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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23/04/2012
Infineon has recently announced a multicore architecture which will be the foundation for its next generation mcu families for automotive powertrain and safety applications. The architecture features up to three processor cores, lockstep cores and enhanced safety mechanisms to support applications designed to ISO 26262 ASIL-D.
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14/02/2012
The single biggest concern among microcontroller users used to be system cost, but energy consumption has steadily become a bigger issue.
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13/09/2011
Until recently, demand for more processor performance has been met by faster clocking, more bit width and ever smaller fabrication nodes. The introduction of multicore x86 devices has also helped to boost performance while keeping power consumption at a reasonable level.
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09/08/2011
It is reasonable to assume that anyone reading this article has dealings, in some way, with a data centre. Whether it's through the use of social networking sites, buying goods and services online or accessing 'cloud computing', the data centre is an integral part of our lives.
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26/07/2011
Moore's Law tells us that silicon manufacturing improvements give us twice the number of transistors every two years for the same cost. Another way of looking at this is to observe that the price for a silicon wafer never goes up and, for a given wafer price, we have to figure out how to best use twice as many transistors every two years.
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26/07/2011
People like wireless data communications: if you walk into a typical high street coffee house, you're likely to see customers updating their Facebook page over a Wi-Fi network or receiving 'tweets' from favourite celebrities on their smartphones.
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26/07/2011
Since the days of the mainframe and the desktop pc, processor technology has changed continually to address users' needs. Now, with mobile computing becoming a dominant market, processor innovation has become a critical driving force for change.
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11/07/2011
It's been discussed and analysed for years, yet there does not seem to be an end in sight for the trade in counterfeit electronics.
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06/05/2011
Texas Instruments has launched the first of a series of 16bit microcontrollers that use ferroelectric memory (fram) instead of flash, claiming that the combination will save energy in low duty cycle, write intensive applications such as smart meters.
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26/04/2011
Outside of the apparent ability of an mcu manufacturer to deliver the right product at the right price, with the right development tools, technical support and so on, the selection of an mcu for a new design has generally started with the evaluation of bit size.
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25/04/2011
50 years ago today, Fairchild Semiconductor's Robert Noyce received the first ever patent for the first commercially available silicon IC.
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12/04/2011
For the last year or so, there has been a continuing flurry of activity as companies introduce more variants of microcontrollers designed around cores from the 32bit ARM Cortex-M portfolio. Cortex-M based microcontrollers offer users a number of benefits, including performance, cost, connectivity and energy efficiency.
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08/02/2011
Floating point units (fpu) can increase the range and precision of mathematical calculations or enable greater throughput in less time, making it easier to meet real time requirements. Or, by enabling systems to complete routines in less time and to spend more time in sleep mode, it can save power and extend battery life.
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07/02/2011
There is general agreement that software is now the dominant part of the embedded design process. There is also a trend towards platform based design, with variants created by software differentiation, and the use of SoCs and ASSPs as 'black boxes'. So is hardware design becoming less relevant? Is the hardware designer an 'endangered species'? Time to turn to the experts.
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10/01/2011
When ARM launched the Cortex-M3 core in 2004, it opened new opportunities for microcontroller developers. Previously, these companies needed to create and maintain their own mcu core; now, that work would be done by ARM, leaving them free to differentiate their products.
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14/12/2010
Despite the allure of the 32bit mcu, 8bit micros still have a viable future. By Chris Edwards.
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09/11/2010
Research by UK universities into ferroelectric films could bring new life to single core microprocessors
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