The TS-7500 is a ultra-compact embedded computer module based on a 250MHz ARM9 CPU from Cavium Networks. In comparison to the TS-7400, it is less expensive, about half the size and over 50% faster. The TS-7500 offers additional features such as High-Speed USB host and device, micro-SD Card socket and 5K LUT programmable on-board FPGA. The 44-pin header allows an external board to interface with the TS-7500 via DIO lines, SPI, I2C or FPGA cores.
Hardware Description
The TS-7500 features a 250MHz Cavium ARM9 CPU and a 5000 LUT Lattice FPGA. With 64MB RAM, a bootable 4MB on-board flash, and a micro SD card slot, the TS-7500 is a powerful and flexible embedded solution. External devices can connect to the TS-7500 via Ethernet, USB host, USB device, or I2C ports as well as DIO, UARTs, and SPI which are implemented in the standard FPGA load. The 44 pin downward-facing general-purpose header makes it easy to interface the TS-7500 with a base board of your own design. Using just under 400mA at 5V, a TS-7500 driven product can be fully powered by a USB device cable.
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 TS-7500 FPGA configuration for an elegant and affordable solution.
The TS-7500 development kit includes the TS-ENC750 enclosure with the TS-752 base board. The TS-752 base board demonstrates the power of the TS-7500, implementing Relays, RS-232, RS-485, power over Ethernet, and signal protection for DIO.
The standard TS-7500 FPGA configuration implements the following features:
- Micro SD card access
- Up to 8 UARTs (XUARTs*)
- SPI
- Watchdog timer
- Up to 33 DIO lines
- 1 CAN Bus Option (available as an FPGA bitstream)
* Technologic Systems XUART core is an extended UART core supporting 7, 8, 9, or 10 bits per character, Tx and Rx FIFOs 256+ characters deep, and accurate measurement of idle and busy times. These ports support advanced protocols such as DMX/RDM. There is also one serial port in the CPU for a total of 9 serial ports.
Software Description
The TS-7500 SBC boots to Linux 2.6 from either an SD Card or onboard Flash using the proprietary TS-BOOTROM bootup firmware residing in ROM memory. The 4MB onboard Flash is enough to store a bootable Kernel image and a initial ramdisk image. Storage memory can be expanded through the SD Card socket. A bootable SD Card must contain a Linux Kernel image, a initial ramdisk image and a valid Linux root filesystem. The 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-7500 software features include:
Boots Linux 2.6 out-of-the-box in less than 3 seconds (to a shell prompt).
SD card pre-installed with standard Debian Linux distribution (Lenny Arm).
Un-brickable design ensures 100% recoverability from SD card in case of onboard flash erasure.
Startup Linux mini-root scripts allows flexible root and backup filesystem selection (SD, NFS, USB flash) as well as software field upgrade support.
Linux OS and Debian Support
Technologic Systems TS-7500 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. There is no proprietary source code in the kernel since all the hardware specific functionalities are handled by user-space utilities. The Linux kernel includes 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 compact initial ramdisk filesystem is based on Busybox and uClibc and is improved for performance and flexibility. Specific Linux scripts and utilities that handle the TS-7500 functions are included. In addition, the full Debian binaries and services are available from the initial ramdisk after mounting the SD Card.
The TS-7500 SBCs are configured to load the Debian Linux OS from the SD Card during boot up time. The full featured Debian Linux (version Lenny Arm) 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.
CAN Bus Support in User Space
The TS-7500 utilizes an SJA1000C-compatible FPGA core out of the box complete with documentation and sample code. The sample code provides a simple utility to send/receive CAN packets and perform useful and common functions with the CAN bus from userspace. Additionally, this sample code includes network CAN service and can be automatically started on TS-7500 bootup which makes the writing of CAN enabled applications even simpler and furthermore allows for the possibility of development in languages other than C (Java, Python, etc..) and on systems other than the local Linux SBC (Linux/x86, Windows, etc..)
Please contact Technologic Systems for further information regarding Operating System and software support for this product.
Summary
- 250MHz ARM9 CPU
- 64 MB DDR-RAM
- 4 MB NOR Flash
- Customizable 5K LUT OpenCore FPGA
- 1 micro SDHC Card slot
- USB2 480Mbit/s Host(2) / Device(1)
- 1 10/100 Ethernet
- 8 TTL UART
- 33 DIO, SPI and I2C interfaces
- Watchdog Timer
- Optional BB-RTC, CAN bus, WiFi
- Power-over-Ethernet Ready
- Fanless Operation from -20°C to 70°C
- Small size (67mm x 75mm)
- Low power (400mA @ 5V)
- Unbrickable, boots from SD or Flash
- DevKit includes base-board+enclosure
- Boots Linux 2.6 in less than 3 seconds
