$199 GIZMO EXPLORER KIT – Embedded Development Kit Based on AMD G-Series G-T40E APU

I’ve just stumbled upon a low cost and open source embedded development kit featuring AMD G-Series G-T40E dual core APU that comes with the following:

• The Gizmo Board – A compact (10×10 cm) development board for powered by an AMD G-Series APU.
• The Explorer Board – An expansion I/O board providing an alpha-numeric keypad, a micro-display, and a breadboard area for prototyping and customization.
• Sage SmartProbe JTAG Development Tool – The kit includes the SmartProbe hardware and 20 hours of trial time use.
• Ethernet & USB Cables – The USB cable lets you connect the SmartProbe to your PC. The Ethernet cable is for networking connectivity, which can be used to access the SmartProbe as well.
• USB wall charger
  
• Power Supplyand Cable – A universal power supply for the Gizmo board, with a U.S.-standard cord.
• 6x standoffs with nuts
  
• Alpha-numeric keypad – To connect to the explorer board
• Installation DVD – Includes a trial version of the Sage EDK, a graphical interface for development and debugging, and the Gizmo Explorer Kit user guide.

Let’s have a closer look at the Gizmo board specifications:

• AMD G-Series APU: G-T40E Dual Core @ 1.0 GHz with Radeon HD6250 GPU. Up to 52.8 GFLOP capacity, 6.4W TDP.
• A55E Controller Hub
• 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
• JTAG header for SmartProbe development & debug
• Low and High Speed card edge connectors for expansion:
  • High Speed Connector – Standard PCIe 64-pin card edge gold fingers, 2x PCIe links, LVDS, 1x SATA and 1x USB 2.0
  • Low Speed Connector – Standard PCIe 36-pin card edge gold fingers, GPIOs, 1x USB 2.0 signal, SPI, PWM, A/D, D/A and C/T
• Video Output – VGA display connector
• Ethernet – RJ-45 port connector
• USB – 2 standard type A USB connectors, pin header w/ 2 USB connectors
• SATA – one connector
• Audio – Line-in, Line-out and MIC signals
• Power – 12VDC power supply with cables
• Size – 4” x 4” (10 x 10 cm)

The low speed connector is used to connect the Explorer board which adds support for keypad, an LCD display, a prototyping area and more:

• 2-layer board
• 36-pin low-speed card edge connector
• LCD micro-display
• DC motor and stepper motor capabilities
• GPIO header acts as connector for alpha-numeric keypad
• Sea of holes prototyping area
• SPI port
• Analog I/O
• PWM
• USB port

The Gizmo Board comes pre-loaded with SageBIoS, a distribution of open-source Coreboot project. The source and build files for SageBIoS are included with the DVD, and can be accessed and modified using Sage EDK.  The board supports multiple operating systems such as Windows, Linux and some RTOS.

The project is apparently still under development (pre-release phase) and documentation is limited. But the Gizmo Explorer Kit being an open source hardware, the people behind the project will eventually release the schematics, provide downloads (source and binaries) and proper documentation.

If you want to ask questions or follow the progress of this project, the best is probably to join their Google Group, Forums or IRC channel #gizmosphere & #gizmo on Freenode.

The Gizmo Explorer Kit is currently available for pre-order for $199, and will be available in 2013. You can find further information on Gizmosphere.org.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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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