I found the Gumstix a while ago when I was going through the mental exercise of how I might build a reader from scratch.
Holly Gates at Eink has put together some interesting
projects. His
blueChute project might make a great reader. His
A51 is the A5 reader we all have been wishing for. It uses the Gumstix with bluetooth
as shown here. But these are just demo projects, not products. The Eink company sells an "Active Matrix EPD Prototype Kit" that uses a Gumstix motherboard too.
Quote:
The protoyping kit is based around the Gumstix single-board computer, which combines a 400 MHz Intel XScaleŽ PXA255 processor with a Bluetooth transceiver, USB, a serial port and an MMC card reader. For mobile device prototyping, the kit also includes two Li-ion batteries with a total capacity of over 4000 mW-h, and an integrated battery charger.
Linux, the popular open-source operating system, comes pre-installed on the Gumstix board. E Ink also supplies open-source software display drivers and sample applications. Developers will have the ability to download the full source code for the operating system, drivers and applications, and to write and compile new applications using the gcc development environment and cross-compiler, included in the kit package.
The kit comes pre-configured to operate as a simple electronic book reader. Out of the box, users can download page images from their PC to the included MMC card and view them on the display with no further programming or assembly.
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Some of the Gumstix expansion boards provide an LCD controller and an LCD connection. I am not aware of how one controls an EPD, but an LCD panel would work fine for a homebrew experiment and be within a hobbyist's budget. Alternatively, there are serial LCDs which can be fed from the serial port. Some of the Gumstix expansion boards provide GPIO (General Purpose I/O) pads so you can solder on keypads and whatnot.
The Eink prototype kit is quite pricey, but the Gumstix devices are inexpensive. LCD displays can be had from
EarthLCD and others. EarthLCD has, for example, a 12.1" LCD from a Thinkpad for $100.
Now why, you ask, would anyone want to build a reader from scratch? Just because you can. But don't forget, you can buy a perfectly good LCD eReader
here for $109.95 plus shipping.