Comprehensive Engineered Solutions

Applied Data Systems designs and manufactures single board computers for the Embedded Marketplace. We differentiate ourselves by providing comprehensive Engineered Solutions. The ADS Engineered Solution begins with a standard product and ends with an optimized solution for the customer's specific requirements. It is optimized for performance and the lowest possible recurring cost. Our expertise is embedded applications that require flat panel graphics. OEMs and systems integrators are utilizing ourEngineered Solutions for applications including process control, medical instrumentation, retail kiosks, vehicle management, information displays, and network appliances.

The Need: Embedded requirements are as varied as the environment in which they are used. Most of our customers want our Pixel Press Plus or DisplayStart solutions slightly modified to meet their specific needs. Our Engineered Solutions provide that capability. Our customers consider ADS as their specialized engineering/graphic partner. ADS is not a contract engineering firm, but rather a collection of expertise that is ready to optimize our standard products to the specific embedded needs of our customers.

Capabilities: With over 15 years of graphic experiences, ADS provides

• Full Solution - High performance graphic system with application support
• Fit, Form, and Function - Design to physical constraints
• Flat Panel Display integration expertise to satisfy any flat panel requirements
• Timely & Effective design into a Printed Circuit Board solution

Benefits to the Customer:

• Quick Time-to-Market solution
• Reduced non-recurring engineering costs
• Very low recurring costs
• Flat Panel technology expertise
• Optimized solution based on standard product
• Low power requirements and heat dissipation
• Customer can focus on the application solution and not the platform
• Sophisticated development environment

The Process: Our customers come to Applied Data Systems for a standard product. They require an embedded single board computer for their application that provides a graphical solution using a flat panel display. Quite often, our customers intend to accomplish this task with their own engineering resources. After discovering that there is significant amount of expertise needed to accomplish this task and the associated costs would make them less competitive, they explore the Engineering Solutions provided by Applied Data Systems. The Engineered Solution function is to

• Understand the Gross Requirements of the customer
• Determine the Technology needed in the solution
• Measure the Feasibility and Success Factors of the project
• Design an optimized solution for best performance and lowest recurring costs
• Design a solution to consider engineering requirements and manufacturing capability

Examples: Just three of many examples of the ADS Engineered Solution:

• Several manufacturers of industrial vehicles have come to ADS forhelp with their vehicle management systems using single board computersand interfacing to GPS. Power management capability was also requiredfor the many different power requirements. "PC" solutions wereinvestigated, but the demands of the "PC" were limiting the capabilitythat the customer wished to deliver. Space, heat, distance from thedisplay, and obstruction of view were just a few of the problems imposedby the "PC" solution in addition to the high recurring costs. ADS'Engineered Solution met the requirements within the time to market andcost constraints.
• A numerical control & display product contains an ADS Engineered Solution. The solution is embedded into a numerical control lathe for the manufacturing of automotive parts. The application required a compact single board computer and could not use a "PC" because of space and heat constraints. The ADS Engineered Solution receives an RGB/TTL signal via an RS-422 input and delivers it to a VGA 10.4-inch color flat panel display. This ADS Solution provided a 300% saving over the "PC" solution and improved display quality.
• A supermarket aisle-mounted ad display systems contains a ADS Engineered Solution based on the Pixel Press Plus single board computer, a color flat panel display, and an Ethernet TCP/IP network interface to the in-store communications server. The purpose of the aisle and shelf mounted two-sided display is to run scheduled video advertisements and promotions for specific products. Previously, these ads were paper-based and difficult to monitor and coordinate with daily product price changes. With network update, all stores in the system are guaranteed to be updated consistently, on time, and synchronized with daily price changes and advertisement schedules. Just the hardware ROI is approximated to be 425% per store. Over 2,000 stores, the ADS Engineered Solution is a very significant contributor to the company's bottom line profitability.

Expertise Within ADS' Engineered Solution: ADS has designed or delivered solutions to our customers incorporating or interfacing to these capabilities:

The ARM 32-bit RISC processor (next page) Kernel Software Flat Panel Interfaces Analog-Active, Passive, Dual-scan LVDS FPGA, ASIC Graphics Objects & PCX files Graphic Instrument Library Portrait Landscape Display Flash storage PostScript Type 1 Font Rasterizer w/ Fonts Real Time Clocks C-Run Time System RAMDAC RTOS - Real Time Operating System Power Supplies & Management Systems File Systems

Voice capability ATA FAT-12 GPS - Global Positioning Systems I/O Spread Spectrum Radio Networking PCMCIA CAN MPEG Ethernet PLC-I/O - Programmable Logic Controllers TCP/IP Stacks Keyboards Serial Ports Touch Pads RS-485 / RS-422 / RS-232 Touch Screens - Analog & Matrix Parallel Ports SCSI Interfaces 8-Bit Thin Client - with Windows CE and JAVA VM compatibility EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port)

ARM 32-bit RISC Processor Support

VLSI 610	VLSI 710	StrongARM SA110
StrongARM SA1100	Cirrus Logic 7110	Cirrus Logic 7111
Sharp 790	Sharp 710	Cirrus Logic 7500 FE

Software Development Environment

• Display Driver in ROM - No setup required and instant boot
• Linked Kernel is Easily Tailored to User Application
• Single Debug Tool Simplifies Application Debug
• "Pre-configured Environment" Simplifies the Development Process
• ARM Software Development Toolkit
• Libraries, C compiler, Assembler, Debugger, and etc.
• Utility Batch files for download
• Software can be developed concurrent to hardware design and production
  Development Kits Applied Data Systems provides two development platforms, based on the DisplayStart and Pixel Press Plus, to simplify the introduction of the Engineered Solution into a new application. Exemplified below are the capabilities of the DisplayStart Development Kit:
  • DisplayStart configured for the application environment
  • Flat Panel Display - Selected by user
  • Power supply
  • Serial port and parallel port cables
  • ADS Software Development Kit for either DOS or Windows
  • Hardware components mounted for desktop usage
  • Touch Screen - optional
  The DisplayStart parallel port emulates is a "Centronics" compatible parallel interface like those found on most IBM compatible PCs. This allows the DisplayStart to connect to any system that drives a Centronics interface and provides a mechanism for downloading application software.

  Development Interfaces:
  

• Parallel Port.....Allows downloading of an application code
• Serial Ports (2)....Interface to command line interpreter
  The Serial Port also provides the interface to the ARM debugger, which permits source level debugging of the application code

  Application Control:
  There are two ways to control the DisplayStart Graphics. (1) Write a C application and execute it on the DisplayStart. (2) Control the drawings through a command line interpreter over parallel or serial interfaces. Typical development cycle consists of writing a C application and downloading it through a parallel, serial, or ARM debugger. After the application fully meets the user's specifications, it is linked with the I/O drivers, ADS Graphics kernel, and standard C run time environment. It is then bound with the kernel, programmed into boot ROM, and installed in the DisplayStart.