Items tagged with Embedded
Freescale Semiconductor announced its smallest-yet MCU, and it’s destined for the many objects in the growing Internet of Things (IoT) trend. The Kinetis KL03 MCU is a 32-bit chip based on ARM, and it promises lower power requirements in smaller devices than existing solutions. “When size is no longer a barrier to incorporating microcontrollers into edge node devices, we can start to redefine what’s possible for the Internet of Things,” said Rajeev Kumar, Freescale’s director of worldwide marketing and business development in a press release. The Kinetis KL03 MCU includes a 48MHz ARM Cortex-MO+ core with 1.71-3.6V operation, 32KB flash memory, 2KB RAM, and 8K ROM...
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AMD expanded its line of low-power G-series APUs with the GX-210JA, a full SoC design for x86-based embedded systems that the company says uses a third less energy than even its own previous embedded G-series chips, with a TDP of just 6W. Further, AMD says that the chip’s “average power” is a mere 3W. Like the recent Intel announcement about a Haswell chip with a 4.5W SDP (which, as we mentioned, is not an apples-to-apples comparison with TDP), the GX-210JA is designed for fanless designs. The AMD chip could find its way into fields ranging from industrial controls to digital gaming to digital signage and thin client computing. AMD G-Series platform block diagram "AMD Embedded...
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AMD's upcoming Kabini SoC sits at the heart of the PlayStation 4, the next-generation Xbox 720 (unofficially), and is central to the company's tablet and laptop plans for 2013. It's also a key component of Sunnyvale's new embedded strategy, which is part of what makes the new crop of embedded products AMD announced today rather interesting. The new SoCs run the gamut from 9W - 25W and the majority are quad core. The new embedded chips are as follows: GX-420CA (quad-core, 2.0GHz, Radeon 8400E @ 600MHz, 25W TDP) GX-415GA (quad-core, 1.5GHz, Radeon 8330E @ 500MHz, 15W TDP) GX-217GA (dual-core, 1.65GHz, Radeon 8280E @ 450MHz, 15W TDP) GX-210HA (dual-core, 1.0GHz, Radeon 8210E @ 300MHz, 9W TDP) GX-416RA...
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It might not come as much of a surprise, but according to a recent survey conducted by EE Times, Linux continues to tear up the charts in the embedded market (embedded refers to special-purpose PCs found in things like TVs, media players, cars, machinery and so forth). Between 2012 and 2013, companies began to shift more of their embedded systems over to Android, representing an increase from 13% to 16%. Likewise, Ubuntu and FreeRTOS shares also rose, from 12% to 13% each. Debian use remained the same, while most of the other selections saw some slight decreases. Most notably, Wind River's VxWorks dropped to 7%, from 11%. Interestingly, in-house/custom solutions saw an increase from 22% to 24%,...
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If you have a penchant for x86-based embedded system development, AMD and GizmoSphere have a new tiny board for you to play with. The Gizmo is a 4 x 4-inch development board designed for use in applications as diverse as set-top boxes, industrial control systems, and casino gaming, and it features an AMD G-T40E processor (dual core, 1GHz) with Radeon HD 6250 graphics, and 1GB of DDR3 SDRAM. The Gizmo purports of offer 52 GFLOPS performance while consuming just 10W of power, and it supports operating systems including Android, Linux, RTOSes and Windows. There are plenty of connectors on board, including low- and high-speed PCIe edge connectors, a development and debug header, VGA, Ethernet port,...
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VIA, evidently a believer in the philosophy that big things come in small packages, announced what it claims is the world's first quad-core pico-ITX board with 3D display capabilities. It's the VIA EPIA-P910, a pint-sized slice of silicon featuring the latest VIA VX11H MSP in combination with a VIA QuadCore E-Series processor. "The VIA EPIA-P910 features the most advanced technology from VIA with the latest VIA VX11H MSP and VIA QuadCore E-Series processor," said Epan Wu Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "It provides superior computing performance and the richest display capabilities allowing embedded system designers to innovate for immersive embedded environments."...
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Embedded systems include everything from rugged to PCs to medical equipment to in-car systems to game consoles, and space is typically at a premium. STEC is looking to offer a speedy storage solution that occupies as small a footprint as possible with its Mach16 slim SSD. The drive purports to burn 70% less power in 60% less space than other alternatives. The Mach16 uses a standard SATA connector and STEC firmware and controllers, as well as the company’s CellCare, Secure Array of Flash Elements (SAFE), and PowerSafe technologies, and it offers 245MB/s 128K read and 150MB/s 128K write performance. The Mach16 is available now in capacities of 25GB and 50GB. STEC Launches New MACH16 Slim...
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Designed for everything from industrial automation to in-vehicle infotainment to the financial industry, Habey USA’s EMB-4670 is a tiny (4.5 inches) embedded board that features the Intel EG20T chipset; support for Intel Atom E620, E640, and E660 processors; 1GB of onboard DDR2 memory; support for 3G and 4G; and dual gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, and six serial ports, as well as a CAN bus for even more expandability. The solid state EMB-740 pulls just 9W of power and promises to be able to encode and decode HD video and includes Intel technology such as Virtualization and Speedstep. For storage, the board supports SATA SSD, Rugged SD cad, and mini-PCIe SSD....
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Embedded computing manufacturer Habey USA announced the BIS-6630, a small, fanless embedded computer with an Intel Atom N2800 (1.83 GHz) or D2700 (2.13 GHz) at its core. The D2700 version also has a PowerVR SGX545 GPU (640MHz) which purports to offer 60% improvement in graphics performance over previous Atoms. Features of the 12W, 7.5x7.5x2.5-inch BIS-6630 include 6 USB ports, 6 COM ports, a VGA port, a DVI-D port, and support for a 2.5-inch SATA drive with the option to use mSATA. For connectivity, it also has dual Gigabit Ethernet, a 3G/4G SIM socket, and a pair of mini PCI-E slots that can be configured with WiFi. The BIS-6630 supports several operating systems including Windows 7 Embedded,...
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Embedded systems may not be the sexiest to talk about, but they're becoming increasingly powerful (and increasingly important). AMD has just announced the immediate availability of two new AMD Embedded G-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) with thermal design power (TDP) ratings of 5.5 and 6.4 watts, up to a 39 percent power savings compared to earlier versions. These new builds are ideal for compact, fanless embedded systems like digital signage, kiosks, mobile industrial devices and many of the new emerging industry-standard small form factors such as Qseven. And we get the feeling that it won't be long before embedded chips are powerful enough to be slipped into phones and tablets,...
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Yesterday, at the Embedded Systems Conference, AMD announced a new embedded Radeon GPU, the E6760. Unlike its previous offerings in this segment, the E6760 is capable of driving up to six displays and supports OpenCL. "The AMD Radeon E6760 GPU provides customers with superior business economics through long lifecycle management and product stability,” said Richard Jaenicke, director of Embedded Client Business for AMD. “Embedded system designers faced with power and density constraints now have a solution that delivers the advanced 3D graphics and multimedia features they require in this performance-driven market. The embedded systems market is enormous; it encompasses ATMs, arcade/3D...
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Have you ever heard of a DSP? Chances are you have. Digital Signal Processors are found frequently in various audio products, and increasingly, in more and more mobile products. Texas Instruments is now looking to expand the reach of their DSPs in a big way. Just as solid state storage struck new ground by becoming compatible with PCI Express (Fusion-io!), DSPs may soon be functioning there as well. PLX Technology has just announced a collaboration with TI that will eventually result in a solution that brings DSPs and PCI Express 2.0 together. The goal here is to broaden the capabilities of new designs in applications such as wireless infrastructure communications, DSP farms, digital media, test...
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Oh, the places Fusion will go. Or, the APU, at least. AMD's Fusion launch earlier this year has us more than eager to see companies embrace it. The Atom platform has needed real competition for years, and we're hoping that Fusion will be the product that finally offers it. But there's a much larger market out there than just the netbook and mobile notebook crowd. AMD's new Embedded G-Series platform is said to be the world's first and only APU for embedded systems, which integrates a new x86 core with a GPU and DirectX 11 support. The new Embedded G-Series is based on Fusion technology, and AMD claims that this solution will deliver a delivers a complete, full-featured embedded platform and using...
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Microsoft's Surface has been an interesting technology platform ever since the company launched it back in 2007. The original Surface was built around a 30" LCD, ran at a resolution of 1024x768, could respond to up to 52 touches simultaneously, and was based on a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of DDR2-1066. Despite these impressive statistics, the unit's high price ($12,500 and niche market status limited its practical deployment. Now, that may be about to change. At CES last weekend, Microsoft unveiled an impressively updated Surface Surface 2.0 is built around Samsung's SUR 40" LCD panel (a 77 percent increase), a Phenom II dual-core at 2.9GHz, and a Radeon 6700M. The display's...
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