EmbeddedCraft News Updates

Freescale announced new microcontroller for smart meter design
26-June-2010

Freescale has released three new microcontrollers for electricity and flow meters design

Solutions for polyphone electricity meters using the MCF51EM256:

    * Features a 32-bit ColdFire V1 MCU core with multiply accumulate unit
    * Includes a poly-phase software and hardware reference design for U.S. 110 volt and EMEA/ASIA 234 volt
    * Pre-certified toward popular standards such as International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
    * Four integrated 16-bit SAR ADC modules and a programmable delay block for phase error compensation
      enable 3-phase energy measurement
    * Independent real time clock with calendaring and tamper detection capability
    * Flexible LCD controller can run in ultra-low power modes, and support up to 288 segments

Solutions for low-cost single phase electricity meters and energy monitoring using the MC9S08LH64

    * Features the 8-bit S08 core
    * Low cost single-phase power meter solution with flexible, low-power integrated LCD driver
    * Embedded ultra low power oscillator allows accurate time base in low power modes
    * Integrated 16-bit SAR ADC can drive a low-cost energy measurement or be used for energy monitoring
    * Cost-optimized single phase electricity meter reference design available on request

Solutions for single phase electricity, gas and water flow meters using the MC9S08GW64

    * Features the 8-bit S08 core
    * Integrated gas and water metering pulse counter provides automatic sensor decoding and flow management while the
      product is in stop mode, critical for flow meter applications
    * Electricity metering analog front end with two independent 16-bit SAR ADCs and a programmable delay block for phase error
      compensation
    * Multiple reference hardware and software reference designs in development, including a single-phase electricity meter with
      integrated AFE, as well as gas and water flow meter reference design.

ST announced first SerDes IP on 32nm silicon
25-May-2010

ST has announced a new ASIC for networking applications build on 32-nanometer (nm) technology platform.
This is industry’s first Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) IP available in 32nm ‘bulk’ silicon.
ST’s 32LPH (Low-Power High-performance) design platform for networking applications supports up to 10 metallization layers to increase routing efficiency. The platform is based on the 32nm High-K Metal Gate process developed within the framework of the ISDA alliance, but also incorporates specific IP and devices from ST, such as embedded DRAM with 10-Mbit per square millimeter density and Ternary Content Address Memory (TCAM).

A SerDes (Serializer-Deserializer) is normally integrated multiple times (often up to 200) in a single ASIC chip. It enables serial communication between:

    * ICs, or ASICs, on the same electronic printed-circuit board (Chip-to-Chip);
    * ASICs and the Optical Module, which links to remote equipment (Chip-To-Module);
    * ASICs and Physical Interface Module (Chip-To-Module); or
    * ASICs and the system backplane - the backplane is the internal physical rack inside equipment in which all the system
      cards are mounted.

Dual ARM Cortex-A9 core in SPEAr1300 from ST
28-May-2010

SPEAr1300 will have dual ARM Cortex-A9 core, both core run at 600 Mhz. ST has added DDR3 RAM. This core is implemented on ST’s low-power 55nm HCMOS (high-speed CMOS) process technology.
This core should be idle for embedded network application. ( SPEAr > Structured Processor Enhanced Architecture)

Key features of the new SPEAr1300 architecture include:
    * Dual ARM Cortex-A9 cores, running at 600MHz for 3000 DMIPS equivalent
    * 64-bit AXI (AMBA3) bus Network-on-Chip technology
    * DRAM and L2 cache with Error Correction Code (ECC)
    * 533MHz 32-bit DDR3 memory controllers with ECC; 16-bit DDR2 also supported
    * Accelerator coherence port
    * Gigabit Ethernet
    * PCIe 2.0 supporting 5 GT/s (Gigatransfers/second)
    * SATA II 3 Gbit/s
    * USB 2.0
    * 256-bit key hardware encryption/decryption
    * 1.3 million gates of configurable logic

Microchip is very large in 8 bit domain. They are now introducing development tools based on mTouch Technology. In SID (Society for Information Display) show Seattle microchip has shown mTouch Projected Capacitive Development Kit today and PIC16F707 8-bit microcontroller. PIC16F707 has two Capacitive Sensing Module and this controller belong to nanoWatt XLP family. The mTouch Projected Capacitive Development Kit is part # DM160211, and is available from microchipdirect sales. It includes a 3.5 sensor mounted on a sensor board, a projected-capacitive board with the PIC16F707 MCU and fully functional firmware. The kit enables users to connect sensors to up to 24 channels, without modifying the firmware.

This MCU is available today for just $0.99 each in volume. Price of development kit is $119.99 as quoted on microchipdirect.

Touch sensing is alternative to traditional push button switch. This can work on many surface like Glass, plastic, metal.

Imbuent has announced Embedded Training Ludhiana 2010
20-May-2010

Imbuent is conducting Embedded System Training Program in Ludhiana, Punjab (INDIA). This program is for engineering college students who are pursuing B.E /B.Tech in different colleges. Imbuent is conducting training programs of six weeks and six month duration. In six weeks training program covers 8051 with practical experiments. During training program students can make a project based on 8051. This training program will start from 8 and 15 June 2010. Imbuent also conduct training program on Embedded Linux and ARM Processor.