Jumentum Introduces a Single-Chip Linux System

An anonymous reader writes "The Jumentum open source project has announced a single-chip programming system based on the NXP LPC1768 (the same as in the mbed) that can generate PAL/NTSC video and use a PS/2 keyboard, so it may operate as a standalone BASIC programmable computer, similar to many old BASIC computers (e.g. Apple ][ or C64) of yore. Projects such as the Raspberry Pi provide a multichip Linux solution, and the Humane PC uses three AVR microcontrollers, but the Jumentum system can provide a true one-chip solution. Video is generated by software, and only a few external resistors are required to interface to a composite video input. With the Jumentum system, you can take your tiny one-chip computer on-the-go, or use it as part of your own electronics projects (using for example, the mbed) to give it a convenient interface (along with Jumentum's Ethernet web and USB interfaces)."

Comments

No a Linux system

[gweihir]

This is not a Linux system at all. It uses some of the GNU tool-chain for cross-compiling, but that is it. This is a single-chip BASIC system with some neat I/O capabilities.

Re:No a Linux system

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't hardware either. It's a programming environment for a class of ARM microcontrollers. You have to make or buy your own hardware based on one of those controllers, for example the "mbed".

As much more capable systems are coming down in price, limited microcontroller based designs are becoming unattractive. When an evaluation board costs more than for example a Raspberry Pi, why deal with an unfamiliar environment instead of running applications on a standard OS? The only reason I can think of is if you have very strict and low power consumption limits (milliwatts instead of one or two watts). Once you throw Ethernet in there, there really is no point in going with a microcontroller anymore.

Re:No a Linux system

[Peter Harris]

So, not very useful then. I mean why choose BASIC? Or at least, why restrict it to BASIC? Would probably be a good learning or hobbyist machine if it had Python/Scheme/Ruby instead.

I mean, I loved my ZX Spectrum and the old BBC Micro, but in retrospect this was in spite of BASIC, not because of it. Nobody knew any better then.

Re:No a Linux system

[Arlet]

The $6.45 chip you're pointing at is exactly the kind of single chip microcontroller I was talking about.

This chip won't run Linux. It doesn't even support external memories, and it doesn't have an MMU. The nice things about this chip is that is internal Flash, internal RAM, and internal peripherals, so all you need is a 3.3V power supply, and it'll run your application.

Re:No a Linux system

[Goaway]

You can't just "add in a buck's worth of memory and an I/O chip", there's no external bus on a chip like that. It's a system-on-a-chip, and when they say that, they mean it. You get what's on the chip, and maybe some peripherals if you're lucky.

That is exactly the kind of chip that the project this story confusedly refers to targets.

PAL/NTSC?

[maxwell demon]

How long will you still get TVs which accept PAL/NTSC signals?

Re:PAL/NTSC?

[MacTO]

You will be able to use PAL/NTSC for a fair bit longer than any other currently available standard for video. Keep in mind that PAL and NTSC have been around for decades and is unlikely to disappear anytime soon because a lot of equipment either depends upon it or will fall back to it. Even "VGA" is unlikely to exist as far into the future because it was a *relatively* specialis standard (at least when compared to PAL/NTSC).

Re:PAL/NTSC?

[ttong]

Quite some time, actually. And it's awesome because replacements are FREE nowadays. No one wants them so I actually have a small surplus now of old tellies that people didn't want to keep any longer. The analogue ones are best, just flick the next or previous channel button and it instantly switches channel! That's so awesome, I laugh in the face of anyone trying to sell one of those set-top boxes with their awfully slow menus and "interactive content" which are in reality mandatory loading screens whenever you come across one of those channels.

Re:PAL/NTSC?

[EdZ]

Good luck once the PAL (or NTSC) analog broadcast spectrum no longer exists, which is in the next couple of years.
And good riddance to it! Colour interlaced broadcast video was a pair of ugly (though incredibly ingenious) hacks to very old B&W broadcast systems that is an incredible pain to work with in anything other than a fully analog toolchain (what, you thought you could just sample a few hundred times each scanline and stack the result? HAH!). And even then there was little guarantee of the end product wouldn't look like ass because one component was slightly out of calibration.

Raspberry Pi _is_ a Single Chip Solution

[lobiusmoop]

Um, from what I've seen so far, the reason they can sell the Raspberry Pi model A for $25 is that it's basically a single Broadcom BCM2835 SoC (with embedded RAM) mounted on a PCB with some I/O connectors and not much else. (the model B just adds one other chip to provide a USB hub and ethernet).

Re:Raspberry Pi _is_ a Single Chip Solution

[Arlet]

The BCM2835 isn't very open, though. Apparently, you need to sign an NDA to obtain a data sheet. For tinkering hobbyists, that's going to be a big hurdle.

Beagle board is true Linux

[mangu]

If you are looking for a small mobo with Linux perhaps your best choice woud be the Beagle board.

For lower capabilities, Arduino would be the obvious choice, it's programmed in C, using gcc.

I don't see too much in this Jumentum, offering a web server in a chip is interesting, but this capability has been available in small chipsets (not single chips) for Atmel or Microchip PICs for years. If I needed that capability right now I'd probably go for an Arduino with ethernet.

Apart from this, Jumentum is a poor name choice, "jumento" means donkey in Portuguese.

Then explain eDonkey

[tepples]

Donkeys are a symbol of work and determination. If donkey means dumb, then explain eDonkey.

NuttX ?

[flowolf]

NuttX is a Posix compliant real time embedded operating system and supports a massive amount of microcontrollers and development boards.