ARM
Single Board Computers
for Embedded Systems

Our ARM single board computers are also identified as TS-7000 Series. The following belong to this series:

• TS-7800 500MHz Series - Marvell 500MHz ARM9 embedded computers
• TS-7500 250MHz Series - Cavium 250MHz ARM9 embedded computers
• TS-7300 FPGA Series - Embedded computers with a customizable FPGA
• TS-7200 200MHz Series - Cirrus 200MHz ARM9 embedded computers
• Computer-on-Modules - Small and low-cost embedded computer modules

The TS-7800 series of single board computers provides 3 times the performance of the TS-7200 series with the same footprint, using a Marvell 500MHz ARM9 SoC. Through its internal PCI bus, the Marvell SoC provides high end features like gigabit ethernet, dual high-speed USB 2.0 host/slave ports, and dual SATA II ports. With a minimum of 128MB DDR-RAM and 512MB on-board NAND flash, these embedded computers run Linux 2.6 kernel with a full Debian distribution.

The TS-7800 boards feature a high-density customizable FPGA. It provides extra peripherals including GPIO lines, SD card sockets, and a NAND flash controller. A unique feature of the TS-7800 series is the connection of all PC/104 connector pins straight to the FPGA, giving the computer the flexibility to add external hardware and physical/transceiver layers. For example, the FPGA on the TS-7800 SBC can either use the PC/104 connector as an ISA bus or as GPIO lines. The FPGA on the TS-7800 series enables simple, inexpensive customization that requires no physical hardware modifications. Should you need a special configuration or a custom load, contact Technologic Systems for FPGA design services.

On the software side, these computers use a recent Linux kernel 2.6 and have a complete Debian distribution installed by default on on-board flash or SD card. Our default boot mechanism, "Linux-boot-Linux", boots to a shell prompt in less than 2 seconds. The Eclipse IDE is also available for the computers in the TS-7800 series, making it easier to develop your embedded application with C, C++, or Java.

The TS-7800 series are computers built to be reliable, maintaining similar ruggedness standards as the TS-7200 series. Temperature range is from -20°C to +70°C and operation is fanless. In addition, the TS-7800 series SBCs are backward compatible with the TS-7200 computers in terms of hardware, meaning that the same footprint and connector layout is used. Also, because it is an ARM9 platform, customers will find it easy to port their ARM Linux applications to a faster and more advanced platform. Contact Technologic Systems for information on TS-72xx to TS-7800 upgrades.

The TS-7500 series includes multi-purpose, compact embedded computer modules based on a 250MHz ARM9 CPU from Cavium Networks. In comparison to the TS-7200 series 200MHz ARM9, the TS-7500 series is over 50% faster. The TS-7500 computers offer additional features such as High-Speed USB host and device, microSD card socket and 5K LUT customizable on-board FPGA.

Does your application require custom real-time logic such as non-standard bus interfaces, PWM outputs, quadrature decoding, pulse timing, or digital counters? Technologic Systems can integrate that functionality into a custom FPGA configuration for an elegant and affordable solution.

The TS-7500 single board computers boot to Linux 2.6 from either an SD card or on-board flash using the proprietary TS-BOOTROM bootup firmware residing in ROM memory. The 4MB on-board flash is enough to store a bootable kernel image and an initial ramdisk image. Storage memory can be expanded through the SD card socket. A bootable SD card must contain a Linux Kernel image, an initial ramdisk image, and a valid Linux root filesystem. The fast Linux bootup solution was optimized for speed and boots in under 3 seconds.

The TS-7300 FPGA series Linux embedded computers was designed to provide flexibility through a general expansion bus/connector connected straight to the programmable on-board FPGA. Therefore, custom FPGA loads can be provided in order to meet any customer application requirements. In particular, these computers are designed for TFT-LCD integrated products, such as the TS-7390 SBC and the TS-TPC-7390 Touch Panel Computer. Contact us for further information on how to use our products to successfully bring your Touch Panel (TFT-LCD + TouchScreen) application to market.

The computers use the Linux Kernel (2.4 or 2.6) and the Debian distribution as the default software package, which includes complete driver support for the on-board hardware. The temperature range is fanless from -40° to +70°C, or up to 85°C at lower CPU speeds. Like the TS-7200 and TS-7800 series, our TS-7300 FPGA computers represent a safe choice for embedded systems requiring reliability and ruggedness.

The TS-7200 series runs on a 200MHz Cirrus ARM9 processor with power as low as 1/2 Watt. Low board complexity, low component count, and low power/heat make for an extremely reliable embedded engine. The TS ARM products were described in a Linux Journal article as "built like a brick outhouse" and performed exceptionally well under extreme stress in a HALT test. This Single Board Computer is available in thousands of configurations, many of which are Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) and available to ship today.

These feature-rich SBC’s are ready to meet your needs. In a programmable hibernation state the TS-7260 can draw less than ½ Watt of power, allowing it to be powered by solar or inexpensive batteries. Even with the standard power consumption of 2 Watts, these SBC’s run without fans or heat sinks in the temperature range of -20° to +70°C (Optional Extended Temperature -40° to +85°C ). TS-7200 series SBC’s come standard with 32MB of SDRAM and 32MB flash (Optional 128MB of flash). The 10/100 Ethernet connection puts your solution on the network. Two USB host ports enable the use of USB flash, WiFi, and a myriad of USB hardware devices. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is enabled through a standard 5 channel, 12bit A/D converter (Optional 8 channel, 12 bit A/D converter), 20 DIO lines and 2 standard serial ports. To compare features on ARM SBC’s visit our ARM Product Feature Matrix.

Our rugged ARM9 SBC’s have found their way into many embedded applications. Customers are using the TS-7200 series SBCs in energy generation, manufacturing process control, traffic management, printing system management, communication infrastructure, website hosting, data gathering, and laboratory test equipment. We use TS-7200 boards to prepare and test your SBC prior to shipping.

If the standard features are not enough, the 8/16 bit PC/104 interface provides for adding functionality through Technologic Systems’ broad product line of PC/104 peripheral daughter boards. For example, the TS-7KV adds video, CAN, Com ports, and A/D conversion. The TS-POE100 provides a 10/100 Ethernet port integrated with a Power-over-Ethernet splitter circuit. The TS-NVRAM2 provides up to 2MB of battery-backed non-volatile high-speed RAM.

The Computer-on-Modules ARM designs are single board computers which were modified to meet specific customer needs regarding small-size and low-cost. They feature custom hardware and software solutions. Customization involves significant improvements such as the ultra-fast bootup to Linux, the Linux-boots-linux bootup mechanism, the high-security features provided by the SD Card, etc.

The Computer-on-Modules use the Cirrus ARM9 CPU, maintaining software compatibility with the TS-7200 series and taking advantage of all the development already done with Linux for ARM. Like the TS-7200, these computers are reliable from -40° to +70°C, or up to 85°C at 166MHz. Like the TS-7200 and TS-7800 series, our custom ARM boards represent a safe choice for embedded systems requiring reliability and ruggedness.

Technologic Systems engineers are experienced in all aspects of embedded system design. Many of our products originated when our existing product line didn't meet a customer's real world project requirements. If our line of single board computers does not meet the requirements of your embedded application, check our custom design services. Our engineers can modify existing products or design a custom embedded computer or peripheral board, often at a lower total cost than an in-house design. Contact an engineer for more information.