A Cluster of Gumstix

July 7, 2010

Gumstix Stagecoach packs seven Gumstix Overo computer-on-modules (COMs) into a single board. 100 Mbit/s Ethernet provides connectivity.

William G. Wong

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The Stagecoach holds 7 OMAP 35xx processors

The Stagecoach uses a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet interconnect

Overo Earth uses OMAP processor with 256 Mbytes of RAM

Gumstix is packing seven Gumstix Overo computer-on-modules (COMs) into a single Stagecoach board. The board is so small (70mm by 293mm) that three could fit on a sheet of paper. The Stagecoach board links the Overo modules using 100Mbit/s switched fast Ethernet network. Each module is assigned its own IP address. Plans are already in the works for 256 node cluster.

The Overo module product line is based on Texas Instrument’s ARM Cortex A8-based OMAP 35xx series that can deliver 1200 Dhrystone MIPS. The 600 MHz processors are matched with 256Mbytes of low-power DDR RAM and 256Mbytes of NAND flash. The 58mm by 17mm by 4.2mm modules have a microSD slot.

The Overo modules have various features with the Overo Earth having I2C, 6 PWM ports, 6 ADC ports, a 1-wire interface, UART, SPI, and camera in along with USB OTG and USB HS Host support. The modules plug into the Stagecoach board using a pair of 70-pin AVX 5602 series connectors. Only the OTG support is brought out with the Stagecoach.

The Overo can run a range of software. Gumstix provides support for Linux. Cluster support will be available on the developer site.

The Stagecoach brings out 7 USB OTG ports and 1 serial-over-USB console port in adrdition to Ethernet connectivity. The fully populated board draws less than 20W. The Stagecoach expansion board is priced at $229. Pricing for the Overo Earth module starts at $149. A fully populated system is less than $1500 with 1.75 Gbytes of RAM.

Gumstix

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

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