South African technology company Keystone Electronic has developed its Blue Penguin CPU module, allowing users to create computers and open source platforms to fit their own specifications.
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, the Blue Penguin operating environment closely follows desktop and server Linux environments in order to create a familiar and predictable Linux development experience.
Guinnux provides access to an ever growing number of packaged applications and libraries, available for installation from the Guinnux web repository. On-board support for scripting languages such as lua, PHP and Python allows for immediate on-board application development and deployment without the use of cross compilers.
In addition, the Guinnux cross compile tool chain and development libraries are available for customers from the Guinnux site.
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 mother
board 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, comments: “The value of this technology is that it offers superb control, management and maintenance. The device is based on the principles 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.”
The first prototype provides customers with a solution that is extremely easy to manage and gives them the freedom to do their own development. It can be modified and adapted to fit any product and solution and Keystone offers customisation tools so that clients can run their own software on the front-end.
The South African-made product is priced for the local market at R1 575 for the 256MB DDR2 RAM module and R1 950 for the two 512MG DDR2 RAM module.
Blue Penguin is the size of a business card and only needs 3,3VDC power in order to run. It comes with a Micro SD card slot, JTAG debug connector and the Guinnux (Keystone’s version of Linux) operating system preinstalled.
