Atmel launches new TinyAVR in a bid to protect product line in Microchip acquistion

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Atmel has launched what it says is the world’s highest performing, low power, 8-bit MCUs with 1kB Flash memory. 

The new ATtiny102/104 MCUs runs up to 12MIPS and integrate features previously only available in larger more expensive MCUs, aiming at smaller applications including logic replacement and the latest cost-optimised applications in the consumer, industrial and home automation markets.

The move appears to be an attempt to protect the AVR product line with the impending acquisition by Microchip. Microchip's PIC range of 8bit microcontrollers is also popular in the the same markets and it is distinctly possible that the AVR range will become a victim of the merging of the product lines. A spokesperson for Atmel declined to comment on the future of the line as the acquisition has not been completed.   

The majority of today’s 8-bit market growth is coming from applications that previously only required discrete components. With many of these new applications requiring simple intelligent functions including timing, motor control or on/off functionality, 8-bit MCUs are becoming an essential feature for the personal healthcare, small kitchen appliance and consumer markets, says Atmel. 

As a result the ATtiny102/104 AVRs integrate features such as self-programming for firmware upgrades; non-volatile data storage; accurate internal oscillator to provide more reliable motor control; high-speed serial communication with USART; operating voltages ranging from 1.8V to 5.5V, 10-bit ADC with internal voltage references; and sleep currents at less than 100nA in power down mode with SRAM retention.

“Atmel has already sold more units of its 8-bit AVR core-based MCUs than the 7.4 billion people on Earth,” said Oyvind Strom, Sr. Director of MCUs at Atmel. “We continue to expand our AVR portfolio with the new ATtiny102/104 8-bit MCUs. These are the first two devices in our new tinyAVR portfolio that are packed with features optimized for tiny, compact MCU systems such as LED lighting, fan control and other small applications.”

Key Features for Atmel's 8-bit tinyAVR MCUs

• 1kB Flash / 32bytes SRAM
• 8- and 14-pin packages down to 2mm x 3mm in size
• Up to 12 MIPS at 12MHz
• Self-programmable Flash
• Accurate (±3%) Internal oscillator
• Multiple calibrated internal voltage references (1.1V, 2.2V, 4.3V)
• 10-bytes Unique ID (serial number)
• USART
• 10 bit ADC and analog comparator
• 1.8V to 5.5V voltage range
• -40°C to +105°C  and -40°C to +125°C temperature ranges

Development Kits and Ecosystem

To accelerate the design process, Atmel offers a low-cost Xplained Nano evaluation kit available for only $4.44 USD in the Atmel Store. The new kit includes a board with an ATtiny104, embedded programmer, access to all I/O, one push button and one LED. The ATtiny102/104 are supported by Atmel’s development ecosystem, including Atmel Studio 7, the integrated development environment (IDE) for developing and debugging both Cortex-M and AVR applications. 

Engineering samples are available today with mass production samples scheduled for May 2016.  

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SanDisk moves automotive smart storage features into industrial and IoT

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

SanDisk has developed remote monitoring capabilities for its SD cards for the connected car market that it is also moving into the industrial market for the Internet of Things (IoT). The new cards, with densities up to 64Gbytes, includes a suite of built-in smart features that enhance reliability and allow original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to better manage their storage in data-intensive environments

“The ‘Internet of Things’ is the most dynamic force to impact the automotive and industrial markets in a decade, driving exciting new opportunities for connectivity as well as new challenges for how to store, process and manage the data it creates,” said Oded Sagee, senior director of connected solutions at SanDisk. “Our newest SanDisk Automotive and SanDisk Industrial flash storage solutions are ideal for connected applications in these markets, offering exceptional dependability and performance as well as new smart features that enable our OEM customers to better maximize their storage.”

The new SD card has enhanced power failure protection, a memory health status monitor, OEM customization capabilities, and enhancements for read-intensive applications, such as navigation. With these features, automotive manufacturers can designate and program a SanDisk Automotive SD card for use exclusively with a specific connected application. Manufacturers can also remotely and proactively monitor the easily removable SD card to ensure that it is operating at its ideal performance level or to identify when card upgrades or replacements are needed.

The new smart features will also be available in SanDisk Industrial and SanDisk Industrial XT SD card solutions. These industrial-grade cards are intended for use by OEMs in market segments that demand high endurance and reliability even in extreme temperatures, including factory applications, industrial computing, utilities, medical equipment, robotics, point-of-sale solutions, large-scale printing, and many other applications. The inclusion of the new features enables OEMs to better manage the intensive data demands of a variety of applications in the industrial market, from commercial drones to industrial gateway systems to security cameras and more.

This is driven by the high volumes from automotive connectivity, with more and more connected vehicles expected to be on the road over the next few years that will require storage. According to Gartner Research, by 2020:

• the connected cars installed base will be more than nine times larger than that of 2015'
• 80% of all new vehicle models in mature markets will have data connectivity; 30% of connected-vehicle models will have built-in, function-level, over-the-air software update capabilities;” and
• well over one billion connected automotive subsystems will be shipped.

The AEC-Q100 certified SanDisk Automotive SD card enables OEMs to bring intelligent, reliable and high-capacity data storage to a wide array of advanced, in-vehicle applications and systems, such as 3D and HD navigation and mapping systems, data event recorders, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), telematics and more. The automotive grade SD card is built to meet the intense reliability and quality requirements.

Samples of SanDisk Automotive, SanDisk Industrial and SanDisk Industrial XT SD card solutions with the new smart features will be available in March in the United States and Europe, in capacities up to 64GB

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Renesas expands its Synergy platform for IoT with ARM Cortex-M0+ controller family

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Renesas, the world's largest supplier of industrial microcontrollers, has expanded its Synergy Platform with a new family of devices based around the ARM Cortex-M0+ to accelerate time to market, reduce total cost of ownership and remove many of the obstacles engineers face when designing devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). 

The expansion includes the launch of the S124 Group of Synergy Microcontrollers (MCU) with ultra-low power operating characteristics and precise analogue signal acquisition and generation for sensor applications. An updated version of the Synergy Software Package (SSP) and the e2 studio Integrated Solution Development Environment (ISDE) tool supports the new devices with optimisations for the ThreadX real time operating system. 

The S124 family is based on Renesas’ proprietary ultra-low power technology consuming just 70.3 µA per MHz of MCU clock speed for extremely long battery life in low power and battery-powered portable applications. These MCUs carry advanced analogue signal capabilities with 14bit ADC, 12bit DAC and low power comparators. User interface applications are supported with more than 30 channels of capacitive touch sensing inputs. Connectivity includes USB-FS and CAN interfaces, plus safety and security are assisted with on-chip support for SRAM parity checking, a NIST-compliant True Random Number Generator (TRNG), and AES-256 cryptography with chaining. 

The MCU packages are as small as 4 mm x 4 mm for space-constrained end-products such as smart edge-node IoT sensors, home appliance control, and point-of-sale terminals. 

“The Synergy Platform continues to grow in value to both developers and their end-customers,” said Mark Rootz, Marketing Director of Renesas’ Internet of Things Business Unit, Renesas Electronics America. “This new S124 Synergy MCU Group is another example of platform growth that brings ARM Cortex-M0+ based MCUs to the lower end of the application spectrum while remaining completely scalable and compatible with the companion Cortex-M4 based Synergy MCUs. Software support for these new S124 MCUs is there by expansion of the SSP enabling customers to quickly and easily migrate between all Synergy MCU groups as their needs change and still be able to re-use existing application code. We continue to evolve all elements of the Synergy Platform and build value as demonstrated here with new MCUs, new software, plus ever-growing tool and partner support for the platform.”

Peripherals for the S124 microcontrollers for IoT applications from Renesas 

Development support for the new S124 MCUs and the DK-S124 development kit is provided in SSP version 1.1.0 and e2 studio version 5.0. The SSP v1.1.0 has specific optimizations for the ThreadX real-time operating system (RTOS) and the USBX communication stack to work efficiently within the S124 MCU’s smaller memory sizes.

SSP v1.1.0 also includes enhancements for IPv6 networking and services for connected devices, BSD-compatible socket layer support, support for SSI audio and CAN communications, plus several additions to the Application Framework.

e2 studio v5.0 is now built upon the latest updated eclipse v4.5 (Mars release) plus it includes many new features to enhance automated guidance for starting new Synergy Platform projects such as presenting all building blocks of a project in a graphical stack representation for simplification of workflow and providing complete visibility into overall memory usage at a glance.

The platform expansion also includes five new Verified Software Add-ons (VSA) for home and industrial automation including Echonet, CANopen, and BACnet, plus secure communications, and cloud services. The US-based VSA products are now available on the Synergy Gallery – Cypherbridge Systems SDKPac for Synergy secure IoT and web connectivity including SSL/TLS, Icon Labs for security services including firewall and secure boot, and Skkynet for secure real-time data connectivity, on premise or cloud-based (SaaS).

The S124 controllers are now in mass production status and will be available through Renesas sales channels in April 2016, along with their development kits. An early preview of SSP v1.1.0 and e2 studio v5.0 will be available on the Synergy Gallery at end of February 2016 with final released versions available in April 2016.

This means three Synergy MCUs Groups in the Synergy MCU Family have reached mass production status – the S124, S3A7, and S7G2 families – representing 30 individual Synergy MCU part numbers in a wide variety of memory and package sizes ranging from 128 KB to 4 MB of flash memory. More MCU Groups are on the way, as well as new qualified SSP software capabilities, tools, kits, solutions, and verified partners. 

http://www.RenesasSynergy.com.

Renesas and green Hills team up for virtualisation for real time control

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Renesas Electronics and Green Hills Software are to jointly develop basic software supporting CPU virtualisation technology for real-time control applications as well as a software development environment.

Through the collaboration, Renesas Electronics will develop added functions necessary for the efficient operation of virtualization software enabling high-speed real-time control and improving the usability of the software development environment, incorporating these functions into microcontrollers (MCUs) with V850 CPU core.

Green Hills Software will port the MULTI Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which includes components such as a compiler and a debugger that already support Renesas Electronics’ V850 core. The new CPU virtualisation technology will provide support for software that enables multiple applications to run independently and simultaneously on a single CPU, such as the INTEGRITY real time operating system (RTOS).

The Green Hills IDE will generate compact and high-speed instruction code optimized for the CPU virtualization technology provided by Renesas Electronics’ V850 core. When combined with virtualization software such as INTEGRITY Secure Virtualization, which support safety standards such as IEC 61508, the software development environment will deliver the means to develop and implement with high efficiency applications with excellent functional safety. There are also plans to include support for the emerging ISO 26262 functional safety standard.

Renesas Electronics has been developing CPU virtualisation technology for the V850 architecture to enable control of multiple systems with a single CPU core without mutual interference, allowing high-speed and composite control in fields such as industrial machinery and automotive systems, where real-time control is essential.

Green Hills Software has made a contribution to facilitating design procedures in virtualised environments through its virtualization software and the software development environment.

Renesas Electronics considers a full-fledged software development environment incorporating basic software that allows efficient use of virtualization technology to be essential.

The software development environment will be available through Green Hills Software as part of the MULTI product family.

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Freescale to drive industrial connectivity with i.MX28 family of processors

Industrial-Focused Processors With On-Chip Connectivity and Analogue Features at Less Than 0.5 Watts

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Freescale Semiconductor has launched two new families of processors for low-power, cost-sensitive industrial applications. Consuming less than half a watt and priced starting at less than $6, these devices are aimed at a wide range of applications, including appliances, portable and diagnostic medical devices, energy distribution equipment, meters, human machine interfaces, motor control and industrial controllers. These applications can benefit from the processors’ on-chip connectivity and analogue features, which reduce system-level discrete components, power consumption, board size, development effort and system cost.
The MCF5441x ColdFire family provides customer benefits tailored for motor control, and the i.MX28x offers benefits for display applications. These two processor families introduce an embedded three-port Layer 2 switch that can replace up to $4 (USD) of external component cost. Applications such as elevator and assembly line controllers may use this feature to eliminate network equipment and reduce cable costs by daisy-chaining between Ethernet-connected nodes. In addition, both processor families integrate popular cores with dual 10/100 Ethernet ports containing IEEE 1588 hardware timestamp support for accurate clock synchronization of networked devices. These features are combined with many other industry-standard connectivity options, such as multiple UARTs, controller area network (CAN) controllers and USB interfaces to provide system design flexibility. “Industrial customers typically design systems without cooling fans,” said Bruno Baylac, Freescale’s director of global industrial segment marketing. “With all features running at maximum performance, the i.MX28x and MCF5441x families consume less than half a watt of power across the industrial temperature range of -40C to +85C. These highly integrated devices give design engineers a low-cost, ultra-low-power solution for a broad range of industrial designs.”

i.MX28x: Less than 0.5 watts powers 500 MIPS processors
The i.MX28x applications processor family is based on a 454 MHz (500 MIPS) ARM9 core and integrates a rich feature set including: an on-chip display controller with touchscreen for a rich user interface; a power management unit to power sequence the device and external components in the system; two USB modules with PHYs; analogue to digital converters (ADC); low-power modes for low standby current and secure boot.
The i.MX28x is suppported by Freescale’s i.MX28 evaluation kit, multimedia codecs and complete board support packages for Linux and Windows Embedded CE. In addition, integrated development environments and tool chains, industrial network protocols, additional operating systems, development boards and System on Modules are supported by a vast i.MX ecosystem. The i.MX28x is featured in Freescale’s recently announced Home Energy Gateway reference platform to support the growing smart energy market.

MCF5441x: Offering MCU peripherals with MPU performance
The MCF5441x ColdFire microprocessor family integrates a ColdFire V4 core that offers a high level of connectivity with up to 10 serial ports. Serial connectivity provides designers increased flexibility to meet current and future development needs.
These devices allow designers to reduce system costs with multiple analog peripherals built in to simplify system architecture. Analog features include high-speed precision pulse width modulators and dual high-speed ADCs.
The MCF5441x is supported with a powerful suite of enablement software developed by Freescale, including a board support package for Linux®, Freescale’s complimentary full-featured MQX™ 3.6 real-time operating system, and Eclipse™ based CodeWarrior 10.0 IDE. The MCF5441x Freescale Tower System for rapid prototyping completes the offering by providing nearly unlimited quick prototyping capabilities to help eliminate months of development time.
Availability and pricing
The MCF5441x ColdFire family suggested resale pricing starts at $4.99 in 10,000-unit quantities. Evaluation and demonstration systems for the MCF5441x family are available now. The TWR-MCF5441X 32-bit MPU module is available at a suggested resale price of $139. The TWR-MCF5441X-KIT is available at a suggested resale price of $259 www.freescale.com/MCF5441x.

The i.MX28x family suggested resale pricing starts at $5.27 in 10,000-unit quantities. Evaluation and demonstration systems for the i.MX28x family are available now. The MCIMX28EVK evaluation kit is available at a suggested resale price of $399, with the optional LCD module add-on for $199 www.freescale.com/imx28.

The MCF5441x and i.MX28x devices are part of the Freescale Product Longevity program, with 15 years of assured supply. For terms and conditions, please see: www.Freescale.com/productlongevity.

Adeneo Embedded

“Adeneo Embedded is very excited to extend its collaboration with Freescale Semiconductor to the new i.MX28 processor, through our support to device makers in the integration of Windows Embedded CE and Embedded Linux on i.MX based architectures,” said Yannick Chammings, CEO of Adeneo Embedded. “Our collaboration with Freescale for the distribution, maintenance and support of the i.MX28-based Home Energy Gateway reference design leverages further our expertise with i.MX architecture as well as our leading position helping OEMs from the industrial market releasing high performing product at most optimized cost and time-to-market.”
AllGo Systems
“The i.MX28 family of processors is a great follow-on series to the popular i.MX23 and i.MX25 family from Freescale. The integration of power management, dual USB ports, Ethernet and LCD controller make this a very interesting platform for consumer and industrial markets,” said K. Srinivasan, CEO, AllGo Systems. “AllGo plans to port Android to i.MX28 as well as offer our Smart Home Energy Gateway software on top of i.MX283 running Linux.” www.allgosystems.com
CodeSourcery
"CodeSourcery is pleased to provide professional C/C++ development tools for i.MX28 developers targeting bare-metal, RTOS and Linux platforms," said Mark Mitchell, chief sourcerer of CodeSourcery. "The debugger in Sourcery G++ fully supports popular low-cost JTAG emulators, and Sourcery G++ offers excellent source code development tools and build management for a simple yet powerful solution to development on Freescale's exciting new i.MX28 processor."
Innovate Solutions
“Innovate Software Solutions Pvt Ltd is excited to collaborate with Freescale on the i.MX28 processor family and is announcing its Swiftboard, a user-friendly, low-power and low cost development board,” said Manjunath P, managing director of Innovate Solutions. “Swiftboard’s flexible, open embedded, small, 10x12-cm form factor can be directly used for industrial or consumer product deployment. Enabled with multiple expansion and interface options Swiftboard allows users to create end-use applications such test and measurement systems with advanced Human Machine Interface and Portable Medical applications. Additionally, the Swiftboard supports Linux and comes with an interface for a 3G Module, SDIO based WI-FI and BT, RS-485, keypad, and 4.3" TFT/LCD touchscreen.”
IXXAT
“Freescale already offers the most comprehensive line of processors that are enabled with IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol hardware-assisted time stamping, and IXXAT is now adding its PTP support to the i.MX28 and MCF5441x families of applications processors,” said Bill Seitz, managing director of IXXAT, Inc. “The i.MX28 and MCF5441x address a full range of IEEE 1588 PTP applications in Telecom, Ethernet AVB, Smart Grid, Automotive, Industrial Automation and Test and Measurement.”
Karo Electronics
“The i.MX28 is the ideal enhancement to the i.MX25, the basis of Ka-Ro’s TX25 module,” said Ekkheard Meurers, CFO of Karo Electronics. “Due to its memory integration with improved speed plus the integration of RTC, the Ethernet switch with 2 ports, power management and 2 CAN interfaces, the i.MX28 is especially interesting as it is very closely positioned to the area of remote control units and remote control home automation applications. The longevity program helps ensure long-term availability which in turn serves as the basis of Ka-Ro’s 7 year long-term availability for all TX modules.”

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TI's 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 DaVinci chip to replace OMAP3

DM37x combines 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 and 800MHz C64x+ DSP for 720p HD video
Hardware offers 50% boost in ARM performance, 40% in DSP, double the graphics performance with 40% less power consumption over OMAP3530 device
By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk
TI is targetting its own OMAP3 processors with a new Da Vinci video processor family, the DM 37x. The DM3730 and DM3725 with their ARM Cortex-A8 and C64x+™ DSP core, imaging and video accelerator (IVA), PowerVR 3D graphics processor in the DM3730 and high-performance peripherals (USB 2.0, SD/MMC) integrated on a single system-on-chip (SoC), are suitable for applications requiring HD video processing or a large amount of data processing. These applications include navigation systems, media players, medical patient monitoring devices, industrial test and measurement devices, industrial vision and portable communications.

The DM37x processors are software compatible with the OMAP35x generation of processors and pin-to-pin compatible with the low end Sitara AM37x devices allowing for an easy product migration strategy to higher performing options. Customers moving to the DM3730 from the OMAP3530 can look forward to a 50 percent increase in ARM performance, a 40 percent increase in DSP performance, double the graphics performance and uses approximately 40 percent less power.
The 800MHz C64x+ DSP and hardware video accelerator enable audio and HD 720p video decoding and encoding (audio and video codecs included) independent of the ARM processor. This allows additional expansion on the ARM processor to run more high-level applications and a rich, responsive 2D or 3D graphical user interface, for applications such as an industrial personal digital assistant (PDA).
The DSP engine is programmable, allowing multiple general signal processing tasks such as digital filtering, math functions and image processing and analysis. For example, in a camera-enabled industrial application, the DSP can run an edge-detection algorithm on the video coming from a camera to detect the presence or absence of people or objects.
Key features and benefits:

• DM3730 and DM3725 are pin-compatible and software compatible with each other, as well as with Sitara AM3715 and AM3703 processors. Each device can be configured to operate at multiple operating points enabling low power or high performance modes.
• Up to 800MHz TMS320C64x+ DSP with 720p 30 frames per second (fps) HD video encoding and decoding
• Allows intensive signal analysis and processing and seamless HD video decoding for multi-mediaapplications
• DM3730 has a PowerVR 200MHz graphics accelerator, supports OpenGL ES 2.0 and renders 20 million polygons per second, coupled with the advanced display subsystem
• Enables developers to create a user interface enabling stunning 3D graphics navigation with life-like effects
• 20 percent increase in LPDDR controller performance and 100 percent increase in L1 cache compared to OMAP3530 (increased memory bandwidth)
• Provides increased multi processor performance and reduces latency

Software and support
Helping make development easier, customers can start developing their designs today with the TMDXEVM3730 EVM, which includes a TI Bluetooth WiFi module. The SDK includes Linux kernel 2.6.32 board support package complete with graphical user interface, graphics, applications, demonstrations and development utilities. The SDK also offers a royalty-free library of DSP-optimized signal processing algorithms accessible from the ARM processor through a set of easy-to-use application programming interfaces (APIs). The DSP library contains more than 80 algorithms, including multi-media decoders and encoders, math functions, digital filtering including Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and image processing including image filtering and analysis.
Support for the Linux and Android operating systems is available today. Windows CE™ support will be available in 4Q10.
Pricing and availability:
Customers can begin designing by downloading the DM3730 software for use on the DM3730 evaluation module, TMDXEVM3730, available for $1,495 USD from TI. Customers may also develop on the BeagleBoard-xM, a low-cost, open-source community board equipped with the DM3730 available for $179 from Digi-Key. The DM3730 will be available for purchase starting at $25.60 in 1,000 unit quantities (1ku) at http://www.ti.com/dm3730-prpf.

World's Smallest Flash Microcontroller Package for Silicon Dust

Ultra-small packaging expands design options for applications in consumer, lighting and industrial control markets
 
By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Just look at the size of this! Atmel has launched the world's smallest flash AVR microcontroller package, putting 12MIPS of processing for 50c in a mere 4 square millimetres, driving the trend to 'silicon dust' - processors so small they start to sit almost anywhere from connectors to leads to clothing.
The Atmel ATtiny4, ATtiny5, ATtiny9 and ATtiny10 AVR microcontroller (MCU) come in an ultra-small 8-pad UDFN package, with a dimension of only 2mm x 2mm x 0.6mm, and weighing less than 8 mg to reduce the package size as much as 55 percent compared to the market's smallest package offering available today. These products target applications in the consumer electronics, lighting, and industrial control markets. The new devices are well suited for lightweight and small form factor consumer applications, such as cell phones, toys, tooth brushes and other personal care and portable electronic products.
The smaller, lighter, faster and low-power microcontrollers from the Atmel ATtiny4/5/9/10 family also make it possible to integrate a powerful AVR MCU in some of the smallest designs. These designs may include the inside of electrical leads and miniature connectors, printer heads, and other applications such as inside clothing fabrics, plastic cover sheets or shells.
"This new package offering will strengthen Atmel's leadership in the microcontroller market," said Ingar Fredriksen, AVR Product Marketing Director. "In addition to being 55 percent smaller than any other 6-/8-pin Flash microcontroller in the market, the ATtiny4, ATtiny5, ATtiny9 and ATtiny10 devices deliver six times higher processing speed than the closest competitor."
This family is based on Atmel's patented low-power picoPower technology which enables any AVR microcontroller to operate at the industry's lowest power consumption at 650 nA, with a RTC running, and less than 100 nA in power down. These products also contain a rich feature set to execute code up to 12 MIPS at 12 MHz.
The Atmel ATtiny4, ATtiny5, ATtiny9 and ATtiny10 are available now. Volume pricing start at $0.52 USD for 10k quantities.

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ALPS Aims Low Power Wireless Module at WiFi Smart Meters

WiFi automation networks set to take off

ALPS Electric has developed  an all-in-one WLAN module for wireless networks. The module’s built-in CPU and networking protocol combined with low energy consumption enables easy setup of sensor or other device networks, such as those used for smart meters.
Sensor network systems promote efficient energy usage by monitoring power consumption, temperature, humidity and lighting, and using collected data to control devices. Use of these networks is expanding into areas such as communication between appliances and smart meters in homes, energy-saving management for corporations, temperature control in server rooms, security, disaster prevention and plant factories. Zigbee applications have already been launched, yet with an environment increasingly ready for WiFi infrastructure, needs are developing for easily configurable, low-cost wireless network systems.
ALPS has created an all-in-one wireless LAN module to meet market needs, integrating the GainSpan-developed compact “GS1011” chip featuring an antenna, WiFi protocol and connection applications. In addition, the module provides a UART physical interface, ADC, I²C, PWM, and GPIO analogue/digital port which allow direct connection with devices such as humidity and lighting sensors. The product’s internal CPU chip eliminates the need for a host CPU or development of a network stack on the set device side. These features enable easier wireless network configuration while reducing development time and design resources for sensor devices.
Due to low energy consumption and power management functions, the module is able to operate for up to 10 years on a single AA type lithium thionyl chloride battery. Furthermore, the product’s serial interface connection allows wireless LAN capability to be integrated into devices and systems not originally equipped for networking. The module is suitable for medical instruments, healthcare devices such as weight scales, and real-time locating systems serving logistics and entry control management.

The module features:

1. All-in-one type with built-in antenna, wireless LAN and application processor
   
2. Single battery operation and low power consumption current (5μA or less on standby)
   
3. Autonomous operation without a host CPU is possible
   
4. Japan certification

Principal Applications

• Smart meter and home appliance communication, factory air conditioning management, environmental management in plant factories, etc.
  
• Security sensor communication, disaster prevention management, home condition management, etc.
  
• Health care devices, medical instruments, real-time location information systems (logistics, and entry control systems), etc.

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Anders Introduces OMAP System-on-Module for industrial and medical apps

Anders Electronics has launched the CM-T3530 - the market’s most feature-rich miniature system-on-module based on the TI OMAP3530, which powers some of the world’s most powerful and popular mobile devices.

 Ideally suited for high-end industrial and medical products, in addition to low-power embedded and commercial applications like multimedia handsets, high performance PDAs, 2G and 3G wireless terminals, navigational devices, mobile TVs, mobile gaming devices, and video conferencing applications – the Anders CM-T3530 provides a rich set of multimedia, connectivity and storage features on a credit-card size system-on-module.

Using the power and flexibility of the Texas Instruments OMAP3530 - the processor that powers Nokia's N-series smartphones, the Sony-Ericsson Satio, the Samsung OMNIA HD, and other advanced mobile devices – the Anders CM-T3530 enables embedded systems to provide the usability and connectivity that users expect, while still being extremely developer-friendly.

The CM-T3530 is offered with either a TI OMAP3503 or TI OMAP3530 with Cortex-A8 core at 720 MHz, up to 256 MB DDR, up to 512 MB flash disk, a resistive touch screen controller, and 3D and video decoding acceleration. The multimedia-ready system features an LCD interface with resolution up to 1400 x 1050, PAL/NTSC TV output, a camera interface up to 16 Mpixels, and audio codec stereo line-out and microphone. For connectivity, the CM-T3530 offers 10/100 Ethernet, integral WiFi 802.11b/g, 2 SD ports, 3 serial ports, and I2C, SPI and GPIOs. Further, in addition to its two USB2 host ports, the CM-T3530’s high-speed USB 2.0 on-the-go (OTG) port delivers either power to the board or other highly flexible expansion options.

From a software point of view, the CM-T3530 is supported in the mainline Linux kernel from rev 2.6.33, and offers full OpenEmbedded Angstrom Linux distribution and full support for Windows CE 6.0 R3.

“The addition of the CM-T3530 to our line of systems-on-module is an important step for both usability and connectivity,” said Rob Anders, CEO of Anders Electronics. “Using the same processor that powers today’s most advanced smartphones, and leveraging Anders’ end-to-end range of Graphic User Interface (GUI) products and services, the CM-T3530 will help our clients maximize device connectivity and streamline user interface, without raising development overhead.”

Single chip for HD image acquisition

HD image signal processors combine image signal conditioning circuitry, a 14-bit ADC, and precision timing core for medical, industrial and scientific designs




As medical, industrial and scientific markets increasingly adopt high-definition (HD) image acquisition systems, designers of such systems must confront a host of signal-processing complexities in order to accurately capture and record high-resolution images. Analog Devices (ADI) has developed two high-performance, highly integrated 14-bit HD image signal processors: the 75 MSPS dual-channel AD9978A--the industry’s fastest-- and the 72 MSPS quad-channel ADDI7004. These single-chip solutions enable designers to create multi-channel CCD (charge-coupled device) or CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) HD image acquisition systems that can deliver the degree of clarity, visibility and accuracy needed for today’s high-resolution requirements.
Many leading manufacturers of digital still cameras, camcorders, scanners and other imaging systems depend on Analog Devices to deliver the highest performance products with the lowest power dissipation available. Analog Devices’ 75 MSPS dual-channel AD9978A and 72 MSPS quad-channel ADDI7004 HD image signal processors enable the high-resolution, high-speed sampling of signals from advanced image sensors, while consuming very little power—280 mW (milliwatts) and 530 mW, respectively.
“Until today, high-performance imaging system designers were forced to use multiple high-power components to sample image signals at HD rates,” said Stuart Boyd, product line director, Digital Imaging Systems at Analog Devices. “By integrating high-performance signal conditioning circuitry, a 14-bit data converter, and a precision timing core into a single HD image acquisition solution, designers can achieve an unequalled combination of speed and accuracy in high-speed, high-resolution digital imaging systems, while eliminating the power dissipation limitations that restrict portability and increase design cost.”

Accurate and Sharp HD Images for High-speed Applications

The AD9978A and ADDI7004 devices extend Analog Devices’ family of AD997x image signal processors for high-speed digital imaging applications. Each channel integrates a complete AFE comprising a black-level clamp, a CDS (correlated double sampler), a 1bit VGA, and a 14bit ADC. Analog Devices’ Precision Timing core provides adjustments for the CDS and SHA (sample-and-hold amplifier) clocks with 210ps resolution at 75 MHz (ADD9978A) and 217 ps at 72 MHz (ADDI7004). The AD9978A and ADDI7004 also contain a reduced range LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling) interface for the image-data outputs to increase performance and reduce EMI issues.
The power consumption of each device is proportional to its sampling frequency. Both high-resolution image signal processors support designers’ efforts to standardize their image sensor interface designs across multiple platforms, eliminating the need to change or add additional components and reducing overall system cost across several models. Additionally, the AD9978A offers pin-for-pin compatibility with the industry-standard AD9978 14-bit CCD signal processor, enabling designers to easily change existing designs to deliver high-end performance.
The dual channel AD9978A costs $25.32 while the quad channel ADDI7004 costs $48.12.

Virage aims for IP powerhouse with NXP deal

So, Virage Logic is taking another step towards becoming a major IP and system on chip player with a deal to acquire key IP from NXP.
The deal sets up an R&D centre for Virage in Eindhoven, home of NXP, for advanced CMOS I/O, analogue mixed signal and System-on-Chip (SoC) infrastructure IP. These new products are expected to be commercially available in early 2011, and sit alongside the UK-based ARC configurable processor technology acquired in August this year, creating an SoC powerhouse.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, NXP will transfer over 160 employees and the assets associated with selected advanced CMOS libraries, IP blocks and SoC architecture along with other classes of semiconductor IP, including approximately 25 associated patent families. In return, NXP will receive 2.5 million shares of Virage Logic common stock and a share of the future revenue generated by Virage Logic from licensing the transferred IP portfolio. In addition, Virage Logic will provide to NXP services surrounding the transferred IP for a 3.5-year period, and NXP will receive a 3.5 year license to Virage Logic’s extensive standard-products semiconductor IP portfolio for all future SoC designs.
For all of this, NXP pays $60m over the next four years!
Dan McCranie, executive chairman for Virage Logic, said, “Over two years ago, we embarked on a transformation that was based on several key strategic initiatives. Amongst those initiatives were, a) the broadening of our IP product portfolio through both organic and inorganic growth and, b), establishing Virage Logic as the semiconductor industry’s Trusted IP partner. Today’s announcement with NXP represents strong progress on both of those initiatives. All of us at Virage Logic are proud of the confidence that NXP has shown in our technical teams to be selected as the IP provider to NXP for their future development. In addition, we are excited about the future ability to expand our IP offerings to the semiconductor industry through the productizing of NXP’s important IP elements.”
“Virage Logic was founded on the vision that an independent IP company could provide the technically superior building blocks the global semiconductor industry needs to develop their highly differentiated end products more cost effectively and deliver them to market more quickly,” said Dr. Alex Shubat, president, CEO and co-founder of Virage Logic.

First USB3 HD video camera

Point Grey, a Canadian developer of digital camera systems has developed the first industrial high definition video camera to use the USB3.0 standard.
It teamed up with Fresco Logic, a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and sells USB 3.0 chips for the launch at the 2009 Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. The live demonstration streamed uncompressed High Definition (HD) 1080p60 video from a Point Grey camera, equipped with a high performance Sony HD image sensor, to a USB 3.0 host controller from Fresco Logic on an ASUS P7P55D platform.
The prototype camera is designed and manufactured by Point Grey for the industrial market and uses the new 3 megapixel (MP) Sony IMX036 CMOS image sensor, which features high sensitivity, superior color fidelity, low power, and no smear. The sensor also supports an HD 1080p60 mode, which allows the camera to output raw, uncompressed 1920 x 1080 pixel images at 60 frames per second (FPS). Point Grey’s own software driver provides low-level control of the camera via the USB 3.0 bus. The camera is connected to a USB 3.0 interface card on the host side which is powered by the FL1000, a PCI Express to SuperSpeed USB Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) host controller chip from Fresco Logic. The host PC uses an Intel i5-based P7P55D motherboard from ASUS.

"One of the potential benefits of the increased bandwidth of USB 3.0 is that it allows the main processor to handle compression. This means that different types of compression can be used for different applications and that some applications, like face recognition, can work on uncompressed video data for increased performance. We certainly see USB 3.0 as a key interface technology for machine and computer vision, and one we plan to integrate into future Point Grey imaging products," said said Vlad Tucakov, Director of Sales and Marketing at Point Grey.

Downturn hits as GE Fanuc splits

GE Fanuc Automation, the twenty year old joint venture between GE and FANUC, is to be dismantled by the end of the year. GE and FANUC expect the transaction to be completed by the end of this year, subject to satisfactory customary closing conditions. It denies the split is due to market conditions, see comments above.
Set up in 1986, GE Fanuc Automation serves a vast array of industries around the world including the energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government & defence, and telecommunications industries with hardware and software solutions, services, automation and embedded computing systems.
Under the terms of the agreement GE retains the software, services, embedded systems and control systems businesses globally. The company will be known as GE Intelligent Platforms, and will be led by GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms CEO Maryrose Sylvester. FANUC retains the global CNC business.

FANUC Honorary Chairman Dr. Seiuemon Inaba said, “Our joint venture has achieved great success toward its original mission, which was to cooperate on the global growth and technical development of the PLC and CNC business. Over this time period, markets and opportunities also have changed dramatically, and both companies further expanded into adjacent segments. Today’s market conditions are such that it’s imperative we pursue these expanded opportunities, and while we have achieved great things together, it’s in both our best interests that we focus our efforts on industry opportunities unique to our respective companies and that will deliver greater benefits to both our companies.”

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms CEO Maryrose Sylvester said, "GE could not have asked for better partners than Dr. Inaba and FANUC. GE is proud of what our companies have achieved together - both the industry expertise and success across our product portfolios. For GE, this change will mean a continued, intense focus on serving our customers around the world while continuing to invest in significant growth platforms like process control systems, enterprise and automation software and embedded computing as we continue to build further expertise around the GE vertical infrastructure segments."
“Our top priority is a smooth completion of transition and continuity for all customers, business partners and employees. We are committed to delivering our customer commitments in every segment of our business."

Touch screen chip maker licenses ARM M0

Melfas, a Korean chipmaker, has licensed ARM's Coretex M-0 32bit core to upgrade from its 8bit 8051 core in a capacitive-sensing touch input chip.
Melfas has many years’ expertise in designing turnkey touch screen module solutions including controller IC, circuitry, driver software, and patterned ITO panel with window lens and test system. It has shipped over 40 million controller ICs since 2006. According to market research firm, DisplaySearch, the total touch screen module market will grow from $3.6 billion in 2008 to $9 billion by 2015, with a CAGR of 14 per cent.

"Our engineers were already familiar with the Keil software development tools, which support both 8051 and ARM Cortex-M0 processor-based devices," said D.J. Min, VP Engineering, Melfas. "We were able to quickly and easily evaluate the new processor using our existing 8051 code base. The results demonstrated that we could halve the flash memory requirement using the Cortex-M0 processor, and reduce the MHz requirement by 5x, saving power.”

The deal is a good one for ARM as it drives high volume royalties.

“The use of touch screen controllers in products ranging from mobile phones, personal media players, digital cameras, navigation devices, to home appliances is rapidly increasing. The Cortex-M0 processor’s energy efficiency and small size make it particularly suited for these applications,” said Eric Schorn, VP marketing, Processor Division, ARM. “The agreement with Melfas is a further endorsement of the Cortex-M family of low power processors and ARM physical IP, and demonstrates ARM’s low power leadership.”

The Cortex-M0 processor is the lowest power and smallest 32-bit ARM processor. It offers an optimal blend of ultra low-power, energy efficiency and low gate count, with binary upwards compatibility with the higher performance ARM Cortex-M3. This makes it an ideal next step for embedded applications that outgrow legacy 8-bit microcontrollers, skipping the need for 16-bit devices.
Based in Seoul, Korea, Melfas was set up in 2000 with a mission to make electronics friendly and smart. Melfas developed its first semiconductor fingerprint sensor in 2003 and its first touch sensor chip in 2005, and early this year announced it had shipped 40 million touch sensor chips.

Satellite M2M from Digi deal

Digi International has entered the market for satellite machine-to-machine (M2M) links with the $3m acquistion of the assets of Indian company MobiApps.
MobiApps employs 63 people in India, Singapore, and the US with a vast majority based in its India headquarters in Bangalore with a strong technology and product position using the Orbcomm satellite system.

"Our wireless M2M customers are increasingly asking for satellite as a communications option to complete their coverage model," said Joe Dunsmore, Chairman, President, and CEO of Digi. "We’re looking forward to moving MobiApps products into Digi’s strong global sales and distribution network. We believe satellite M2M will be a high growth opportunity for the foreseeable future."

MobiApps recently introduced a new generation of products based on its own custom designed and patented mixed signal ASIC chip, which dramatically reduces the complexity and improves performance of satellite M2M system solutions such as fleet management, marine vessel tracking, container tracking, agricultural monitoring, energy management, and remote field service applications.
Digi expects to immediately functionally integrate MobiApps with current MobiApps CEO Taroon Kamdar facilitating the integration process with the Digi management team over the next several months.

Motorola launches high speed M2M modem

Motorola has launched a high speed Machine-to-Machine (M2M) modem that uses the HSPA protocol for 3.5G connectivity. The HSPA series of modules is comprised of the H24-Global, providing tri-band HSPA connectivity (850/1900/2100MHz); H24-Single (2100MHz); and H24-NA (850/1700/1900MHz).
The new H24 module provides HSUPA/HSDPA connectivity at 5.76Mbit/s upstream and 7.2Mbit/s downstream, enabling true mobile broadband for next generation M2M solutions like automotive infotainment systems, fixed-wireless terminals, telemetry, and advanced security systems featuring real-time video surveillance. The H24 also has on-board GPS capabilities making it the ideal solution for location-based applications. In addition, the H24 includes receiver diversity for optimal performance under harsh network conditions as well as FOTA (firmware over the air), to ensure maximum reliability.
The H24 is built in the same compact form factor as the rest of the Motorola "24" family of wireless modules to provide flexibility with a single design solution. As the entire H24 series includes quad-band GSM/GPRS and EDGE connectivity, customers can easily add HSPA connectivity to their existing G24 GSM-based solution by integrating the H24.

"The H24 HSPA module enables the M2M industry to take advantage of global 3.5G network deployment," said Shamai Wasserman, vice president, Motorola Israel & Director of Motorola Wireless Modules business unit. "The addition of 3.5G HSPA technology to the "24" family of wireless modules expands on Motorola's commitment to supporting all air interfaces with a single form factor."

It’s the tools, stupid! Microchip moves to 32bit with MIPS

Low cost microcontroller maker Microchip is moving to 32bits using the M4K architecture from MIPS Technologies.

This is a key move for both Microchip, whose PIC 8bit and 16bit microcontrollers are used in millions of places, and for MIPS, that has been missed in the early coverage of the story.

The key is the tools environment. Microchip gets a ready made ecosystem of debuggers and simulators, all of which are much more important in the 32bit space as the point of going to 32bits is to use off the shelf operating systems and readily available protocol stacks etc. These are all available for MIPS already, which is a stunning advantage for Microchip.

But there is also a huge benefit for MIPS, as there is now a tremendous potential installed base of designers who want to use Microchip controllers. This will work in two ways – it encourages and further strengthens the ecosystem and tool development as there are now hundreds of thousands of potential customers for the third party embedded software developers and for the tool vendors. Suddenly the MIPS ecosystem is now hugely viable. That plays into MIPS’ system on chip market, as a successful Microchip design can go to a single chip custom ASIC chip or semi-custom ASSP chip without changing the application software, providing an easier route to lower costs and higher volumes.

Microchip is using the M4K low end variant of the MIPS architecture which was announced last week along with a wide range of analogue peripherals to go around the core from MIPS' earlier acquisition of ChipIdea.

Industry comment to follow……

Graceful degradation in encoding

An interesting element of the recent launch of a family of SD video codec cores from ARC is the use of 'graceful degradation' in the encoding process.
Depending on the resources available - and that can be power or memory - the cores can throw out various tools and reduce the quality of the encoding to extend the battery life or the recording time - this is all up to the designer and allows systems based on the cores to be differentiated through these engineering tradeoffs.

The five cores are based on the recently introduced VRaptor Multicore Architecture, each is programmable, encodes and decodes a wide range of popular video standards, and comes with optimized media processing elements including:
o Up to two 128-bit SIMD Media Processors
o A dual-channel media-optimized DMA engine
o Separate multi-standard encoding and decoding accelerators
o Programmable motion estimation accelerator
o SoC development tools
o Optimized video codecs:
o (encoders) H.264 BP, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, H.263 profile 0, and JPEG
o (decoders) H.264 BP, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, H.263 profile 0, VC-1 SP, MPEG-2 MP, MJPEG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and PNG



All this is very interesting when video becomes a key IP block for the next decade.

Powering chips by body warmth

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, have developed a way of harnessing natural body heat to generate electricity to power low voltage logic devices.

While this won't power a cell phone, medical sensors may be able to function without power from a wall socket. Instead, they will draw all the power they need from the warmth of the human body. The respective data will be sent by a radio signal to the central monitoring station.

The researchers, with collleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research IFAM, are using thermoelectric generators, TEG for short, made from semiconductor elements that extract electrical energy simply from the temperature difference between a hot and a cold environment. Normally, a difference of several tens of degrees would be required in order to generate enough power, but the differences between the body’s surface temperature and that of its environment are only a few degrees.

“Only low voltages can be produced from differences like these,” said Peter Spies, manager of this sub-project at the IIS. A conventional TEG delivers roughly 200 millivolts, but electronic devices require at least one or two volts. “We combined a number of components in a completely new way to create circuits that can operate on 200 millivolts,” says Spies. “This has enabled us to build entire electronic systems that do not require an internal battery, but draw their energy from body heat alone.”

VIA ships 1W x86 processor

To tackle deeply embedded and power sensitive applications, VIA has launched a 500MHz x86 processor that runs at under 1W.
The Eden ULV processor has been designed from the ground up to meet the low power requirements of a wide range of industrial, commercial and ultra mobile applications and has an idle power of 100mW.The 1W power level allows a 21mm x 21mm NanoBGA2 package to be used for more space sensitive applications.
The new processor can be combined with the ultra compact VIA CX700/M system media processor, an advanced all-in-one digital media chipset with a maximum operating power of just 3.5 watts, supporting a wide range of multimedia, connectivity and storage options and enabling system platforms with a maximum power of less than 10 watts.
It is being used by:

AAEON, Acrosser, Adlink, Advansus, Advantech, Aquila, Arbor, Avalue, Axiomtek, Biostar, Bona, Boser, Commate, E-TOP, Flexus, Freetech, Ibase, IEI, Inhand, IPOX, Kontron, Lanner, Liantec, Maple, Nexcom, Posiflex, Portwell, Termtek, Unication and Unicorn.

“With a maximum power of just 1W, the 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor has finally brought x86 design into the realm of the embedded market,” said Richard Hung, Product Manager at Advantech. “This remarkably low power consumption has allowed our new PCM-4372 to provide all the power, performance and versatility of the x86 architecture to our customers.”

“The 500MHz VIA Eden ULV was the logical choice for our new 5.25” SBC, EBM-CX700 and B5 size slim PC, the ASM-CX700,” said Sam Wang, Vice-President of Avalue. “Now that VIA has brought to market an x86-based processor that doesn’t have the prohibitively high power consumption of other offerings, the benefits in terms of versatility, availability of compatible software and hardware, and performance can’t be overlooked.”

Integrated into the processor is the VIA StepAhead Technology Suite, which boasts an extensive array of performance-enhancing features including the VIA V4 bus at 400MHz, sixteen pipeline stages, branch prediction and an efficiency-enhanced 128KB full-speed exclusive L2 cache, ensuring the processor’s low power consumption doesn’t come at the expense of performance.
It also integrates VIA's PadLock Security Engine security tools to enable real-time military-grade encryption of data such as AES encryption, Secure Hash Algorithm SHA-1 and SHA-256, and a Montgomery Multiplier to accelerate the encryption process used under RSA and other public key transmissions as well as NX Execute Protection to prevent worms from propagating, and dual quantum based random number generators.

“Giving our customers the building blocks to create innovative systems and driving PC technology into new markets defines our ‘Small is Beautiful’ strategy,” said Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “With its performance, energy efficiency and compact size, our new VIA Eden ULV processor provides a way for embedded developers to add real value to their systems and push the market forward.”