Community Update

Doug Sutherland doug at proficio.ca
Thu Nov 1 13:47:20 CET 2007


Mikko wrote:
> 2) Yes, it can make sense not to have a bazillion CPUs on board from
> various perspectives.

I evaluated no less than 25 different GPS modules some years ago
and compared them in all important aspects. Every single one had 
a microcontroller onboard. I do not agree that it makes any sense
at all not to choose one of these types. They are down to the size
of a thumbnail almost. Is the microcontroller a CPU, technically 
yes, but it's part of the receiver, and you want to do all this fancy
GUI and not suck the life of the battery from ARM9 usage. It is
a good thing they ditched that GPS. It is now standard that any 
GPS module does have a microcontroller inside, most commonly
some variant of ARM7, super low power, you never deal with 
any firmware. 

More importantly, choosing any part that requires a binary on an
open source based board is asking for trouble.

  -- Doug




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