstix.com/ www.gumstix.com]Gumstix is a US-based technology company that designs, builds and sells full-function miniature computers and related products. The small form factor gumstix (in the words of Gumstix) "is just a computer".
The Gumstix product line consists of cased and single board wide computers. The platform is a motherboard and expansion card computer based on Marvell XScale processors running
Linux Embedded . Gumstix motherboards measure 80 mm x 20 mm x 6.3 mm, comparable in size to a stick of chewing gum (hence the name of the company). I/O options via expansion boards includesynchronous andasynchronous serial , USB,Ethernet ,Bluetooth andWifi wireless interfaces.The motherboard schematics and design information areproprietary , but expansion board schematics and layouts are available online under theCreative Commons Share-alike license. [ cite web
url=http://www.gumstix.net/Hardware/cat/Schematics/112.html
title=Gumstix schematics page]Commercial customers use gumstix inside a range of devices while professors and students have adopted gumstix technology in a variety of projects, [ cite web
url=http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Customer_projects
title=Gumstix customer projects] including robotic fish andunmanned aerial vehicle s (UAV).Gumstix products have no printed documentation but are supported instead through several different forms of online documentation spread between articles,
FAQ lists, a user-maintainedwiki and amailing list archive . Gumstix products come with a 30 day limitedwarranty . [ cite web
url=http://www.gumstix.com/rma.html
title=Gumstix warranty information]Motherboards
The gumstix line of motherboards are single-board computers which fall into one of three categories: Verdex, Connex, and Basix. The Verdex motherboards provide a Marvell XScale PXA270 processor running at 400 MHz or 600 MHz with up to 128 MB of
SDRAM . The basix and connex motherboards provide a Marvell XScale PXA255 processor running at 200 MHz or 400 MHz with 64 MB ofSDRAM . All three run Linux 2.6 with theBusyBox utilities, and can be configured to use theuClibc C library to save on flash memory. The software is a full-blown Linux environment and a large range of Linux applications can run on the device.Additional features can be added to all motherboards with expansion cards connected via one or both on-board buses. The motherboards draw less than 250 mA @4V at 400 MHz without Bluetooth and less than 50 mA while idling, waiting for input.
overo
The overo is the latest motherboard announced by gumstix, available in Q4 2008, based on
Texas Instruments 'OMAP 35x processors. [ cite web
url=http://www.gumstix.com/press/Gumstix-Ti-overo.pdf
title=overo press release]Verdex
The Verdex motherboards feature up to 128MB RAM, on-board strataflash up to 32 MB, an onboard 60-pin Hirose I/O header, a 120-pin Molex connector for connecting additional expansion cards and have Infineon
Bluetooth as an option.The key functions of the verdex motherboards over the basix and connex motherboards include: USB host (12 megabit/second) and the higher RAM and flash memory options.
In volume, verdex motherboards may be ordered with processor speeds of 300MHz, 400MHz, 500MHz and 600MHz with any combination of RAM, flash and expansion board connectors.
Connex
The Connex motherboards also feature on-board 16 MB strataflash, an onboard 60-pin Hirose I/O header, a 92-pin bus header for connecting additional expansion cards and have Infineon
Bluetooth as an option.Basix
The Basix motherboards features 4 MB strataflash, an onboard 60-pin Hirose I/O header, an onboard MMC slot and Infineon Bluetooth as an option. Basix-xm models extend the 4 MB of flash to 16 MB.
Computers
Gumstix has two cased computer product lines: Netstix and Waysmall.
Netstix
The Netstix computers, based on the Connex motherboard, provide 10/100 Mb Ethernet connected computers with
CompactFlash (CF) for storage.Waysmall
The Waysmall computers, based on the Basix motherboard, have USB and serial connectivity with
MultiMediaCard (MMC) storage capability.Software development kit
Gumstix uses the
OpenEmbedded software framework to track and fetch dependencies,cross-compile packages and build complete images automatically usingBitBake . After building, the rootfs image and the kernel are transferred to the Gumstix through a serial connection, usingcompact flash or MMC type cards or throughethernet network (depending on the system configuration and what expansion boards are used)Additional software can be either downloaded prebuilt directly from the Gumstix repositories or compiled using BitBake with the same method, and is installed and managed using
ipkg packages.3D Visualization
This [http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Sketchup modeling environment] for electronic product designers integrates popular design tools, 3D images, and software scripts intended to aid the design and visualization of new product enclosures and custom expansion boards, by combining 3D Gumstix product visuals with Google SketchUp, Google 3D Warehouse and Cadsoft's Eagle CAD software.
References
External links
* [http://www.gumstix.com/ Gumstix website]
* [http://gumstix.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Gumstix users wiki]
* [http://www.gumstix.com/support.html Gumstix Support links]
* [http://www.nabble.com/Gumstix-f22543.html Gumstix mailing list archives on nabble]
* [http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=WPHBGGMF2EBLOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=193100721&_requestid=178795 Gumstix Aims At Mobile Apps]
* [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7437869444.html Tiny Linux SBC steps up to PXA270]
* [http://www.techweb.com/wire/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=26804681 Gumstix Ships Small Linux Computer]
* [http://www.smallformfactors.com/news/db/?7933 Gumstix Computers Now Support Displays]
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