Battery operated, light weight Linux HW to be carried in a model airplane

What will it do?

While these don't match all your criteria, they come close:

Some laptop motherboards almost make this, though they are generally not very small. Smallest ones I've seen are about 10cm*1cm*25cm. Ebay. Be careful to ensure that it'll work outside the notebook.

You've heard about the Gumstix, but there is also

try

It depends on the size of the airplane you're talking about. If you have the space, a C3-based board with CPU, memory, and all will draw under 20 watts max, and there are power supplies for them which run off of a 12-volt battery system. It won't have 4 RS232 ports on board, but it's got PCI slots, which means you can add whatever you need. A CF->IDE adapter runs about $15, add a CF card, and you're booting from it.

Being x86, you can even install a relatively standard distro for ease-of-use and configuration - the size of the CF card being the only limitation.

steve

I believe a VIA nano-itx would fill the bill. Don't know if it is in production yet, you could also check on the several VIA mini-itx boards available.

Look at

Netbsd is worth a look as an OS as it has a small footprint & is used in embedded boards.

gtoomey

Unless the plane is huge, a Mini-itx board will be unpractical. The Nano-itx, at 4.7x4.7", may still be too big, but regardless, it won't be released until late March at the earliest (mid summer more likely).

As I am not sure what "small" and "light weight" mean in relative terms, you could have a poke around this site and see if any of the development projects or products help. The people are helpfull and easy to talk to.

Mark Addinall.

PS. I was a bit interested myself, and,

b.. Memory: a.. 16 or 32 MB FLASH

b.. 32 or 64 MB SDRAM

c.. 2 EEPROMS -- 1 write protected, 1 unlimited read/write c.. Input/output ports: a.. 10/100 Ethernet

b.. USB 1.1 port

c.. 3 serial ports

d.. Digital I/O -- up to 32 digital lines with programmable interrupts d.. CompactFlash Type I/II header -- for adding off-the-shelf memory and I/O expansion functions

e.. 2 expansion headers -- for interfacing to custom hardware

f.. Size -- 3 x 3 x 3 inches

g.. Power -- 5VDC regulated; requires 400 mA with no CompactFlash device; peak of 800-900 mA Your requirement for 4+ serial ports could be handled I'm sure, through the expansion headers.

Good luck.

Mark Addinall.

I don't know if they have anything that meets all of your criteria, but Denx carries some really tiny stuff. Check out their products at

Another possible option could be a Logic Card Engine SDK. I have a bit of a bias since I work for Logic, but our Card Engines do run Linux (depending on which processor you use). You can find more info at:

- 'small'. The Card Engine SDK measures about 7" x 4.5" with a CF card installed. It also has onboard flash that you can boot from, so if you can fit your OS and application into 16MB, you can skip a CF card. But if you're doing alot from of writing of files, you may want a replaceable part so that you dn't have a junk the Card Engine when the flash wears outs.

- 4 serial ports. The Card Engine only has 1 built on to the SDK. Most of the processors have support for more than one, so you could probably connect 1 or two more ports to expansion headers on the SDK board. What are you controlling/communicating with on the four serial ports? Can you do it another way?

Jeff