I recently started a development project using a TS-7260 and some of
TS's expansion boards. I was relatively new to Linux (user-level
proficiency, no developer/network/admin-level proficiency), and my
previous experience with embedded systems was with XScale devices and
WinCE. I ended up way underestimating the time it would take to develop
our system. My experience has been that it is often difficult to find
out how to do exactly what you want to do, but the answer is usually out
there, either on this discussion group, or in some sample code on TS's
ftp site, or buried in some manual you have yet to peruse. TS's tech
support is often helpful, but it can take a day to get a response, and
going back and forth toward a solution can take a few days. I did not
use embedded Linux, but rather Debian on an SD card. Once you find out
how to create a Debian image and boot to it, you may then find out that
the kernel that you have in your image does not support some feature you
want to use (like iptables or iproute, for instance). Then, you will
have to become familiar with how to configure and rebuild your kernel
and have it be compatible with the user space. It's not that difficult,
but there is a not exactly newbie-friendly learning curve. I agree with
Bill that if your system allows, going with one of TS's more recent
releases may be preferable.
Don
On 3/15/2011 12:55 PM, William C. Landolina wrote:
As somebody who is shipping a TS-7200 based product and was about to
design a from scratch EP9304 system (a successor to the EP9302) when
Cirrus stopped product development on this line I'm not too concerned
about availability. I talked to Cirrus at the time and again a couple
of years later and their answer was that they are going to manufacture
these chips for as long as they have customers to buy them. Cirrus is
not providing support for the chip today but it is well understood and
what warts it has are well documented.
That said, for a new project TS has other boards that are comparably
priced, have more bang for the buck, and have better main-line kernel
support for Linux. Your out-of-the-box experience will likely be
better with a newer TS product. Particularly support for 2.6 kernels
is sketchy - TS doesn't support 2.6 on the TS-7200 in any meaningful
way and do-it-yourself 2.6 kernels based on patch sets floating around
the web can be problematic if you are not ready to dive head first
into kernel configurations and debugging. [There are excellent patch
sets out there but it is not a place I'd recommend starting out on the
path from XP to Linux if you are more focused on getting your
application working than kernel hacking.]
You will experience serious culture shock if you switch from something
like Microsoft Visual Studio to the Eclipse based Linux development
environments. They both get the job done but the user interface
philosophies are very different. Most everything you are used to in
the Windows development world has an equivalent on Linux but it will
take you a while to learn where everything is. Maybe like moving from
New York to Paris.
Good luck,
Bill.
-----Original Message-----
From: <ts-7000%40yahoogroups.com>
<ts-7000%40yahoogroups.com>] On
Behalf Of entity2k10
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:58 AM
To: <ts-7000%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ts-7000] TS-7200 a point about this board
Dear All,
this is my first post.
For a new design I'm going to use a embedded solution like the TS-7200
board equipped with the CIRRUS EP9302 ARM9 processor.
Because I've read more over the net regarding this chip I like also to
know what is the think of this community regarding EOL estimation and
board usage with full Linux distribution.
First question then is kindly ask you if someone have ufficial
information regarding the EOL for this chip and then for the board,
I've asked infos to TS and CIRRUS without feedback until now...
Second question is about the Linux environment, I like to use Linux in
order to make my first step in this word from WinXP and Intel based
embedded PC mainly for a reduction cost reason, I've to be honest.
>From ufficial TS documentation I've read that such board can work
with the TS-Linux embedded OS (preinstalled into the NOR flash) or
with Debian distro installed on a external CF, regarding this stuff I
like to know some think, idea from people that are using such solution
with this board, just to know what I can attempt to found into the
future during my application developing stage.
Thanks to all for every hint and useful suggest.
Regards
Pow
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