mcu News - Page 53 of 54 - CNX Software

March 21, 2012March 21, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Atheros AR4100P Provides WiFi Connectivity to the Internet of Things

In January, Texas Instruments was the first company (to my knowledge) to release a WiFi chip for the internet of things, the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000, where WiFi is mostly implemented in hardware to lower power consumption. Now, the company has some competition with the announcement of Qualcomm Atheros AR4100P, an improved version of its AP4100 WiFi chipset, including IPv4/IPv6 support. The AR4100 targets the home, enterprise, smart grid and home automation and control applications that have lower data rates and transmit or receive data on an infrequent basis. The AR4100 system-in-package (SIP) features the following: Low energy Power saving modes as low as 5 µA Wake-up times as low as 2.2 ms Support for Quad SPI flash for faster wake times Low system resource requirements Low footprint host driver (25K Flash and 8K RAM) Simple, low-cost wireless system integration LGA package simplifies 2- or 4-layer PCB design Near zero RBOM […]

March 21, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Energy Micro Announces EFM32G-DK3550 Gecko (Cortex-M3) Development Kit

Energy Micro has just announced the availability of the EFM32G-DK3550 development kit based on ARM Cortex-M3 EFM32G890F128 MCU. The kit (pictured below) is based on the main board from the bigger Leopard and Giant Gecko kits and supports SEGGER J-Trace and J-Link in order to reduce the need for additional debugging tools. Here are the development kit specifications: EFM32G890F128 Gecko Cortex-M3 MCU 4MB PSRAM 16MB NOR-Flash 320 x 240 RGB resistive touch TFT display Ethernet MAC/PHY microSD slot audio I/O and I2S DAC USB debug interface, SEGGER J-Link debugger Advanced Energy Monitoring (AEM) system to monitor the prototype’s energy consumption. 2x RS232, IrDA Switches, Joystick, LEDs, potentiometer… EXP32 Prototyping area (right side of the picture) For software development, Energy Micro provides Simplicity Studio suite, which includes energyAware Profiler that can interface with the AEM system via USB, gather all relevant system data, and display real-time graphs of current consumption on a […]

March 13, 2012July 17, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ARM Announces ARM Cortex-M0+ Core to Power the Internet of Things

ARM has just unveiled the ARM Cortex-M0+ 32-bit processor optimized to deliver ultra low-power and low-cost MCUs to power the ‘Internet of Things‘ by controlling connected intelligent sensors and smart control systems in a broad range of applications including home appliances, white goods, medical monitoring, metering, lighting and power and motor control devices. ARM claims the Cortex-M0+ consumes just 9µA/MHz on a low-cost 90nm LP process, around one third of the energy of any 8- or 16-bit processor available today, while delivering significantly higher performance (1.77 CoreMark/MHz). Beside the low power consumption, the main advantage of the Cortex-Mo+ over 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs , is that it can provide low power wireless connectivity to a variety of embedded systems such as wireless sensors. The new processor is based on Cortex-M0 processor but has been redesigned to include a few new features such as: Single-cycle IO to speed access to GPIO […]

March 6, 2012March 6, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Embedded Systems Outlook and Trends for 2012

National Instruments has recently published a report entitled “Embedded Systems Outlook 2012 – Key Technologies and Methodologies Impacting the Embedded Systems Market” which lists technology and business trends for the development of embedded systems. Here are the key findings: Technologies & Architectures: Embedded Platforms Technology providers are developing components, modules, or even complete embedded platforms (software + hardware) with higher levels of integration and increased functionality to speed up time to market. System-on-Chip (SoC) and System-on-Module (SoM) benefit from this trend and some also embed a FPGA. Reconfigurable Computing Previously, designers chose between low-cost microcontroller or high performance CPU based on the expected performance needs of the embedded system. As cost decreases and performance increases, low cost devices such as control and monitoring systems now often come with more features thanks to the use of programmable logic. This type of flexibility can be achieved by adding an FPGA to the MCU […]

February 28, 2012July 17, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Embedded Artists and NXP Release The First ARM Cortex-M Android Open Accessory Development Kit

Embedded Artists and NXP introduced the TN-20764, a board that can be used with Android Open Accessory Application (AOAA) development kit that features 2 NXP Cortex-M MCUs, at Embedded World 2012. The board includes Ethernet, CAN and IEEE 802.15.4 interfaces as well as a remote CAN node, enabling designers to develop accessories for consumer applications, as well as home, building and industrial automation applications requiring different types of connectivity. There are already Arduino and PIC-based Android Open Accessories, but this board is the first AOAA kit based on ARM Cortex-M micro-controllers. As mentioned above, the board features 2 Cortex M micro-controllers: The NXP LPC1769, a 120-MHz Cortex-M3 based MCU, provides the interface to the Android mobile device via its full-speed USB transceiver . The LPC1769 also includes 512 KB flash and 64 KB on-chip SRAM, an Ethernet MAC, a CAN 2.0B controller, an 8-channel, a 12-bit ADC, a 10-bit DAC, […]

February 28, 2012February 28, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Play Angry Birds For Real with Mbed NXP Cortex-M0 Slingshot

If you’re just bored to play Angry Birds with the touchscreen of your smartphone or with your mouse in Angry Birds for Chrome, you can now bring the fun back to the game by playing with a real slingshot ! mbed designed a USB slingshot with an mbed NXP LPC11U24 (Cortex-M0 MCU) board that emulates a USB mouse. mbed measures the angle and strength applied with: An accelerometer that measure the tilt by tracking the gravity vector A rubber stretch sensor used as the sling, and measure how much it is stretched. They built the slingshot with the following hardware components: mbed NXP LPC11U24 board – 59 USD 3-axis Accelerometer – ADXL345 Accelerometer connect via SPI – 14.95 USD Stretch Sensor connected to pin 15 (analog input) – 9.95 USD USB B connector Handcrafted Slingshot Here’s how mbed describes their NXP board: The mbed NXP LPC11U24 MCU module is a […]

February 22, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Energy Micro Introduces Cortex-M4F EFM32 Wonder Gecko MCU Series

Energy Micro has just announced the EFM32 Wonder Gecko series with the addition of 60 ARM Cortex-M4F based MCU to its Gecko offering or a total of 240 MCUs. The new controllers are highly energy efficient and minimize energy consumption by including a flexible range of standby and sleep modes, intelligent peripherals that allow designers to implement many functions without CPU wake-up, and ultra-low standby current. Wonder Gecko MCUs come with 256KB Flash memory and 32KB RAM and can achieve active mode current consumption of just 180µA/MHz. Devices provide a deep sleep mode that consumes just 400nA with RTC running, a shut-off mode requiring only 20nA and wake-up time as short as 2µs. The company explains that the LESENSE function block, a generic low energy sensor interface, enables monitoring of a mix of up to 16 capacitive, inductive or resistive sensors while the MCU core is in sleep or shut-off […]

February 21, 2012February 21, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Atollic TrueSTUDIO for ARM 3.0 To Be Released at Embedded World 2012

Atollic has just announced that Atollic TrueSTUDIO for ARM 3.0 – a C/C++ development tool for embedded developers – will be released on the 28th of February 2012, at Embedded World 2012, Nuremberg, Germany. Atollic TrueSTUDIO v3.0 will bring the following improvements: Redesigned user interface that is more intuitive to C/C++ developers New support for NXP LPC1000 Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3 devices New support for Infineon XMC4000 Cortex-M4 devices New support for Energy Micro EFM32 (Cortex-M3) Upgraded support for STMicroelectronics STM32 devices Improved real-time interrupt tracing with ARM Serial Wire Viewer (SWV) interface. Execution time profiling now present information using bar charts Upgraded ECLIPSE platform to the latest “Indigo” release (3.7.1) Major upgrade of the GNU command line tools Upgraded TrueINSPECTOR, TrueANALYZER and TrueVERIFIER add-on products Supports over 800 ARM devices Hundreds of minor improvements Since the product has not been released, that’s currently all information there is. Further information will certainly […]