The TS-7800 features a 12,000 LUT on-board programmable Lattice FPGA. The FPGA provides extra peripherals such as 110 GPIO lines, additional serial ports, dual 4-bit mode high-speed SD Card sockets (full-size and micro SD Cards), and NAND controller.

All the PC/104 pins are connected straight to the FPGA, giving the TS-7800 the flexibility to add external hardware and physical/transceiver layers. The default TS-7800 FPGA load provides a standard PC/104 bus on the 104-pin connectors, maintaining compatibility with our other Arm® based SBCs and wide range of PC/104 peripheral boards. The FPGA on the TS-7800 enables simple, inexpensive customization that requires no physical hardware modifications. Should you need a special configuration or a custom load, contact embeddedTS for FPGA development services.

Backward Compatibility with TS-72xx Boards

The TS-7800 is backward compatible with our TS-72xx computers, providing 3 times more performance and higher-end features with an identical footprint. Most of the headers (DIO, LCD, Power) and connectors (PC/104, USB, Serial, Ethernet) have the same external footprint and board location as the TS-72xx series. This enables easy platform migration, including cabling, enclosures, and external hardware (LCD, keypad, peripherals).

The TS-7800 is the best option for customers in need of higher performance or newer Linux solutions (latest 2.6 kernel). Contact embeddedTS for information on TS-72xx to TS-7800 upgrades.

FPGA Features

• Connects to CPU via 50MHz local PCI bus
• Default load uses GPIO pins as a standard PC/104 ISA bus

The TS-7800 uses an improved Linux 2.6 kernel (currently 2.6.21 version) that allows 0.69 second bootup from NAND flash and provides driver support for all on-board hardware. In addition, the 512MB on-board flash enables a full Debian distribution to be installed with a complete embedded development environment. (Sarge-nonEABI and Etch-EABI images available)

The TS-7800 is shipped with Linux kernel 2.6 and the Debian distribution on on-board flash. The default configuration is an embedded system that can run a wide range of server services, desktop-like applications, and development tools.

0.69 Second Linux Fast-Boot

The TS-7800 500MHz Arm9™-based SBC uses a bootup firmware that enables a Linux 2.6.21 bootup time of 0.69 seconds from on-board NAND flash. The board boots to a minimal kernel and loads an initial RAM disk which has complete access to full-Debian binaries and libraries. The Debian Sarge filesystem can be installed on either the on-board flash or an SD card (either micro or full-size sockets). Extra OS services and drivers are provided as kernel modules which are loaded right after bootup. In addition, extra initialization LinuxRC scripts are provided to enable straight boot-up to the on-board flash, an SD card, or an NFS root filesystem.

After 0.69 seconds, the user has access to a Linux shell prompt and to a Busybox filesystem which enables network services and driver access to most of the TS-7800 hardware. The initialization process is completed in the background (in under 2 seconds). Then the user can take advantage of a complete C/C++ GNU embedded development environment provided by Debian. Alternatively, the user can maximize performance for his embedded application by loading his own Linux application instead of the default /linuxrc script.

The TS-7800 is a fanless, low-power, and rugged Single Board Computer. Therefore, the ultra-fast bootup to Linux can be used in combination with the 200microAmp sleep mode provided by the on-board AVR as an efficient solution for embedded applications which have to periodically wake-up to perform a given task and go back to sleep right after, using little power and with quick feedback.

Bootloader Un-brickable Design

The TS-7800 bootstrap combines FPGA hardware logic, specific boot-up firmware, and kernel tweaks to ensure fast boot time, security, and high board recoverability:

• Linux-based bootloader boots Linux 2.6 kernel to shell prompt in less than 2 seconds from SD card or on-board flash. A Linux bootload utility is available to boot any other kernel or Operating System image from Linux shell prompt.
• Un-brickable design ensures 100% recoverability from SD card in case of on-board flash erasure.
• Full Debian Linux can be installed on on-board flash from a USB flash dongle, eliminating the need to use miniaturized niche embedded Linux distributions or blast/boot boards.
• SD card security features can be utilized for boot medium verification or booting of locked SD cards.

The TS-7800 is also compatible with other Bootloaders, Linux distributions or Operating Systems. Contact us for further software support regarding the TS-7800.