Hey, I am trying to send data out of the intel atom kit. it is a simple form, just a on or off data. which port would be the easiest to use in this regard? the gpio or the serial port?

Hi there,

what exactly are you calling the "intel atom kit"? I know the Intel Atom CPU family, but you seem to think of more than just that. Are you using a complete evaluation kit?

Following your vague description, I'd vote for GPIO. I don't recommend using serial ports for anything else than serial communication, though I admit I did abuse them once in a while.

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hey,
I am using the atom processor with a kit. Its details are in this link http://www.indiaeduservices.com/cms/...=82&Itemid=166

I am trying to send signals to control a switch from the atom processor, so just an on/off output. I was wondering if there is any other way to do this, other than a GPIO pin

Hi there,

oh, I see. Cool. :-)
Guess I'll try to find out about availability and pricing in Germany.

Given that, my answer stands: For what you describe, I'd really recommend a simple GPIO. However, I can't find any reference to GPIO in the description you linked to. All the usual standard interfaces like USB, Ethernet, SATA, even an SPI port, but there's no mention of GPIO.

Of course you might use a serial (RS232) port and control two simple peripherals by bit-banging the RTS and DSR lines. I've done that too, on rare occasions. But I'd only choose that way if there's no better alternative.
The classical printer port (Centronics) was also a fine interface for hardware experiments - it has/had 8 bidirectional data lines, and a handfull of handshale inputs and outputs, each of them directly addressable. Pity that today's PCs don't have this any more.

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