Speed is everything in pari-mutuel racing, and not just for the horses-time-to-market deadlines for developing betting products can be critical. It is not uncommon for projects to be developed within an eight-month window from the initial concept stage through design, production and testing to installation at a customer location. Recently, we found that customizing an off-the-shelf single-board solution allowed us to meet this deadline challenge.

The job was to upgrade our current handheld product, Tiny Tim, to incorporate more flexibility and a sleeker look. We are now in our third or fourth generation of ticket-issuing machines, which are designed to quickly and securely process wagers, issue tickets and validate winnings through interface with our main terminals. While the Tiny Tims have been around for several years, market demands have pushed us to add key features that differed from those in the preceding versions. These include wireless capability, a large screen, enhanced color capabilities, battery operation and portability.

Our engineers focused on a radio modem option vs. the previous traditional wire-based machines. They decided that the product needed to be flexible to work in both wireless and hard-wire situations to accommodate our installations at tracks that are already hardwired. Enhanced color was an important design feature because the devices would be used under incandescent restaurant lighting.

The technical challenge was to find an embedded-board manufacturer that could meet very specific requirements, with a variety of flexible options and the capability to deliver product within an extremely tight window, within a few months. We wanted the final product to be less than 10 inches long, weigh no more than three to four pounds, have the capacity to run off batteries for four- or five-hour cycles with interfaces for display, touch screen and radio modem- all without us having to add boards to it. However, we weren't sure if such an embedded board existed or if there would be an off-the-shelf solution that would not require additional board design from our engineers.

Originally, the plan was to use an X86 processor because we thought it would be easily available. Our processing requirements were not the driving factors in our decision; rather, the objective was to find the necessary peripherals and a standard operating system. Later, as we went through the development process, we learned that we would not have been able to produce our application with an X86 for several reasons: There would be no PCMCIA readily available, additional work would be required in the design and an X86 platform would not have met our video requirements for a VGA panel.

The search process led us to discover a proven single-board system based on a StrongARM RISC processor that runs Microsoft Windows CE. Designed by Applied Data Systems Inc. (ADS; Columbia, Md.), theGraphics Client met our design requirements without needing any additional boards. When we started working together, we explained our unusual connectivity requirements to the ADS engineering team. One challenge had been to find engineers with experience in designing to RS-485 interfaces, the standard protocol for connection to our central computer-called Tote-which runs on triple-redundant, completely secure Vax computers. The RS-232 interfaces are generally available, but few suppliers have the RS-422 and RS-485s that are our standard protocols. ADS wrote drivers and upgraded its hardware to accommodate our RS-485 application. Also, the boards were already Ethernet capable, which helps with future expansion.

The LCD and standard analog touch screen were important for the consumer application that we intended. For our artificial lighting environment, we incorporated a passive LCD screen, which needed less backlighting. In the end, we went with the LM8V30 panel. Here also, StrongARM interfaces with a wide range of panel sizes and types without requiring a separate LCD controller.

Another critical requirement was an ability to power down into a sleep mode or various energy-saving modes. For our consumer betting environment, the terminal will probably be used for five minutes every 30 to 45 minutes. During that dormant period, we wanted a power-down mode to maximize battery life to four to five hours, the time of a typical racing session.

Because of the StrongARM and a streamlined engineering platform, the Graphics Client produces minimal heat and requires less than 2 watts. Through the development process, we learned that the X86 could not have run off batteries or would not have been light enough for the application we wanted. The board's small size-4 x 6 inches-was perfect for the portable tabletop design that we needed. In addition, we developed a bay station cradle to repower the Tiny Tim when it was not in use.

One concern was how to have slot room in the final product. We need to use a radio modem, but Tiny Tim's size does not allow us the luxury of having any ISA bus or PCI slots. Therefore a PCMCIA slot was critical. For our final design, we planned the product to be only 2.5 inches high. The PCMCIA slot allowed us the room for the credit-card-size application without adding any height to the tight, sleek dimensions.

Since the requirements were so specific, we expected that we would need to design interfaces as an addition to whatever boards we found. But the ADS boards were populated with the options that we needed: integrated video control, integrated control for the touch screen, integrated RS-485 and -422 capability, and an integrated PCMCIA slot.

We are now running prototypes and will have final product installed early this year.