Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT


IoT-ready processor module

15 June 2016 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Keystone Electronic Solutions, a leading South African provider of electronic engineering research and development solutions, announced an upgrade to its flagship product Blue Penguin, a CPU module that allows users to create computers and open-source platforms to fit their own specifications.

Blue Penguin.
Blue Penguin.

Blue Penguin gives users complete control over how they develop and create solutions in a cost-effective and customisable environment.

Relying on Keystone’s version of Linux, dubbed Guinnux, its operating environment closely follows desktop and server Linux environments in order to create a familiar and predictable Linux development experience. Guinnux provides access to over 13 000 packaged applications and libraries, available for installation from the Guinnux web repository. By leveraging the power of open source protocol stacks and applications, Blue Penguin is perfectly positioned for the deployment of IoT solutions.

Onboard support for scripting languages such as lua, PHP and Python allows for immediate onboard application development and deployment without the use of cross compilers, while the Guinnux cross compile tool chain and development libraries are available for customers from the Guinnux site.

Blue Penguin dev kit.
Blue Penguin dev kit.

Furthermore, Linux Device Tree support enables the quick and easy deployment of the Blue Penguin module on any custom hardware, and allows Keystone to provide services such as the design and development of bespoke Blue Penguin motherboard PCBs, customisation of the Linux kernel and drivers for specialised hardware, as well as Linux application development and integration.

Ivan Popov, director and co-founder of Keystone Electronic Solutions commented, “The value of this technology is that it offers superb control, management and maintenance. The device is based on the principles of open development and creativity that are inherent in Raspberry Pi and Arduino, and we have designed it so that it is easy to use and can be customised to fit any requirements.”

Blue Penguin is the size of a business card and only needs 3,3 V d.c. power in order to run. It comes with a Micro SD card slot, JTAG debug connector and the Guinnux operating system preinstalled. 256 MB DDR2 RAM and 512 MB DDR2 RAM modules are available.

Blue Penguin allows access, through the SOD IMM connector, to the following peripherals: two MAC/Ethernet interfaces at 10/100 Mbps each; four USART ports; two UART ports; debug UART; 8-bit high-speed multimedia card interface; two synchronous serial controllers; one SPI interface; three two-wire interfaces; one CAN interface; two USB hosts and one USB device; 24-bit LCD with resistive touch interface and an image sensor interface; ten ADC channels; and GPIOs.

For more information contact Ivan Popov, Keystone Electronic Solutions, +27 (0)12 460 4135, [email protected], www.kses.net



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