Microchip Announces MGC3130 3D Gesture Controller Featuring GestIC Technology

Microchip Technology has recently announced the MGC3130, the world’s first electrical-field (E-field)-based 3D gesture controller based on Microchip’s patented GestIC. This technology allows you to use hand gestures to control a computer with the accuracy of a mouse. The end result looks somewhat similar to what is done with the Leap Motion controller but the range is shorter as you need to be within 15cm of the surface with the electrodes. However, I would suspect this technology to be cheaper and consume less power. The picture above is the development kit with MGC3130 chipset at the top center of the board. With a power consumption as low as 150 microwatts in active sensing state, the MGC3130 enables always-on 3D gesture recognition (even for battery powered devices). The power consumption is up to 90% lower than camera-based gesture systems. Here are MGC3130 key features: 0 (touch) to 15 cm detection range […]

ISEE is Working on IGEPv5 Board with TI OMAP 5 and Needs Your Feedback

ISEE IGEPv2 is a low cost development board based on TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) that is relatively popular with the development community, used by Free Electrons for their embedded Linux training courses, and part of a List of 39 Low Cost Linux Friendly Boards and Products I published earlier this year. Yesterday, Michael Opdenacker,  founder of Free Electrons, wrote a blog post saying ISEE was working on IGEPv5 development board based on Texas Instruments OMAP5 dual core Cortex A15 processor that can run up to 2 GHz, supports DDR3 RAM, full HD 3D recording, and 4 displays and cameras simultaneously among other things. This is still early development and the board exact features have not been defined yet. ISEE is actually looking for the community feedback to provide the best board possible and you can leave your inputs and expectations by commenting on Free Electrons blog. You could have a […]

Infineon Unveils Low Cost XMC4500 Relax & Relax Lite Kits For Cortex M4 XMC4500 MCUs

Infineon XMC4500 micro-controller family is based on ARM Cortex-M4 core @ 120 MHz, comes with 128 to 160 KB SRAM, 512 KB to 1 MB “Program Memory” as well as interfaces & peripherals, such as DMA, Ethernet, USB, ADC, DAC, SPI, I2C, I2S, UART and more. They are specifically designed for industrial applications supporting temperatures up to 125°C. The family was announced at Embedded World 2012 in February, and mass production started in May. This week at Electronica 2012, the company announced two low cost development kits for XMC4500 MCU: XMC4500 Relax Lite Kit (10 Euros): XMC4500 Microcontroller (ARM® Cortex™-M4F based) Detachable on-board debugger Power over USB ESD and reverse current protection 2 x user button and 2 x user LED 4 x SPI-Master, 3x I2C, 3 x I2S, 3 x UART, 2 x CAN, 17 x ADC (12 bit), 2 x DAC, 31x PMW mapped on 2 Pin Headers […]

Kontron ULP-COM-sAMX6i – Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual and Quad Computers on Module

Freescale i.MX6 series was first announced in January 2011, and there have been delays due to problem with the silicon, but now the i.MX6 processors are finally in mass production, and lots of different products are using this SoC. The latest product I found is ULP-COM-sAMX6i by Kontron which is a series of computers on module based on ULP-COM (Ultra Low Power) standard featuring Freescale i.MX6 solo, dual and quad processors. Those commercial and industrial grade modules target markets such as transportation, medical and military. Here are the technical specifications of the modules: CPU – Freescale i.MX 6 Single, Dual and Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9 @ 800 MHz (Industrial grade), 1 GHz and 1.2 GHz System Memory – Up to 2 GB DDR3 Storage – Optional onBoard NAND/eMMC up to 64GB Graphics / Video – Dual Display, HD 1080p Decode/Encode and 2D/3D acceleration Video Output Resolution Parallel LCD 18/24 bit […]

NXP Launches Cortex M0+ LPC800 MCU and $15 LPC812-LPCXpresso Board

Following ARM Cortex M0+ announcement in March 2012, NXP Semiconductors has just announced the LPC800, tiny 32-bit MCUs based on Cortex M0+ core @ 30 MHz designed to replace 8-bit MCUs, together with LPCXpresso development board for the LPC800. The MCUs come with 1 to 4KB SRAM, 4 to 16 KB Flash, several serial interfaces and are available in SO20, TSSOP20, TSSOP16 and even DIP8 packages. Here are the key features of NXP new ultra low power 32-bit MCU family: ARM Cortex-M0+processor up to 30 MHz, software compatible with Cortex M0, M3 and M4 cores Memories: 4 to 16 kB Flash (with 64 Byte page size) 1 to 4 kB SRAM Serial Peripherals: Up to 3 USART interfaces Up to 2 SPI controllers  1x I2C-bus interface Timers: Multiple-channel multi-rate timer (MRT) State Configurable Timer (SCT) Self Wake-up Timer (WKT) clocked from either the IRC or a low-power clock source Windowed […]

Texas Instruments OMAP 5 Cortex A15 Systems-on-Module Galore

Today Texas Instruments published a press release to announce partners 6 company had worked to design and manufactures systems-on-module based on the dual core Cortex A15 OMAP 5 SoC and that those would be on display at Electronica Trade Faire this week (13-16 October) in Munich. Embedded++ EPP-Pico-OMAP5430 This solution is actually a Pico-ITX board based on OMAP5430 with 2 GB LP-DDR2, USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connectivity (1x USB 3.0, 3x USB 2.0),  up to 16 GB eMMC storage, a SATA port, a 100Mb Ethernet port , UART, RS-323 & SPI ports, GPIOs, DVI and LVDS outputs, a serial camera input port, a micro SD card socket, Murata WiLink 8.0 connectivity solution (Wi-Fi, GNSS, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth v4.0 and FM technologies) and a built-in battery charger (1-cell Li-Ion). The company provides Linux and Android 4.1 BSP. Check the product page for a few more details. GreenBase GK-5432 GK-5432 is a computer on […]

Google Unveils $199 Acer C7 Chromebook Powered by Intel Celeron 847

After the new (ARM based) Samsung Chromebook released last month, Google announced the Acer C7 Chromebook based on an Intel Celeron processor at a cheaper price ($199 vs $249), but at the cost of shorter battery life and the addition of a fan. Beside the Celeron processor @ 1.1 GHz, the new Acer C7 Chromebook comes with 2 GB RAM, a 320 GB hard drive, features a 11,6″ display, weights 1.3 kg and the 37Wh battery can last for  over 3.5 hours. Other features include Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth. The Acer Chromebook comes with 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI & VGA video outputs, a 2-in-1 card reader, a webcam, built-in stereo speaker and audio jacks for headphones and microphones. Whereas the Exynos 5250 can boot in less than 10 seconds (Thanks partialy to the SSD), the new Acer Chromebook boots up in 18 seconds which is not too bad.  Google will […]

Jesurun Xplus H25 Mini PCs with Rotating HDMI Port, DLNA Support

Jesurun Xplus H25 mini PCs are typical Android 4.0 AllWinner A10 and Rockchip RK3066 mini PCs, expect for one slight mechanical difference: The HDMI male port can rotate and possibly allow the mini PC to be inserted directly into the TV in case where other may not. Of course, one option could always be to buy a cheap HDMI rotating adapter or an HDMI cable to connect the device, but I find having this option within the device is neater. Let’s look at the specs of the single core version: SoC – AllWinner A10 with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + TF card slot USB – 1x USB 2.0 OTGX + 1x  USB HOST + 1x mini USB HOST WiFi – 802.11b/g/n Video Container Formats – AVI, MKV, TS, TP, TRP, M2TS, MPG, MP4, M4V, MOV, VOB, MVC(3D) ISO, IFO, DAT, WMV, ASF/RM, […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC