TS-5400
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| Documentation | |
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| Schematic | |
| Mechanical Drawing | |
| ElanSC520 | |
| CPU Datasheet | |
| CPU Manual | |
| CPU Registers |
Introduction
The model TS-5400 is a compact, full-featured PC compatible Single Board Computer based on the AMD Elan520 processor. At 133 MHz, it is approximately 10 times faster than our other 386EX based products for only a small additional cost. PC compatibility allows for rapid development since you can use standard PC development tools such as Turbo C or Power Basic or Linux based tools as well. If you have done work in the PC world in the past, you will find you can now build applications for a very small target that does not require a keyboard, video, floppy disks, or hard drives. By adding the optional TS-9500 daughter board, you can compile and debug directly on the TS-5400 with standard VGA video and keyboard interfaces. Alternatively, you can typically write and debug code on a host PC using standard development tools for the PC platform, then simply copy it to and run it on the TS-5400 without modification. If additional peripherals are required, the PC/104 expansion bus allows for many standard functions available off-the-shelf. It is also very simple to create a custom PC/104 daughter board for those special features that differentiate your product. Technologic Systems can provide technical support as well as a free quotation for any custom hardware, software, or BIOS modifications you may require.
This manual is fairly short. This is because for the most part, the TS-5400 is a standard x86-based PC compatible computer, and there are hundreds of books about writing software for the PC platform. The primary purpose of this manual is documenting where the TS-5400 differs from a standard PC.
PC Compatibility
PC compatibility requires much more than just an x86 processor. It requires PC compatible memory and I/O maps as well as a PC compatible BIOS. The General Software EMBEDDED BIOS offers a high degree of compatibility with past and present BIOS standards allowing it to run off-the shelf operating systems and application software.
The EMBEDDED BIOS has been tested with all major versions of DOS, including MS-DOS, DR-DOS, and Embedded DOS 6-XL; all major versions of OS/2, including MS-OS/2 and IBM OS/2; MS-Windows 3.1, Windows-95, Windows NT, and NetWare 386.
Operating Systems
Technologic Systems Embedded PCs are compatible with a wide variety of x86-based operating systems. A partial list OSes currently used with our boards by customers includes:
- TNT Embedded Toolsuite, Phar Lap Software
- UCos II
- RTKernel, On Time Software
- RTEMS, On-Line Applications Research Corporation
- DOS with WATTCP, public domain TCP/IP source code for DOS
- Linux
The TS-5400 is shipped, free of charge, with Embedded DOS ROM by General Software.
The TS-5400 can be shipped upon request with Linux pre-installed for a nominal fee. The Linux file system and kernel is also freely available on the web should you wish to install it yourself. Typically, the Linux OS requires a 16MB or larger Compact Flash or an M-System�s DiskOnChip.
Power
The TS-5400 requires regulated 5VDC at 750 mA (typical). A quick release screw-down terminal block for the 5V power and power GND connections is provided for easy connection to an external power supply.
When power is first supplied to the TS-5400, the board mounted LED is immediately turned on under hardware control. Once the processor begins execution, the LED is turned off. The LED then turns on then off to provide a characteristic blink during execution of POST. If the LED does not turn on at all, the most likely problem is the power supply. Check that the +5V and GND connections are not reversed. A diode protects the board against damage in such a situation, but it will not run. Please note that supply voltages over 6 VDC may damage the TS-5400.
Be sure to use a regulated 5 VDC power supply.
Memory
SDRAM
The TS-5400 has a total of 16 Megabytes (MB) of high-speed SDRAM providing 640 Kilobytes (KB) of base memory, 15 MB of extended memory, and 128 KB of shadow RAM for the BIOS. This is identical to a standard PC memory map. The TS-5400 can be ordered with 32MB or 64MB of SDRAM, but it is not field upgradeable.
The TS-5400 SDRAM chips are soldered directly to the board. By not using a SIMM socket, the TS- 5400 is much more reliable in high-vibration environments.
Flash
There is a total of 2 MB of Flash memory on the TS-5400 with 128 KB reserved for the BIOS. During POST, this 128 KB area is copied from Flash into SDRAM at addresses E0000h through FFFFFh for improved performance (a standard technique known as BIOS Shadowing). The remainder of the Flash memory (1920 KB) is configured as two solid-state disk (SSD) drives appearing as drive A and drive B. Drive A uses 896 KB of Flash memory while drive B uses the remaining 1024 KB of Flash memory. Both drives are fully supported by the BIOS as INT 13h drives.
The physical Flash memory is accessed by the BIOS in protected mode at memory address 148M. The Flash memory is guaranteed capable of a minimum of 100,000 write/erase cycles. This means that if you completely erase and rewrite the SSD drive 10 times a day you have over 27 years before any problems would occur. Reading the SSD produces no wear at all.
Power failure during flash writes can cause corruption of flash drive FAT tables (A: or B:). Therefore applications writing frequently should use DiskOnChip or Compact Flash card drives which are more tolerant of power failure during write cycles.
Flash drive A is read-only when JP3 is not installed. Removing JP3 also makes the 128 kbyte BIOS area of the Flash write protected as well. Write protecting the A: drive can be useful if there are critical files in the final product that must be very secure.
Compact Flash cards and DiskOnChip modules
If 2MB of Flash is insufficient for your application, additional non-volatile storage can be added with a Compact Flash card or an M-Systems DiskOnChip module. Either of these products can supply additional storage that will behave much as a hard drive does in a typical PC with sizes ranging from 8MB to 512MB. These products are inherently more rugged than a hard drive since they are completely solid-state with no moving parts.
The Compact Flash card has the added advantage of being removable media. A SanDisk USB Compact Flash reader/writer (which is included in the TS-5400 Developer�s Kit) is recommended for the host PC for file transfers. This results in the ability to quickly move files from a host PC to the TS-5400 using a Compact Flash card as the removable media. Since the Compact Flash card appears as a standard IDE drive on the TS-5400, it uses no additional RAM for drivers. While a USB Compact Flash reader allows for hot swapping of the Compact Flash card on the host PC, the Compact Flash interface on the TS-5400 is not hot swappable, the TS-5400 must be rebooted after removing or installing a Compact Flash card.
The DiskOnChip module can be installed into the 32-pin socket near the center of the board. DiskOnChip modules are available from Technologic Systems as well as other distributors. It is compatible with DOS as shipped, and drivers for other operating systems (such as Linux) are available. If a DiskOnChip is installed, it will simply appear as drive C. The DiskOnChip is accessed through an 8 KB range of memory at D0000h through D1FFFh. If you are installing a PC/104 daughter card that uses memory mapped I/O, it must not conflict with this address range if the DiskOnChip is installed. Additionally, in a DOS environment the DiskOnChip firmware uses approximately 30 KB of user RAM (below 640 KB).
Using the SanDisk USB Compact Flash Card Reader
This device allows for a very fast and reliable method of moving files between the host PC and target SBC (TS-5400). The Compact Flash (CF) card can then be hot swapped (inserted or removed without rebooting the host PC). Sometimes it is necessary to unplug the USB cable and reinstall it after swapping CF cards (at least Windows ME seems to prefer this).
| Note: | The TS-5400 always needs to be powered off before swapping CF cards. |
Non-Volatile SRAM
The 32-pin socket can also optionally hold 32 KB of Non-volatile SRAM memory. This behaves exactly like battery-backed SRAM. This or the DiskOnChip may be installed, but not both. Non-volatile SRAM provides non-volatile memory with unlimited write cycles and no write time degradation, unlike Flash memory. The SRAM uses an additional 32 KB range of D0000h through D7FFFh. If the SRAM is installed, PC/104 daughter card that uses memory mapped I/O must not conflict with this address range.
I/O location 75h, bit 0 can be read to determine whether the SRAM option is installed; a �1� in bit 0 indicates that it is installed, a �0� that it is not.
Serial Ports
The two PC compatible asynchronous serial ports (COM1 and COM2) provide a means to communicate with external serial devices such as printers, modems, etc. Each is independently configured as a standard PC COM port that is compatible with the National Semiconductor NS16C450. Alternatively, these ports can be changed to the 16C550 mode with 16 byte FIFOs in both the receive and transmit UART channels. COM1 appears in the I/O space at 3F8h - 3FFh and uses IRQ4. COM2 is located at 2F8h - 2FFh and uses IRQ3.
By changing an internal configuration register in the Elan520, the serial clock to the COM ports can be switched to a 10 times rate (18.432 MHz). This feature allows baud rates higher than 115 Kbaud (such as 230K baud or 576K baud), as well as non-standard lower baud rates (such as 24 Kbaud). See Appendix G for further information.
The COM1 and COM2 ports may also be configured to use a DMA channel, which may be useful when very high baud rates are being used.
See the AMD Elan520 User's Manual for further details.
Serial Port Configuration Registers
Because both serial ports are 100% PC compatible, software written for the PC that accesses serial ports directly or through standard BIOS calls will work without modification on the TS-5400. The details of the COM port internal registers are available in most PC documentation books or the data sheet for the National Semiconductor NS16C550 may be consulted.
Serial Port Hardware
Each RS-232 serial port has 4 lines buffered: the Rx and Tx data lines and the CTS / RTS handshake pair. This is quite sufficient to interface with the vast majority of serial devices. If additional handshake lines are required, it will be necessary to add a TS-SER daughter board. The TS-5400 serial signals are routed to 10-pin header labeled COM2 and a standard 9-pin Sub-D male labeled COM2. A serial adapter cable can be plugged into the COM2 header to convert this into a standard DB9 male connector. The pin-outs for the 10-pin header and DB9 male connector are listed above. The RTS signal also drives the DTR pin on COM2, DTR is always the same state as RTS.
RS-485 Support
An option is available to add support to COM1 for half duplex or full duplex RS-485. RS-485 drivers allow communications between multiple nodes up to 4000 feet (1200 meters) via twisted pair cable. Half-duplex RS-485 requires one twisted pair plus a Ground connection, while full duplex requires two twisted pair plus a Ground.
For half-duplex operation, a single twisted pair is used for transmitting and receiving. Bit 6 at I/O location 75h must be set to enable RTS mode or bit 7 can be set to enable Automatic mode. In RTS mode, the serial port RTS signal controls the RS-485 transmitter/receiver (See Automatic mode below). When RTS is asserted true, the RS-485 transmitter is enabled and the receiver disabled. When RTS is de-asserted the transmitter is tri-stated (disabled) and the receiver is enabled. Since the transmitter and receiver are never both enabled, the serial port UART does not receive the data transmitted.
For full-duplex operation, two twisted pairs are used and the transmitter can typically be left on all the time. Simply use RTS mode, and set RTS true.
See Figure 2 above for connector pin-outs.
Product Notes
FCC Advisory
This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used properly (that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer's instructions), may cause interference to radio and television reception. It has been type tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device in accordance with the specifications in Part 15 of FCC Rules, which are designed to provide reasonable protection against such interference when operated in a commercial environment. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause interference, in which case the owner will be required to correct the interference at his own expense.
If this equipment does cause interference, which can be determined by turning the unit on and off, the user is encouraged to try the following measures to correct the interference:
Reorient the receiving antenna. Relocate the unit with respect to the receiver. Plug the unit into a different outlet so that the unit and receiver are on different branch circuits. Ensure that mounting screws and connector attachment screws are tightly secured. Ensure that good quality, shielded, and grounded cables are used for all data communications. If necessary, the user should consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television technician for additional suggestions. The following booklets prepared by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may also prove helpful:
How to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV Interference Problems (Stock No. 004-000-000345-4) Interface Handbook (Stock No. 004-000-004505-7) These booklets may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.
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