Category: Embedded World

Arrow shows Dragonboard 410c Development Board

Posted by – November 7, 2017

Arrow shows the Dragonboard 410c, a Qualcomm Snapdragon based development platform for IOT and industrial platforms. The 410c is based upon a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E (Quad Core Cortex A53 and Qualcomm Adreno 306), has 1gb of ram and 8gb flash storage plus sd expansion. The 410c supports Android 5.1 (Lollipop) on Linux Kernel 3.10, Linux based on Debian 8.0,Open Embedded, Ubuntu Core, and Windows 10 IoT Core. The 410c in terms of connectivity has a ; One 40-pin low speed expansion connector: UART, SPI, I2S, I2C x2, GPIO x12, DC power; HDMI Full-size Type A connector, one micro USB (device mode only), two USB 2.0 (host mode only), micro SD card slot; 60-pin high speed expansion connector: 4L MIPI-DSI, USB, I2C x2, 2L+4L MIPI-CSI and Footprint for one optional 16-pin analog expansion connector for stereo headset/line-out, speaker and analog line-in.

Microchip ARM, PIC and AVR Microcontrollers


Microchip acquired Atmel in 2016 for $3.56 Billion, this among other acquisitions by Microchip, grows their Microcontroller portfolio to include Atmel’s ARM based SAM Microcontrollers (which I have previously filmed here: SAM S70 and E70 ARM Cortex-M7, SAM L21 ARM Cortex-M0+, Atmel BTLC1000 Bluetooth ARM Cortex-M0, SMART SAM W25 Wi-Fi for IoT with ARM Cortex-M0+, together with Microchip’s own ARM cores, and their MIPS-based PIC-32 cores, a few older PIC cores, Atmel’s 8 and 32-bit AVR cores among other. Microchip Technology also provides Serial EEPROM devices, Serial SRAM devices, KEELOQ devices, radio frequency (RF) devices, thermal, power and battery management analog devices, as well as linear, interface and mixed signal devices. Some of the interface devices include USB, ZigBee/MiWi, Controller Area Network, LoRa, SIGFOX and Ethernet.

Android Things on TechNexion Pico i.MX7D, i.MX6UL and soon i.MX8M


Google Android Things launch partner, TechNexion Pico Pi SoM is an ARM Powered Google Android Things IoT development System on Module, the NXP Pico i.MX7D Dual Core ARM Cortex-A7 with ARM Cortex-M4, NXP Pico i.MX6UL and soon also it will be with 64bit i.MX8M Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 and ARM Cortex-M4. These TechNexion Android Things System on Modules can dock into a Raspberry Pi form factor for development and expansion of advanced IoT projects using Android Things, you can read more about Android Things at http://iot.google.com and https://developer.android.com/things/hardware/developer-kits.html

you can see the TechNexion Android Things SoM at the Google I/O keynote about Android Things 19 minutes, 50 seconds into the video here:

Toradex at Microsoft Booth with Azure IoT Hub, Windows 10 IoT Core and Windows Embedded Compact

Posted by – May 19, 2017

At the Microsoft booth, Toradex demonstrated its multiplatform system connected to the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub – the Cloud Parking demo. Toradex System on Modules (SoMs) were employed in the access control, license plate recognition and the payment system, the communication between them made only through the internet, using only the Azure services. Linux, Windows 10 IoT Core, and Windows Embedded Compact are used as Operating Systems on the modules. Additionally, an interesting Toradex showcase included their new Heterogeneous Multicore Low Power demo featuring the Colibri iMX7D based on the NXP i.MX 7 Dual Core SoC.

Hololens at Microsoft Embedded World Booth Tour and Toradex, Azure Windows 10 IoT Core


My first time trying on the Microsoft Hololens headmounted augmented reality system running on an Intel cherrytrail system selling at $3000 on the Microsoft store. In this video I walk around the Microsoft booth at Embedded World, checking out some of Microsoft’s partners including Microtronics smart bicvcle running Silicon Labs ARM Cortex-M system through Windows Server. This video features Toradex at 4:13 into the video demonstrating its multiplatform system connected to the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub where Linux, Windows 10 IoT Core, and Windows Embedded Compact are used as Operating Systems on the modules featuring Heterogeneous Multicore Low Power Colibri iMX7D based on the NXP i.MX 7 Dual Core SoC.

Intel Altera ARM Powered FPGA 96Boards Chameleon96 development board by Novtech

Posted by – May 19, 2017

Running Altera Cyclone V SoC HPS consists of a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor, a rich set of peripherals, and a multiport memory controller shared with logic in the FPGA, giving you the flexibility of programmable logic and the cost savings of hard intellectual property (IP) with the Intel ARM SoC FPGA Embedded Development Suite. The Arrow Chameleon96 Community Board features an Intel PSG Cyclone V SoC FPGA based system that adheres to the Linaro http://96Boards.org open platform specification. The board includes industry standard interfaces and expansion headers for 96Boards compatible mezzanine cards and interface kits. Unlike other 96Boards, the Chameleon96 board includes Intel PSG’s SoC FPGA which combines the performance of a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with the flexibility of programmable logic, providing the ultimate in system customization. Programmable logic is ideal for accelerating embedded software with custom hardware.

The Chameleon96 board includes a quantum-resistant Key Agreement Protocol and Digital Signature Algorithm reference design from SecureRF. These Public Key methods feature small, fast, and very low-energy solutions designed to accelerate the development of authentication and data protection solutions for the Internet of Things. For availability of additional security methods for the Chameleon96 board, including Secure Boot, Secure Firmware Updates and Secure Firmware Delivery.

Texas Instruments Industry 4.0 for the Smart Factory

Posted by – May 19, 2017

TI is displaying how they plan to increase efficiency and flexibility of smart factories, demonstrating analog components for temperature measurement, humidity, bluetooth interfaces, IO-Link to AM5728 dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 at 1.5Ghz and more.

Android Things (Brillo) explained by Karim Yaghmour and Chris Simmonds at Embedded World

Posted by – May 9, 2017

Karim Yaghmour (author of Embedded Android: Porting, Extending, and Customizing) and Chris Simmonds (author of Mastering Embedded Linux Programming) talk about the state of Android and Linux in the Embedded World.

ARM mbed OS 5.4 with med Cloud device management, bootloader and filesystem infrastructure

Posted by – May 9, 2017

The mbed OS 5.4 release incorporates functionality to prepare for mbed Cloud device management services including bootloader and filesystem infrastructure and the certified Thread 1.1 stack for developers with target platform support up to 74 targets. Since there’s been releases up to mbed OS 5.4.4 you can read more about it here.

Geniatech Embedded Solutions, Developer Board 4X, world’s smallest Snapdragon 410 board


Geniatech presents their new Embedded and Develpment board Solutions, with full in-house support and development for customized development for interested customers around the world. Supporting Windows 10 IoT Core, Android and some Linux. Geniatech shows their new Developer Board 4X, the world’s smallest 64bit Qualcomm 410 based board, can be used for home applications, to easily connect everything to advanced IoT.

365km/h electric car, Rimac Concept One with Toradex Apalis Systems inside

Posted by – April 7, 2017

Toradex shows off Rimac Concept One at the Qt booth at Embedded World 2017. RIMAC Automobili Concept One is an ultra-fast electric super car with a top-speed of 365km/h, a 0-60mph acceleration of only 2,5 seconds, 1224HP, 1600Nm Torque. RIMAC chose Qt and Toradex as they provided a true ‘out-of-box’ experience to create one of the most advanced In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems and instrument clusters on the market, from scratch. The car uses several Apalis System on Modules throughout the car. This video also talks about Toradex’s Heterogeneous Multicore Low Power and Fast Boot.

Project developers and industry insiders can contact Toradex here:
lakshmi.naidu@toradex.com
http://toradex.com

Aconno BT5 Module based on nRF52840


Aconno is showing off the world’s first Bluetooth5 module based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4 device which I filmed here and here it features Bluetooth 5, Thread, ANT+, can run for 25 years on a CR23032 coin cell battery, developers can connect through a tag connect interface and it can support USB and NFC.

Distributors can contact Aconno here:
Miroslav Simudvarac, CEO
info@aconno.de

SCEWO stairclimbing wheelchair from ETH Zurich using Toradex at Embedded World 2017

Posted by – March 23, 2017

SCEWO is a stairclimbing wheelchair equipped with a Toradex Apalis iMX6 SoM – born from a master’s degree thesis from Zurich University (ETH), which demonstrates what can be done using Toradex Computer on Modules (CoMs)/System on Modules(SoMs) in safety-critical applications. Other engaging demos included TAQ, the balancing robot, featuring Toradex’s Colibri iMX7 SoM with NXP i.MX 7 processor, a rover using the Apalis TK1 SoM with the NVIDIA TK1 to recognize street signs, and many more at Toradex’s booth at Embedded World 2017. Toradex also mentioned its launch of two new SoMs based on NXP i.MX 8QuadMax and NXP i.MX 6ULL: Apalis iMX8 and Colibri iMX6ULL respectively. The Colibri iMX6ULL offers a low-cost and power efficient platform, along with integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, targeting the emerging IoT and connected market; and the Apalis iMX8 offers high-performance and powerful graphics for Computer Vision applications.

Project developers and industry insiders can contact Toradex here:
lakshmi.naidu@toradex.com
https://www.toradex.com

Qualcomm Snapdragon at Embedded World 2017


The Qualcomm Snapdragon platform is originally designed for mobile, but now can be embedded into Interactive kiosks, Digital signage, Robotics, High-tech toys, in flight entertainment, medical imaging and all kinds of ideas for any advanced IoT. Qualcomm positions their Snapdragon processors for Embedded to provide a superior performance, low power consumption and integrated connectivity to make devices more aware, connected, intelligent and interactive. The Snapdragon platform offers development kits, single-board computers and scaling up to customer solutions, integration services and production-ready, customizable System-on-Modules (SOMs). At Embedded World 2017, Qualcomm talks about Snapdragon 410E, Snapdragon 600E and also talks about the upcoming 820 series for embedded all with long term support (at least until 2025) to provide their maximum performance. With many projects to be born out of the Dragonboard 410c and showing off other solutions such as the Geniatech Developer Board 4, the small Geniatech DB4x 410 based module, the Altierre Systems powered embedded vision real-time synchronized multi-camera 130-degree panorama 4K system that is in the Panacast 2, eInfoChips eragon 820, Inforce, Kiteboard Snapdragon 410 board with a LTE sim card slot and more. All these Qualcomm Snapdragon based Embedded products can support multiple operating systems Android, Linux thanks to the availability of the open source Freedreno GPU driver and Windows 10 support also.

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 at Embedded World 2017


Nordic Semiconductor is showing various demos showcasing their nRF52 series microcontrollers, showcasing the nRF52840 specifically, which supports all the new features introduced in Bluetooth 5.0, while also adding 802.15.4 and Thread support to the Nordic platform.

World’s first ARM Cortex-M23 in Nuvoton M2351


Nuvoton M2351 is a secure microcontroller platform powered by ARM Cortex-M23 core with ARMv8-M architecture, TrustZone technology, security technologies, peripherals and tools. The ultra-low-power 32-bit microcontroller works in low voltage range from 1.62V to 3.6V and can operate at up to 48 MHz frequency, with up to 512 Kbytes embedded Flash memory in dual bank mode supporting OTA firmware update and up to 96 Kbytes embedded SRAM. It is suitable for applications such as IoT secure connections, fingerprint authentication, EMV card reader, security alarm system, smart home appliance, wireless sensor node device (WSND), auto meter reading (AMR) and portable wireless data collector.

The M2351 series is equipped with 32 Kbytes Secure Boot ROM as root of trust, multiple firmware programming tools by In-System Programming (ISP), In-Circuit Programming (ICP) and In-Application Programming (IAP). In addition to TrustZone software protection mechanism, it also supports eXecution Only Memory (XOM), LDROM (user program loader) and multiple cryptographic hardware accelerators which are used to protect the core software and data assets on a microcontroller system. The M2351 series also integrates a 8 COM x 40 SEG controller with internal charge pump for segment LCD panel and provides high performance connectivity peripheral interfaces such as UART, SPI, I²C, GPIOs, USB and ISO 7816-3 for smart card reader.

As to Power efficiency, the M2351 series supports Brown-out detector, Power-down mode with RTC turn on, RAM retention less than 2.0 uA, deep power-down mode with RAM retention less than 1 uA and fast wake-up via multiple peripheral interfaces.

Security Features:
ARM Cortex-M23 TrustZone Technology
8 Memory Protection Units (MPU)
8 Security Attribution Units (SAU)
Implementation Defined Attribution Unit (IDAU)
2 KB OTP ROM with additional 1KB lock bits
Hardware Crypto Accelerators
CRC calculation unit
Up to 6 tamper detection pins
96-bit Unique ID (UID), 128-bit Unique Customer ID (UCID)

Zephyr Project, open source OS for IoT

Posted by – March 20, 2017

Matt Locke, Director of the Linaro IoT and Embedded Group (LITE) and Maureen Helm of NXP, one of the maintainers of the Zephyr Project which is a Linux Foundation hosted open source collaboration project, uniting leaders from across the industry to build a best-in-breed small, scalable, real-time operating system (RTOS) optimized for resource constrained devices, across multiple architectures. The Zephyr Project’s goal is to establish a neutral project where silicon vendors, OEMs, ODMs, ISVs, and OSVs can contribute technology to reduce the cost and accelerate time to market for developing the billions of devices that will make up the majority of the Internet of Things of the future.

The Zephyr Project is perfect for building simple connected sensors, LED wearables, up to modems and small IoT wireless gateways. Because the Zephyr OS is modular and supports multiple architectures, developers are able to easily tailor an optimal solution to meet their needs. As a true open source project, the community can evolve the project to support new hardware, developer tools, sensor and device drivers. Enhancements in security, device management capabilities, connectivity stacks and file systems can be easily implemented.

ST booth tour: STM32L4, STM32H7, startups, students at Embedded World 2017


ST shows their best-in-class ultra-low-power STM32L4 microcontroller which delivers 100 DMIPS based on its ARM Cortex-M4 core with FPU and ST ART Accelerator at 80 MHz offering dynamic voltage scaling to balance power consumption with processing demand, low-power peripherals (LP UART, LP timers) available in Stop mode, safety and security features, smart and numerous peripherals, advanced and low-power analog peripherals such as op amps, comparators, LCD, 12-bit DACs and 16-bit ADCs (hardware oversampling). STM32L4 is available in these skews: STM32L4x1 (Access line), STM32L4x2 (USB Device), STM32L4x3 (USB Device, LCD), STM32L4x5 (USB OTG) and STM32L4x6 (USB OTG, LCD).

ST also shows their new STM32H7 platform, taking advantage of an L1 cache, STM32H7 can deliver the maximum theoretical performance of the ARM Cortex-M7 core, regardless if code is executed from embedded Flash or external memory: 2010 CoreMark /856 DMIPS at 400 MHz fCPU. STM32H7 supports AXI and multi-AHB bus matrixes for interconnecting core, peripherals and memories, 16 Kbytes +16 Kbytes of I-cache and D-cache, Up to 2 Mbytes of embedded dual-bank Flash memory, with ECC and Read-While-Write capability, high-speed master direct memory access (MDMA) controller, two dual-port DMAs with FIFO and request router capabilities for optimal peripheral management, and one additional DMA, Chrom-ART acceleration for efficient 2D image copy and double-precision FPU are also part of the acceleration features available in the device, peripheral speed independent from CPU speed (dual-clock support) allowing system clock changes without any impact on peripheral operations, even more peripherals, such as four serial audio interfaces (SAI) with SPDIF output support, three full-duplex I²S interfaces, a SPDIF input interface supporting four inputs, two USB OTG with dedicated power supply and Dual-mode Quad-SPI interface, two FD-CAN controllers, a high-resolution timer, a TFT-LCD controller, a JPEG codec, two SDIO interfaces and many other analog peripherals including three fast 14-bit ADCs, two comparators and two operational amplifiers. STM32H7 has 1 Mbyte of SRAM with a scattered architecture: 192 Kbytes of TCM RAM (including 64 Kbytes of ITCM RAM and 128 Kbytes of DTCM RAM for time-critical routines and data), 512 Kbytes, 288 Kbytes and 64 Kbytes of user SRAM, and 4 Kbytes of SRAM in backup domain to keep data in the lowest power modes, Security Authenticate and protect software IP while performing initial programming in production or firmware upgrades in the field.

This ST booth tour video at Embedded World 2017 in Nuremberg also features several demos from the STM32 Fan Zone area at Embedded World 2017 featuring demos including a Gameboy emulator and a color LED light display system from students from the Thomas More college, Seavus smart Shopping cart, Bixi gesture controls in the car, Xped IoT systems and ST is giving away more than 5000 development boards at the Embedded World.

NXP i.MX8, ARM Cortex-A72, ARM Cortex-A53 and ARM Cortex-M4

Posted by – March 18, 2017

NXP i.MX 8 series of applications processors is a feature and performance scalable multicore platform that includes single-, dual- and quad-core families based on the ARM Cortex-A72, ARM Cortex-A53, ARM Cortex-A35 and ARM Cortex-M4 based solutions with advanced graphics, imaging, machine vision, audio, voice, video and safety critical applications also including its Vivante GC7000LiteXS/VX GPU. NXP i.MX8 supports Android, Linux, FreeRTOS, QNX, Green Hills, Dornerworks XEN and more with 10-year long term support for the chip provided by NXP.

BeagleBone Blue with System-in-Package Octavo Systems OSD3358


BeagleBone Blue is as a new Robotics and IoT development board based around the Octavo Systems OSD3358 System-In-Package featuring a Texas Instruments AM3358 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8, 512MB of DDR3 and power management enabling easy and affordable customization and re-design of the PCB using Autodesk EAGLE. BeagleBone Blue has 2 cell (2S) onboard LiPo battery management with charger and battery level LEDs, 8 real-time software controlled PWM/PPM outputs for 6V servo motors or electronic-speed-controllers (ESCs), 4 PWM-enabled DC motor drivers, 4 quadrature encoder inputs, on-board sensors including a 9-axis IMU and barometer, a wide array of GPIO and serial protocol connectors including CAN, 4 ADC inputs, a PC USB interface, a USB 2.0 host port, a reset button, a power button, two user configurable buttons and eleven user configurable LED indicators. BeagleBone Blue can run Debian, ROS, Ardupilot, Graphical programming, Cloud9 IDE on Node.js and more to come. You can order the BeagleBone Blue for $79 at https://www.arrow.com/en/products/bbblue/beagleboardorg