Techsol Product Announcement: TPC-57A Medallion Touch Panel Computer

Techsol is proud to announce the TPC-57A Medallion Touch Panel Computer.

Delta, British Columbia, Canada - March 7, 2006

After designing Display-Enabled products for our customers for years, Techsol is now offering a standard, off-the-shelf computer with a color LCD and Touch panel. This SA2410 ARM-9 Medallion CPU Module powered Industrial Grade Computer features:

qVGA (320x240) Color STN 5.7" LCD Panel with CFL Backlight and optional Touch-panel
Low-power 10-BaseT Ethernet interface
GPIO for push-buttons, etc.
2 x RS-232 serial interfaces on DE-9 connectors
1 x RS-485 serial interface on terminal strip
2 x ultra-efficient SMPS feeding 5-volts for logic and display, and 12-volts for the back-light inverter
High-quality 16-bit Audio Out (for MP3s, Announcements, etc.)
4 channels of 4-20 mA Analog Sensor Inputs
and digital inputs and outputs, pre-configured to drive opto-couplers (with LED drive power)
There is a low-power Real-Time Clock with Battery Backup (RTC)
There is a 4-pin Header for external I2C devices, with +5-volt Power and Ground
There's a Memory Card Connector for Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Of course, there are Dual USB Host ports (USB-A connector)
plus a USB Device (Gadget) port (USB-B connector)
Back-light inverter powered from 12-volt switching power supply
Display and Back-light cables
And, like all Medallion CPU Module powered devices, it ships with Linux 2.6 plus drivers pre-installed!

all packaged into a space barely 4.5" x 7" x 1.25"

"This computer provides a pile of features." said Brian Empey, P.Eng., CEO of Techsol. "Its really a reference design for customers wanting to develop their own computers. But it has enough I/O, at a low-enough cost, to be useful for a production computer too. And its also very useful on its own, without the LCD."
In fact, on that note, Techsol is planning to make the TPC-57A board the standard development kit, with the LCD/touch as an option.

Not surprisingly, the company has developed many products for their clients that use LCD displays. These products range from FDA approved medical devices to high-volume consumer gadgets. But the company has not had a standard product with a display ... until now.

"We're expecting these to fly off the shelves. Even the first hand-built prototypes for my engineers grew wings -- when customers such as Philips in Europe heard about this product, they insisted on getting copies even before the drivers were complete! The last proto ended up at a Medical Devices company in the US, and my engineers had to wait for the first production units to complete the SW driver development!"
Speaking of software, the units ship with Linux (like all Techsol Medallion System products) pre-installed, with drivers.
GUIs include:

Linux Frame-buffer (FB), operating in 8-bit, 256-color mode.
Microwindows on FB, for a simple, "Windows-like" API
QtEmbedded on FB for a nicer look and more features
X11 on FB for standard Linux/Unix graphics
FLTK on X, for a full-featured, extensible, yet FREE GUI
GTK on X, for full PC compatibility
we've even ported over obscure GUIs, such as EZWGL for critical control environments where C++ is not allowed (such as food processing lines)

The TPC-57A is available from stock, with the SA2410 ARM-9 Medallion CPU Module powering it, with a choice of 32 MB of SDRAM and 64 MB of FLASH, or 64 MB of each (in addition to the 2 MB of NOR FLASH for fault-tolerant boot-loaders).
Pricing starts at UNDER $500 each at quantities of 1000 pieces, including the color display and accesories!

Embedded Engineering is the same all over the world. Engineers face the same challenges of having too much to do, and not enough time or money to do it with. Techsol's Medallion CPU modules address this issue and provide a solution that extends into the production stages of a product, not just the proof-of-concept stage like most SBCs.

Techsol's Medallion system is unique in the embedded computer world. The Medallion Single-board computer product line encompasses multiple CPUs, and different configurations with the same CPU. However, the pin-out and form-factor remain the same. There is one Medallion module that is best matched to your application.

By designing with the Medallion system, you are effectively out-sourcing your CPU design and Linux porting with no up-front NRE fees! That lets your team concentrate on the hardware and software portions of your product that your customers see. The result is that you can create a higher-quality product in a fraction of the time (and cost) of designing everything yourself from scratch! Plus, the interchangeable modules extend product life-cycle times.

For more details, or to request further information, please visit our Web site at <medallionsystem.com>, call 888 TECHSOL (888 832 4765) or 604 946 8324, or e-mail <sales@techsol.ca>.

Techsol is headquartered in Delta, British Columbia, Canada, where the mighty Fraser River meets the Pacific Ocean.