The TS-7370 is a compact full-featured Single Board Computer (SBC) based upon the Cirrus EP9302 200MHz ARM9 CPU, which provides a standard set of on-board peripherals. It features a programmable FPGA which is connected to a dedicated framebuffer and provides additional on-board peripherals. With a simple custom peripheral board and a custom FPGA load, your LCD touchscreen of choice can be integrated with the TS-7370. The TS-7370 runs Linux 2.6 out of the box.

Hardware

The TS-7370 features a multi-purpose 200MHz ARM9 CPU. It allows development of multi-function embedded applications through its multiple peripheral interfaces, which includes on-board RAM, 10/100 ethernet, USB 2.0 host, serial ports, SD Card socket, A/D channels, digital I/O lines, temperature sensor, real time clock, and more.

The TS-7370 features a general purpose 40 pin header. The 40 pin header provides the following features:

I2C Bus and SPI Bus

4 12-bit ADC

6 Latched Outputs

7 Buffered Inputs

3 Digital Inputs/Outputs

1 Console COM Port (requires TS-9445 mini-peripheral for RS-232 levels)

External Reset, Power, Ground, Frame and JTAG signals

The default FPGA load provides additional peripherals, such as SD Card socket and serial ports. A video core is not included in the default load. In addition, the FPGA can be configured on the fly to either load a 16-bit PC/104 bus on the 64-pin PC/104 connector or use it as general purpose I/O lines.

The TS-7370 computers are extremely rugged and reliable. Temperature operation is fanless and range is industrial standard at lower CPU speeds. Power consumption is approximately 2W (400mA @ 5VDC). Power input range is flexible from 5VDC to 28VDC.

Differences between TS-7350 and TS-7370

The TS-7350 and TS-7370 are very similar products. The TS-7370 adds a second 10/100 ethernet port instead of a DB9 connector for the COM1 port. The TS-7350 is compatible with the TS-ENC720 enclosure, but there is currently no enclosure available for the TS-7370. Also, the TS-7370 is only available with 64MB RAM minimum and the power input connector appears in a different position. Other than this, hardware, FPGA load and software solutions are compatible.

LCD-Ready Embedded Computer

The TS-7370 is a ARM9-CPU embedded computer designed to provide flexibility through the integration of a programmable 5K LUT LatticeXP2 FPGA. This product is an LCD-ready computer because the FPGA is connected to a dedicated RAM framebuffer, meaning that a custom video core can be included on the FPGA to provide an interface to most color TFT-LCD panels. Since the 64-pin PC/104 signals are connected straight to the FPGA, the video signals are brought out through PC/104 connector, allowing customers to design their own physical video interfaces to their LCD displays of choice. Although the video core is not included on the default FPGA load, Technologic Systems can easily modify our TS-VIDCORE to meet the requirements of our customers through a custom FPGA load. We can also assist you with the design of your LCD interface card.

In order to demonstrate how this LCD solution can be leveraged, we provide the TS-TPC-7390 Touch Panel Computer off-the-shelf that uses a TS-7390 engine and a 7-inch color TFT-LCD panel with TouchScreen interface. Contact Technologic Systems should you need more information about custom LCD FPGA designs or assistance regarding LCD integration.

On-board Serial Ports Map

The TS-7350/TS-7370 provides multiple COM ports using both TTL (2 total) and RS-232 (5 total) levels. Two optional RS-485 ports are available with DMX/RDM support. The EP9302 processor provides two COM ports (TTL Console at the JTAG header and RS-232 at COM1 header). The remaining COM ports are provided by the FPGA through the proprietary XUART core and are 9-bit serial capable. Please refer to the manual for further information.

Software

The TS-7370 SBC boots to Linux 2.6 from an SD Card using the proprietary TS-SDBOOT bootup firmware residing in FPGA ROM memory in about 1 to 1.5 seconds, depending on the SD Card speed and brand. The SD Card must contain a Linux Kernel image, a initial ram disk image and a valid Linux root filesystem. The ultra-fast Linux bootup solution was optimized for speed and includes kernel, initrd and filesystem (Busybox) tweaks. Since this board boots to an initrd (initial ram disk) with a read-only mounted filesystem, it is possible to have something other than a shell prompt running after bootup by editing the /linuxrc shell script on the initrd. Additional TS-7370 software features include:

Boots Linux out-of-the-box in about ONE+ second (to shell prompt).

SD card pre-installed with standard Debian Linux distribution.

Startup Linux mini-root scripts allows flexible root and backup filesystem selection (SD, NFS, USB flash) as well as software field upgrade support.

Linux "bootload" program allows booting of Linux kernels and other OS' from within Linux itself.

Linux OS and Debian Support

Technologic Systems TS-7370 ARM Single Board Computer (SBC) are compatible with a wide range of Operating Systems (OS's). The Linux choice is highly recommended and our products are totally integrated with the open-source vision. The boards ships with Linux 2.6 Kernel running out-of-the-box. They are the first Technologic Systems EP9302 ARM9 computers which use 2.6 Kernel by default. Linux Kernel includes complete driver support for on-board hardware, enabling quick time to market of end-users applications. Examples and source codes are also available for downloading.

The TS-7370 SBCs are configured to load the Debian Linux OS from the SD Card during boot up time. The full featured Debian Linux (version Sarge) distribution includes a complete GNU C/C++ embedded development environment installed. In addition, Apache Web Server, FTP, SSH, Telnet and Samba network services are available with C/PHP/Perl for embedded CGI development.

Eclipse IDE for TS-7000 and Windows

The Eclipse IDE configured for embedded development with the TS-7000 ARM9 computers running Debian Linux is provided along with the 2GB development SD Card. Technologic Systems makes use of the Eclipse Europa release and the DSDP+CDT plugins in order to provide an advanced IDE and makes embedded development easier. ARM crosstool chains, cygwin runtime-libraries and a Java Development Kit are installed on the card, therefore Eclipse IDE will run out-of-the-box (no need for installation) in your Windows PC. The Eclipse environment is already configured to allow a quick startup with a TS-7000 embedded development. After start-up, the installed 'helloworld' example shows the user how to use the Eclipse functionalities, including cross-compilation, build-management configurations, binary download to the TS-7000 target, target management via SSH, FTP, telnet or serial console, client-server debugging with Eclipse debug view, etc.

Please, contact Technologic Systems for further information regarding Operating System and software support for this product.

Detailed Feature List