I am currently looking at the Gumstix as a affordable platform for
doing bluetooth audio embedded development.

Unfortunately the gumstix boards I use don't support SCO over HCI,
hence doing audio via bluetooth is impossible.

I am essentially looking for an alternative to the gumstix platform.
The target platform must have:

1) A small form factor with minimal power requirements, much like the gumstix
2) Support the bluetooth standard including support for SCO over HCI -
the preferred chipset is from CSR.
3) Be affordable like the gumstix
4) The OS should be linux - with no royalties on the software

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Request for Question Clarification by maniac-ga on 22 Oct 2006 07:23 PDT

Hello Bluetoothfrustrated,

Could you clarify a few items related to your question:

[1] The "new" gumstix hardware (and some software) apparently supports
audio over bluetooth. See
  http://bluetooth-alsa.sourceforge.net/embed.html
  http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Frequently_asked_questions/Bluetooth
(scroll to the bottom for the audio specific FAQ)
for more information. If you were aware of this, what makes this
solution inadequate for your problem?

[2] What are your size / power limits?
For example, would a PC/104 form factor be acceptable or "too large"
or "too much power"?

[3] How much performance do you need?
For example, you mention the Gumstix (but not clock rate - 200 or 400
Mhz); is that the "minimum" level of performance or would something
less capable be OK?
[this obviously has to be balanced against the answer to 2]

[4] I assume you also need a complete tool chain to build / download
software. Are there other "required" capabilities (such as serial I/O
or Ethernet) that the answer should address?

  --Maniac

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Clarification of Question by bluetoothfrustrated-ga on 23 Oct 2006 21:42 PDT

Hi Maniac-ga,

Thanks for your questions. See clarifications below.

[1] No despite those statements the "new" hardware doesn't support
audio over HCI for because the baud rate needs to be changed at which
the bluetooth module connects to the gumstix UART so that HCI comms
happens at 921600 baud instead of 115200. Unfortunately for some
reason the baud rate change doesn't work and no one can figure out why
- hence my primary reason for looking for an alternative
[2] Size and power - something similar to the gumstix board. PC/104 -
The device I am building has to be slim like a usb key and draw power
from the usb port of a computer.
[3] 400 Mhz - I need to do some audio processing.
[4] Absolute essentials - USB with the ability to power via USB,
non-volatile memory (about 16 MB for my user programs), CPU, Bluetooth
and runs linux. The ability to have a standalone device that can power
via a 5volt DC and plugs into ethernet is an option (in which case you
can ignore the USB requirements above).