Back in November, I came across the Gizmo Explorer Kit, an embedded development platform based on AMD G-Series G-T40E dual core APU that includes the development board itself (Gizmo Board), two expansion I/O boards, Sage SmartProbe JTAG development tool, some accessories such as cables and power supply, and a DVD with the documentation and SDK.
Today, Sage Electronic, Texas Multicore Technologies, and Viosoft officially launched GizmoSphere community that aims at “fostering innovation and development for x86-based embedded Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), and driving and enabling technology projects of interest to independent developers with a focus on stimulating and encouraging innovation for existing and new applications that leverage APUs”. To help with this initiative, they also produce the Gizmo Board, and corresponding Gizmo Explorer Kit, a development board that boots with coreboot, and can run a variety of operating systems such as Android, Linux, Windows, and other RTOS. You can refer to my previous post for a complete description of the Gizmo Explorer Kit.The Gizmo board is not available for purchase directly, but the Gizmo Explorer Kit is available for $199. At the moment you can only order by email, but the company says it will eventually be sold via distributors.
The video below shows how to assemble the Gizmo Explorer Kit, and boot it for the first time.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Soooooooooo expensive.
No , it really isn’t considering it’s a development board and you get expansion boards and a JTAG and all that. Just an A15 board sells for like $200.
“Just an A15 board sells for like $200.”
@Marius
Not any more:
http://liliputing.com/2013/01/armbrix-zero-dev-board-packs-a-samsung-exynos-5-arm-cortex-a15-cpu.html
@onebir
That link is even better 🙂 http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/12/26/135-armbrix-zero-exynos-5-development-board-is-now-available-for-pre-order/ (OK… It lacks the board picture which was not available at the time…)
Oops – could be the shipping is a killer? (yet again…)
Oops again 😉 As a matter of interest, how much is the shipping? (Not worth registering to find out, since I’m not likely to buy it…)
OK so it’s $135 for just the board itself, not even a charger… this is still not a bad deal IMO. But yeah, sometimes the shipping price just kill what would otherwise be a good deal.
@onebir
I’ve just received an answer for shipping costs, and it will be hard to sell outside of the US:
“For shipping a kit within the U.S., cost is $15. For sending a kit outside of the U.S., shipping cost is $65. :”
They just posted the board schematics http://www.gizmosphere.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/GIZMO_BOARD.pdf