Tuesday, November 8, 2011

FEZ Hydra Announced!

Today, GHI Electronics announced their much anticipated FEZ Hydra Gadgeteer mainboard.  This is GHI's first Open Hardware/Software Gadgeteer board.  The Hydra represents a significant upgrade in power vs. the FEZ Spider Gadgeteer mainboard released earlier this year and is being offered at a lower price.  I'll briefly compare these two Gadgeteer boards here and will be presenting a more exhaustive look at the Hydra in a few days when my board arrives and I can do an unboxing post.

See GHI's official announcement.

FEZ Hydra

FEZ Spider
Processor 240MHz 32-bit ARM9
(running at 200MHz)
72MHz 32-bit ARM7
RAM 16MB SDRAM 16MB SDRAM
Gadgeteer Sockets 14 14
Type A 2 2
Type B 1 1
Type C 0 1
Type D 1 1
Type E 0 1
Type F 1 1
Type G 1 1
Type H 0 1
Type I 2 4
Type K 1 1
Type P 1 2
Type R 1 1
Type S 2 2
Type T 1 1
Type U 4 4
Type X 2 2
Type Y 10 7
Type Z 1 1
FLASH 4 MB 4.5 MB
Open Source Hardware Yes No
Open Source Software Yes No
Graphics Support Yes Yes
TFT Display Interface Yes Yes
FAT Support 16/32 16/32
TCP/IP Stack SSL, HTTP, TCP, UDP, DHCP SSL, HTTP, TCP, UDP, DHCP
USB Device USB 2.0 (12 Mbps *) USB 2.0 (12 Mbps)
USB Host No Yes
SD Card Support 4-bit w/ no size limit 4-bit w/ no size limit
Dimensions W 3.42" x L 2.44" x H 0.5" W 2.25" x L 2.05" x H 0.5"
Active Power Consumption 130 mA 160 mA
Idle Power Consumption TBD 120 mA
Hibernate Power Consumption TBD 40 mA
Operating Temp -20 to 70C -20 to 70C
RoHS Compliant Yes Yes
Lead-free Compliant Yes Yes
Configurable LED 1 1
Price $79.95 $119.95

*USB Device was previously reported to have 480Mbps speed. Prior to shipping this was changed.