08/12/2015
Engineers can select from a range of technologies which might be appropriate for their next design. Options include ASICs, FPGAs and embedded CPUs. But there is a suspicion that, rather than selecting the platform which will be best for the job, engineers fall back on something with which they’re familiar.
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24/11/2015
As the market for the Internet of Things starts to take shape, the role of wireless sensor networks in enabling a range of new applications has started to take centre stage, with demand growing for extremely low-power solutions.
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13/10/2015
Imagine you’re driving down the highway with the music blaring, enjoying the open road. Now imagine that the sound from your rear speaker system is delayed by a split second from the front; your enjoyment of the fancy in-car infotainment system comes to a screeching halt.
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08/09/2015
Motors are everywhere; from the huge devices driving industrial processes to the ones driving the compressor in your fridge. It’s no surprise to discover that electric motors consume something like half of all the electricity generated globally.
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10/06/2015
The phrase microelectromechanical systems – or MEMS – was coined in 1986, when the University of Utah made a submission to US defence research funding agency DARPA. Even so, devices were in production before than that could be broadly considered to be MEMS in nature.
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22/04/2015
Industrial automation is still a key driver for efficiency and savings. To better understand why this is so, a few trends need to be discussed and reviewed. First up is sustainability.
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05/03/2015
With designers increasingly turning to ARM processors for safety-related applications spanning medical, transportation, avionics and industrial segments, the software that runs upon these processors has come under ever-tighter scrutiny as even the slightest error can have disastrous consequences.
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24/02/2015
European research organisations and companies are busy targeting microservers as a potential very large revenue stream for the medium term. At least four groups, funded to a large extent by the EU's 7th Framework Programme, are looking at a variety of often overlapping processor, system and software architecture projects, all scheduled to finish in September 2016.
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28/01/2015
We are entering a new era of motor technology, with many of the 10billion electric motors sold each year in line for an upgrade. Innovation in motor control algorithms and the lowering cost of embedded microcontrollers are prompting a new generation of brushless DC (BLDM) and permanent magnet synchronous (PMSM) motors. At the heart of these new motors is an integrated motor controller integrated circuit, containing a 32bit processor core, as well as revamped configurable analogue and power management circuitry. Sophisticated motor control algorithms – such as field oriented control (FOC) – running on the processor core remove the need for external sensors, thereby reducing overall system component count.
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09/12/2014
It's been a busy few months for Steve Whalley. Having retired from Intel after 28 years, where his last post was director of sensing, Whalley is now chief strategy officer for the MEMS Industry Group (MIG), where he is leading efforts to prepare the MEMS and sensors ecosystem for what is anticipated to be a decade of explosive growth.
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04/12/2014
An 8 or 16 bit CPU may be ideal for your application at present. However, to stay competitive, you need to differentiate your product with continuous enhancements, including new features, faster speeds, improved product specifications and reduced cost.
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09/09/2014
Having embraced the industrial market with its Sitara AM335x range of processors – a range that included the 1GHz, 2000MIPS AM3358, which is at the heart of the BeagleBone Black development platform – Texas Instruments (TI) has tailored its latest family, the Sitara AM437x, to further suit industrial demands.
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22/04/2014
MIPS Technologies has a long history of developing microprocessor cores for the embedded systems sector. A pioneer of 32bit and, more recently, 64bit cores, the company changed its business model some time ago from being a hardware provider to developing and selling IP.
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28/01/2014
It's not too long ago since the 'go to' microcontroller for electronics designers was a humble 8bit device, often featuring the 8051 core. But times are changing, as 32bit MCUs become the device of choice and 8bit parts begin to be phased out.
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28/01/2014
Nextivity, which makes cellular repeaters to boost indoor signal coverage, has already developed two generations of chips for its Cel-Fi signal booster products. Its latest device, the Cel-Fi RS3xx, supports the Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless standard.
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10/12/2013
Like the carbon nanotubes featured in this issue's Cover Story, MEMS is often regarded as a technology of the future.
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10/09/2013
Although many connected devices are already available, there is some way to go to unlock the potential of the internet of things (IoT).
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11/06/2013
Today's applications for MEMS are hugely varied. They range from accelerometers in automotive airbag deployment systems, detecting the rapid negative acceleration of the vehicle, to inkjet printer heads, reacting to patterns of heat from electric current by dispensing tiny droplets of ink at precise locations to form the image on the paper. They are also seen in smartphones, measuring the rotation of the device to create an intuitive user interface.
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23/04/2013
When ARM launched the Cortex-M0 core in February 2009, it had a particular market sector in mind.
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23/04/2013
Designing loop powered field instruments with a 4 to 20mA analogue output and a HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) interface within the required power budget can be challenging.
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12/02/2013
Despite their sophistication, microcontrollers are increasingly found in products where they are used to accomplish relatively simple tasks.
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28/09/2012
The launch of the AMD Opteron 6200 and 4200 Series Embedded Processors has delivered two 'firsts' for demanding multithreaded embedded applications: the first 16 core x86 embedded processor and the lowest power server processor. The enhancements provided by the Bulldozer architecture provide embedded systems developers with improved performance, while meeting tight power budgets at a competitive cost.
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11/09/2012
For a number of reasons, 8bit mcus remain popular in a range of applications – one major reason is simply cost. But while 8 and 16bit mcus still comprise a significant part of total demand, some mcu developers are beginning to plan for a 32bit world.
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11/09/2012
The progression towards more powerful microcontrollers (mcus) shows no sign of abating. Indeed, while the traditional 8bit market holds steady in size, sales of more powerful 32bit processors are growing at a healthy rate.
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12/06/2012
Micro electromechanical systems, or MEMS, have been around for years. But despite the fact that the technology now plays a central role in a range of applications, it isn't what you might term a 'star'; in the Oscars, it might be a candidate for best supporting actor.
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