GPS Open-hardware Platform Features Ultra-fast Signal Acquisition

Gumstix Inc.'s Gallop43 expansion board is said to be the first rechargeable GPS-enabled expansion board for the company's signature Overo Computer-on-Module (COM) series. Featuring the miniature u-blox GPS NEO-5G receiver module, the Gallop43 offers ultra-fast signal acquisition for an integrated location-sensitive design solution. When combined with a two-cell NiMH rechargeable battery pack and a 4.3in LCD-ready touch-screen, the Gallop43 expansion board makes portability viable for handheld products powered by any Gumstix Overo COM.

"The Gallop43 expansion board is Gumstix's latest way of saying 'take Linux on the road' to our software and electronic design communities," said Dr. W. Gordon Kruberg, President and CEO of Gumstix. "The combined rechargeable battery and GPS features have been high on our users' wish list, specifically to build the special-purpose hardware meeting their own needs for location based services."

The Gallop43 board adds to the wide range of expansion options already available for the Gumstix Overo COMs, each of which is powered by an OMAP35x applications processor from Texas Instruments (TI). The on-board 3-axis accelerometer, USB OTG, 3.5mm stereo headset jack and the 40-pin header with signals for 1-Wire, PWM, I2C, SPI, A/D and processor control allow design engineers to make feature-rich products using this off-the-shelf expansion board or incorporate its design elements into a custom designed expansion board using the openly available schematic.

Gumstix