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Low power positioning technology extends RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP

Thu, Jun 29, 2023

Support for Channel Sounding over Bluetooth technology has been added by Ceva to its RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP portfolio. The company said it has been introduced to meet the surging demand for high-accuracy secure positioning in the automotive, industrial and broader IoT markets.

Channel Sounding (previously referred to as HADM or high accuracy distance measurement) is a radical improvement on traditional Bluetooth distance and position measurement techniques, namely received signal strength indicators (RSSI) with angle of signal arrival/departure (AoA/AoD). It has additional security and accuracy compared to previous generations of Bluetooth positioning, as well as a low power profile, which makes Bluetooth-based Channel Sounding suitable for applications such as automotive digital keys. It is also suitable for general applications such as industrial / warehouse / consumer asset tracking, and real-time sport / fitness tracking.

Ceva said that its implementation provides best-in-class decimeter-level accuracy in complex, multi-path real-world environments. This robust, low power architecture, incorporates advanced security mechanisms to defeat distance-spoofing and ‘relay attacks’, said the company, describing these as essential for next generation digital keys and wireless payment systems.

Beyond the demanding secure vehicle entry segment and asset tracking, Bluetooth-based positioning is also experiencing growth in the retail location services segment, especially when coupled with Bluetooth-based electronic shelf label (ESL) systems.

Ceva’s Channel Sounding for Bluetooth will be available for general licensing in September 2023. The company will be demonstrating the technology at MWC Shanghai 2023 (28 to 30 June), booth N2.EMR04 in Hall 2.

Ceva’s RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platforms provide solutions for both Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth dual mode connectivity, spanning RF, modem, baseband controller, and complete host and profile software stacks. All the latest features of Bluetooth are supported, including LE Audio / Auracast, LE channel classification, PaWR, and other enhancements.

The RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP is widely deployed in consumer, automotive and IoT devices with many of the world’s leading semiconductors companies and OEMs, including smartphones, tablets, beacons, wireless speakers, wireless headsets and earbuds, hearing aids and other wearables.

Ceva licenses wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies and custom SoCs. It also provides digital signal processors, AI engines, wireless platforms, cryptography cores and complementary embedded software for sensor fusion, image enhancement, computer vision, spatial audio, voice input and artificial intelligence.

http://www.ceva-dsp.com

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Small capacity e.MMC and SD memory cards are cost-efficient for green IIoT

Thu, Jun 29, 2023

Swissbit has introduced cost-efficient, small capacity e.MMCs and SD memory cards for IIoT and smart city applications. The EM-30 and S-56(u) series are based on 3D TLC NAND and have capacities from 4Gbyte.

The EM-30 and S-56(u) series are available as an embedded component in the form of an e.MMC or as flexible, interchangeable SD memory cards. They also guarantee data security said Swissbit.

The EM-30 product series (153 ball BGA) complies with e.MMC-5.1 specifications and is fully backwards compatible. It is designed for an extended temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees C and is suitable for use in harsh environmental conditions. Based on durable industrial-grade 3D-TLC-NAND and with storage capacities ranging from 4.0 to 8Gbyte, the range offers sequential data rates of up to 280Mbyte per second read and 120Mbyte per second write, as well as 11k IOPS random read and 16k IOPS random write.

The S-56(u) SD and microSD memory cards attain sequential read and write data rates of 95Mbytes per second and 74Mbytes per second, respectively. Random read IOPS is 2,200 and random write IOPS is 1,300. Over-provisioning and pSLC technology ensure the S-56 series offers the highest endurance for write-intensive workloads. Combined with up to 100,000 PE cycles, its endurance for small data logging even surpasses that of an SLC card for the first time, reported Swissbit.

The cards are suitable for applications which require minimal storage space, for example green IIoT technologies like charging stations, smart meters, and PV inverters. Only a small amount of memory is required to run boot software or to communicate with cloud applications in these instances.

The capacities mean they are suitable for use as boot media or for data logging small amounts of data, without sacrificing performance or durability in green IoT applications such as smart meters, controllers for intelligent building management, or generating and using sustainable energy through charging stations.

Other typical applications for small-capacity flash memory include white goods, payment devices and point-of-sale systems, industrial control systems, and medical diagnostic and patient monitoring devices.

http://www.swissbit.com

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Versal Premium VP1902 is largest FPGA-based adaptive SoC, says AMD

Wed, Jun 28, 2023

AMD said that the Versal Premium VP1902 is the world’s largest FPGA-based adaptive SoC for emulation and prototyping. It offers twice the capacity of earlier generation FPGAs said the company.

The VP1902 adaptive SoC is an emulation-class, chiplet-based device designed to streamline the verification of increasingly complex semiconductor designs. Designers can use it to innovate and validate application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and SoC designs.

FPGA-based emulation and prototyping allows fast silicon verification and enables developers to begin software development in advance of silicon tape-out.

As complexity grows in ASIC and SoC designs, coupled with the rapid advancement of AI and ML-based chips, extensive verification of both silicon and software before tape-out is a must, said AMD. The VP1902 delivers 18.5M logic cells for 2X2 higher programmable logic density and 2X4 aggregate I/O bandwidth compared to the previous generation Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P FPGA.

For both pre-silicon verification and concurrent software development, the VP1902 finds and addresses bugs before tape-out. The Versal architecture, including the programmable network-on-chip, provides up to 8X5 faster debugging compared to the prior generation VU19P FPGA.

The AMD Vivado ML design suite provides a comprehensive development platform to quickly design, debug and validate applications and technologies to accelerate time to market. New features that support more efficient development on the VP1902 adaptive SoC include automated design closure assistance, interactive design tuning, remote multi-user real-time debugging and enhanced back-end compilation, which enables end users to iterate IC designs faster, said the company.

AMD has collaborated with EDA vendors, including Cadence, Siemens and Synopsys to help designers access an ecosystem of fully-featured and scalable solutions.

The AMD Versal Premium VP1902 adaptive SoC will begin sampling in Q3 to early access customers with production expected in the first half of 2024.

Kirk Saban, corporate vice president, Product, Software, & Solutions Marketing, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD, commented: “Chip designers can confidently emulate and prototype next-generation products using our VP1902 adaptive SoC, accelerating tomorrow’s innovations in AI, autonomous vehicles, Industry 5.0 and other emerging technologies.”

https://www.amd.com

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Arduino Uno Wi-Fi variant is powered by 32bit microcontroller

Tue, Jun 27, 2023

Open source hardware and software provider, Arduino, has announced next generation Uno board, describing it as “a significant revision of its 8bit technology”. The Uno R4 is powered by a 32bit microcontroller and is available in a basic (Uno Ra4 Minima) and a comprehensive Uno R4 (WiFi) for different budget and creative levels of the maker community.

The Uno R4 has the same standard form factor, shield compatibility and 5V power supply of the Uno R3, with the addition of a 32bit microcontroller with up to 16x the clock speed, memory and flash storage with the integration of the RA4M1 processor from Renesas.

The RA4M1 microcontroller is based on an Arm Cortex-M4 core and features a clock speed of 48MHz for higher processing power. To accommodate more complex projects, the Uno R4 is fitted with 32kbyte of SRAM and 256kbyte of flash memory. The Arm Cortex-M4 core features a floating point unit (FPU), boosting performance for certain applications, said Arduino. Software scalability is also supported on the new board, allowing easy upgrades for projects made with Uno R3 or Leonardo.

In response to requests from the Arduino community, the USB port has been upgraded to USB-C and the maximum power supply voltage has been increased to 24V with an improved thermal design. The board provides a CAN bus, which allows users to minimise wiring and execute different tasks in parallel by connecting multiple shields as well as two SPI and two I2C serial ports. The board also includes a 12bit DAC and operational amplifier.

The pinout, voltage and form factor are the same as for the Uno R3 to ensure maximum hardware and electrical compatibility with existing shields and projects. This also ensures the Uno R4 is a drop-in replacement.

The Uno R4 WiFi version comes with an Espressif ESP32-S3 module for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. The bright 12×8 red LED matrix is suitable for creative projects using animations or for plotting sensor data without the need for additional display hardware. The board has a variety of compatible modules that can be connected via the Qwiic I2C connector, combined with the large ecosystem of shields for Uno already in the market and allows the creation of projects without soldering, breadboards or manual wiring. For more advanced uses, there are also additional pins to turn off the microcontroller while keeping the RTC (real time clock) powered by an external buffer battery.

For makers seeking a boost in processing power without the additional features, the Uno R4 Minima is a cost-effective option. It has HID over USB capability for makers to simulate a mouse or a keyboard to create interfaces with minimal effort.

Production of the Uno R3 will continue, said Arduino. To offer a consistent developer experience between the 8-bit Uno R3 and 32-bit Uno R4, significant efforts are being made to ensure maximum backward compatibility with existing code examples and tutorials, the company continued.

https://store.arduino.cc/pages/unor4

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Low power positioning technology extends RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP

Small capacity e.MMC and SD memory cards are cost-efficient for green IIoT

Versal Premium VP1902 is largest FPGA-based adaptive SoC, says AMD

Arduino Uno Wi-Fi variant is powered by 32bit microcontroller

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