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Linux-ready XScale net board ships

Jan 27, 2009 — by Eric Brown — from the LinuxDevices Archive — 9 views

[Updated: Jan. 28, 2009] — Gateworks Corp. is shipping the second of its power-sipping Cambria Network Platform boards. The Cambria GW2350 ships with an OpenWrt Linux-based board support package (BSP) and optional dev kit, and targets enterprise and residential network applications, says the company.

(Click for larger view of the Cambria GW2350)

The Cambria GW2350 is a lower cost ($211 in volume) version of the Cambria GW2358-4 board that was announced in August, and offers a single Type III Mini-PCI socket instead of the GW2358-4's four slots, says the company. The Cambria GW2350 is targeted at customer premise equipment that requires “a rugged, small form factor network processing engine,” says the company.

The board incorporates an Intel IXP435 XScale processor clocked at 667MHz. The IXP435 integrates an XScale core with a pair of network processor engines (NPEs) — programmable processing elements with their own instruction and data memory.

Except for the difference in price and the number of Mini-PCI slots, the GW2350 appears to be identical to the GW2358-4. It offers 128MB of DDRII-400 SDRAM and 32MB of flash, with a CompactFlash socket for expansion. The board also includes two Ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 host ports, a serial port, and a variety of other I/O. A GPS receiver and an additional serial port are optional. The GW2350 typically consumes only six Watts, and supports power-over-ethernet (PoE), says Gateworks.


Cambria Dev Kit
(Click to enlarge)

The board is touted for its broad 8-48VDC input range and its reverse polarity and transient protection, which together are said to support applications ranging from automotive devices to solar and battery-powered wireless installations. The Mini-PCI slot can be used for 802.11ab/g, 802.11n, or WiMAX radios, says the company.

The GW2350 is preloaded with the open source Redboot boot loader, and OpenWrt, a community-supported Linux distribution. In addition, a hardware/software development kit is available as a separate option. The Cambria Dev Kit (pictured above, right) adds a USB JTAG flash programming interface, a passive PoE power supply/injector, a cable set, and a Linux development CD that includes the OpenWrt-based BSP.

Availability

The Cambria GW2350 is shipping now from stock, with prices starting at $211 in OEM quantities, says Gateworks. Customized versions are said to be available for volumes as low as 100 pieces. No new price was provided for the Cambria Dev Kit, but in August it was said to cost $410 per unit. More information may be found here.

For more information on the GW2350, including a detailed spec list, please see our coverage of the almost identical GW2358-4.


 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.



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