[lemiant]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

It depends on the unit (I assume you are curious about IMU's in general, not just the one you linked). Most cheap units are essentially just all of the sensors on one board, some just simply put the sensors on one board then pull out the data connections for you. The next level offer all of the sensors on one board and stream the data through one communication standards. More expensive units handle the integration and filtering and allow you to poll for information like velocity and position.

Check out SparkFun, they have some imu's available at various price points. http://code.google.com/p/ardu-imu/wiki/Theory might be worth reading, it is a pretty good solution at a relatively low price.

Can the on you linked work without a gps?