GRAYnomad (Rob Gray) describes the QUUB as follows:
QUUB is a Small Form Factor processor and co-processor design like this ATMega1284-AU based core processor board (above). The basic system topology is that of a “core” processor and up to 16 addressable daughter boards known as “stackables”. Stackables can be smart (with co-processors) or dumb (just hardware IO).
All boards share a 48-pin bus which is split into two 24-pin stackable headers. Boards can be in any location, for example the core processor does not have to be at the bottom, normally it would be but there may be applications that require a different order, such as a small robot where the bottom board has the motors, gearboxes and driving electronics.
The name QUUB comes from the fact that up to four boards can be stacked and still fit inside a 2x2x2″ length of aluminum extrusion.
Read Electronic Design’s complete interview with Rob Gray who is working with QUUB development.
The QUUB is an open source project and can be based on your choice from a number of core processors including ATmega1284p, ATmega328, PIC 18F2520 or Picaxe 20×2. You can check out Rob’s documentation files here.
This project seems interesting, but we’d like to see more information on the firmware, source code and any related IDE or programming software.
Given all the movement toward ARM core microcontrollers, I wonder why they don’t have one as an option.