Arrow Electronics extends IoT support with cellular comms

Distributor Arrow Electronics has signed a global agreement with Infineon and Arkessa to simplify secure and scalable cellular connectivity for IoT devices.

Security is a major concern for organisations using connected devices. Infineon provides the secured hardware controllers based on GSMA’s Embedded Subscriber Identity Module (eSIM) specification and Arkessa provides secured mobile data services with the ability to provision and manage IoT devices from the factory into the field.

OEMs, system integrators and enterprises can obtain all the technology and service elements required to provide consistent connectivity for IoT devices anywhere in the world, explains Arrow, optimising Infineon’s security features and Arkessa’s network access and provisioning. eSIMs provide greater security and reliability in multiple IoT applications, continues Arrow, and can be flexibly coupled with cellular, NB-IoT, and LTE-M services today from Arkessa.

Andrew Orrock, CEO Arkessa, said: “We are delighted to be working with Arrow and Infineon to deliver the secure global connectivity that allows customers to deploy their IoT applications easily, efficiently, and at scale, wherever their devices are in the world.”

For progress to be made in Industry 4.0 adoption, machine to machine (M2M) communication must be secure. Machines in smart factories are increasingly using cellular networks to exchange information that ensures smooth operation and improves efficiency. Infineon’s SLM family of security controllers are optimised for industrial applications, providing higher levels of endurance over an extended temperature range of -40 to +105 degrees C.

In addition to industrial use, this secure connectivity can be used across smart cities, retail, and asset tracking.

Arrow provides components, modules and software for the edge of the IoT right through to the cloud services and analytics that exploit the data generated and encompasses all the connectivity in between and the security to protect the integrity of the network and its data.

Aiden Mitchell, vice president IoT, Arrow Electronics, said: “This new agreement will enable organisations to take advantage of the latest technologies to execute connected device strategies, using secure cellular services at scale, while staying focused on their own strengths and differentiators to create better outcomes for their customers and without being dependent on their clients’ networks.”

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High-current photorelays achieve UL 508 for factory automation 

Certification to UL 508 for factory automation allows designers using Toshiba Electronics Europe’s photorelays to achieve UL approval for control equipment

The nine high-current photorelays in the series include low on-state resistance MOSFETs based upon Toshiba’s U-MOS VIII process that ensure high performance in a range of applications.

The TLP3556A, TLP3558A, TLP241A, TLP3543A, TLP3545A, TLP3546A, TLP3547, TLP3548 and TLP3549 are now fully certified to UL 508 and UL1577. These approvals allow designers to meet the UL safety requirements for control equipment, including the thermal design margin.

The devices can be used in industrial applications such as PLCs, interfaces and sensor control as well as building automation (heating and ventilation / heating ventilation air conditioning or HVAC). They can also be used for relay replacement in DC systems to 125V and AC systems to 400V, replacing 1-Form-A and other mechanical relays.

The photorelays are more robust than their mechanical counterparts and do not require a driver, so space, weight and cost savings can also be realised.

The nine photorelays are housed in DIP packages with four, six or eight pins (DIP4, DIP6 or DIP8). All packages have a surface mount option available, including wide-body versions. Devices are able to operate across the industrial temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees C ambient, while the case temperature can safely rise to 105 degrees C.

The photorelays can handle off-state output terminal voltages (Voff) as high as 600V. They also offer on-state resistances (Ron) as low as 22mOhm and can handle continuous currents (Ion) up to 5A. The pulsed current (IONP) is three times this level.

All nine photorelays in the range are available in production quantities.

http://www.toshiba.semicon-storage.com  

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Eight-port PoE switch supports IEEE 802.3bt for smart lighting

An eight-port Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch released by Microchip guarantees 60W per port for all eight ports simultaneously. The PDS-408G PoE switch can be used for digital ceiling installations to run noiseless, fanless lighting designs.

In enterprise connected lighting applications, the PDS-408G connects separate systems such as lighting, sensors, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and Wi-Fi access points over a single switch. Eight ports is deemed the optimal number for connected lighting and the PDS-408G can save energy and reduce operating costs, claims Microchip.

The PDS-408G complies with IEEE 802.3bt, the new PoE standard. It provides a total of 480W, including up to 90W for any individual port or 60W for eight ports simultaneously.

The PDS-408G is plenum rated and can be installed in any air handling space, and is fanless for noise-free operation in offices, hospitals and hotels. The PDS-408G also exploits PoE with safe power, simple installation, flexible deployment and remote power management features.

The PDS-408G PoE switch is available now.

Microchip offers an array of easy-to-use hardware and software tools to accelerate PoE designs, including the PIC18 PoE mainnboard, which features a PIC18 MCU, ATECC608A secure element and MIC28512 buck regulator.

https://www.microchip.com

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Software development kit streamlines SLAM in mobile devices

To develop simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) –enabled mobile devices, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets, robots, autonomous vehicles and drones, Ceva offers the SLAM software development kit for CEVA-XM intelligent vision DSPs and NeuPro AI processors

The kit incorporates hardware, software and interfaces that can “significantly lower the entry barrier” to integrate efficient SLAM implementations into low-power embedded systems, says Ceva.

According to Ilan Yona, vice president and general manager of the vision business unit at Ceva: “SLAM is the underlying technology that enables high-accuracy 3D mapping of a device’s surroundings”. He believes that the company’s expertise in designing vision DSPs and software algorithms will introduced customers to 3D machine vision design.

The Ceva-SLAM software development kit has a detailed interface from a CPU to offload the heavy lifting SLAM blocks to the Ceva-XM DSP. These building blocks use the DSP to support both fixed point and floating point math and extend the device’s battery life. They also include capabilities for image processing (including feature detection, feature descriptors, feature matching), linear algebra (including matrix manipulation, linear equation solving) and fast sparse equation solving for bundle adjustment. The software development kit can run a full SLAM tracking module on the Ceva-XM6 DSP at 60 frames per second consuming just 86mW (using a frame size of 1280 x 720, running on Ceva-XM6 using TSMC’s 16nm process).

The software development kit, deployed with a Ceva-XM DSP or a NeuPro AI processor, can be used for visual positioning, classical and neural network workloads for imaging and vision using SLAM.

The Ceva-SLAM software development kit is available for licensing now, exclusively in conjunction with the Ceva-XM intelligent vision DSPs and NeuPro AI processors.

Ceva will presenting the Ceva-SLAM software development kit at the Embedded Vision Summit in Santa Clara, California, USA (Wednesday 22 May).

Ceva licenses signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors.  It provides low power IP for vision, audio, communications and connectivity including   DSP-based platforms for LTE/LTE-A/5G baseband processing in handsets, infrastructure and cellular IoT (NB-IoT and Cat-M) enabled devices, imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and low power always-on/sensing applications for IoT markets.

http://www.ceva-dsp.com

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