Infineon announces next-generation PSOC Edge portfolio featuring powerful AI capabilities

Infineon has released details of its new PSOC Edge family of microcontrollers (MCUs) optimised for machine learning (ML) applications. The three new PSOC Edge MCU series, E81, E83 and E84 offer a scalable and compatible range of performance, features, and memory options. They are all supported with comprehensive system design tools and software that enable developers to quickly move from concept to product and bring new ML-enabled Internet of Thing (IoT), consumer and industrial applications to market.

“Next-generation IoT edge devices continue to require more performance without compromising power,” said Steve Tateosian, SVP of Industrial MCUs, IoT, Wireless and Compute Business, Infineon. “Infineon’s innovative new PSOC Edge E8 series of devices use ML capabilities to compute responsive AI while balancing performance and power requirements and providing embedded security for connected home devices, wearables, and industrial applications. As a leading provider of MCUs, we are committed to delivering solutions that extend the capabilities of future IoT systems.”

Infineon’s new PSOC Edge E81, E83 and E84 microcontrollers are based on the high-performance Arm Cortex-M55, including Arm Helium DSP support paired with Arm Ethos-U55, and Cortex-M33 paired with Infineon’s ultra-low power NNLite — a proprietary hardware accelerator intended to accelerate neural networks. In addition, all three series support extensive peripheral sets, on chip memory, robust hardware security features and a variety of connectivity options including USB HS/FS with PHY CAN, Ethernet, WiFi 6, BTBLE and Matter. The PSOC Edge E81 utilises the Arm Helium DSP technology along with Infineon NNLite Neural Network (NN) accelerator. The PSOC Edge E83 and E84 include the Arm Ethos-U55 micro-NPU processor, which provides a 480x improvement in ML performance compared to existing Cortex-M systems, and they support the Infineon NNlite neural network accelerator for ML applications in the low-power compute domain.
Target applications for the PSOC Edge E8x series include Human Machine Interface (HMI) in appliances and industrial devices, smart home and security systems, robotics, and wearables. All three series support voice/audio sensing for activation and control, while the E83 and E84 MCUs deliver increased capabilities for advanced HMI implementations, including ML-based wake-up, and vision-based position detection and face/object recognition. The PSOC Edge E84 series adds low-power graphics display (up to 1028×768) to the extensive feature set.

PSOC Edge E8 MCUs offer designers a full family of system and full software compatible devices. Hardware design support includes an evaluation base board with Arduino expansion header, sensor suite, BLE connectivity for provisioning and Wi-Fi for smart phone and cloud connectivity.

As with all Infineon MCUs, the series is supported by Infineon’s ModusToolbox software platform, which provides a collection of development tools, libraries, and embedded runtime assets for a flexible and comprehensive development experience. ModusToolbox supports a wide range of use cases including consumer IoT, industrial, smart home, and wearables.

Imagimob Studio is an Edge AI development platform, integrated into ModusToolbox, that delivers end-to-end ML development capability, from data in to model deployed. Starter projects and Imagimob’s Ready Models make it simple to get started. When used with PSOC Edge, Imagimob makes it possible to rapidly build and deploy state of the art machine learning models for the edge.

https://www.infineon.com/PSOCedge.

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Microchip introduces ECC608 TrustMANAGER with Kudelski IoT keySTREAM

As the world comes to rely on interconnected IoT systems—for everything from household items like smart thermostats, virtual assistant technology and digital door locks to medical and industrial applications—the need for reliable cybersecurity on embedded systems has never been greater. To increase security on IoT products and facilitate easier setup and management, Microchip has added the ECC608 TrustMANAGER with Kudelski IoT keySTREAM, Software as a Service (SaaS) to its Trust Platform portfolio of devices, services and tools.

With security credentials managed and updated in the field via keySTREAM—instead of being limited to a static certificate chain implemented during manufacturing—the ECC608 TrustMANAGER allows custom cryptographic credentials to be accurately provisioned at the end point without requiring supply chain customisation and can be managed by the end user. keySTREAM offers a device-to-cloud solution for securing key assets end-to-end in an IoT ecosystem throughout a product’s lifecycle.

The ECC608 TrustMANAGER relies on a secure authentication IC that is designed to store and protect cryptographic keys and certificates, which are then managed by the keySTREAM SaaS. The combined silicon component and key management SaaS allow the user to set up a self-serve root Certificate Authority (root CA), and the associated public key infrastructure (PKI) secured by Kudelski IoT, to create and manage a dynamic certificate chain and provision devices in the field the first time they are connected. Once claimed in the SaaS account, the devices are automatically activated in the user’s keySTREAM service via in-field provisioning.

Security standards and upcoming regulations are increasingly requiring upgradability of security infrastructure for IoT devices. This is a difficult task with traditionally static IoT security implementations, which require physical upgrades like changing out the security ICs in each device to stay in compliance. With the ECC608 TrustMANAGER, the process is automated and highly scalable, allowing devices to be managed securely and efficiently throughout their lifecycle. It also enables easy device ownership management without needing to change hardware, as security keys are updated digitally from the cloud into the device. This approach streamlines the supply chain processes for distribution partners as well.

This type of in-field provisioning and device management meets IoT security standards and will be useful in device certificate updates needed to stay in compliance with evolving security requirements. The keySTREAM SaaS allows for ongoing updates of keys designed to prevent and protect against evolving threats and security requirements. In-field provisioning also removes the need for customisation for more efficient manufacturing.

https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/security/trust-platform/trustmanager

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Arrow Electronics launches intelligent vision ecosystem

Arrow Electronics is utilising the onsemi Imager Access System (IAS) module standard for developing intelligent vision solutions for use in robotics, machine vision, commercial cameras and other uses.

The solution reduces the design complexities that are common with designing a product that utilises image sensors. Part of that complexity is there is no standardisation of the hardware interfaces of the different technology blocks. This is where the onsemi IAS module standard comes in and is adopted throughout the ecosystem.

Working with Appletec, Arrow developed the newest IAS module, AP-VISION-AR0830-83 that utilises the latest generation of onsemi image sensors.

“The onsemi Hyperlux LP family of sensors set a new industry benchmark for ultra-low power sensor design. Combined with a small form factor, purpose-oriented features and best-in-class imaging, Hyperlux LP will be a fixture for smart home, office, and robotics for years to come,” said Stephen Harris, senior director of marketing for onsemi’s Industrial and Commercial Sensing Division. “onsemi is now able to bring the newest high-performance, feature-rich 4k sensor in the Hyperlux family, AR0830, to market with Arrow’s IAS module, allowing our customers to reduce camera development efforts significantly with best-in-class module design.”

This new module joins the existing portfolio of IAS modules offered by Arrow and Appletec.

Arrow worked with its company, eInfochips, and onsemi to develop drivers that enable the Appletec IAS modules to work with leading embedded processors.
“eInfochips has extensive experience in developing end-to-end vision solutions. This includes hardware design, image sensor integration and tuning, image processing, image driver development, low latency streaming and AI Inferencing on edge/cloud,” said Gaurav Patel, vice president and general manager of product engineering services for eInfochips. “Companies rely on eInfochips to deliver innovative vision solutions and accelerate and de-risk design cycles.”

Learn more about the Arrow and onsemi intelligent vision eco-system, click here https://www.arrow.com/en/family/onsemi-image-sensors

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Renesas introduces industry’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V MCUs with internally developed CPU core

Renesas Electronics Corporation has announced the industry’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V-based microcontrollers (MCUs) built with an internally developed CPU core. While many MCU providers have recently joined investment alliances to advance the development of RISC-V products, Renesas has already designed and tested a new RISC-V core independently, which is now implemented in a commercial product and available globally. The new, R9A02G021 group of MCUs provides embedded systems designers a clear path to developing a wide range of power-conscious, cost-sensitive applications based on the open-source instruction set architecture (ISA).

While most of today’s RISC-V solutions target specific applications, the R9A02G021 group MCUs are designed to serve multiple end markets, such as IoT sensors, consumer electronics, medical devices, small appliances and industrial systems. Similar to existing general-purpose MCUs, designers will have access to a full-scale development environment for the R9A02G021, provided by Renesas and its extensive network of toolchain partners. This will allow them to significantly reduce costs, engineering resources and development time.
The R9A02G021 RISC-V group offers ample performance with clock speeds up to 48MHz, while consuming extremely low power in standby at 0.3µA. It provides 128KB of fast flash memory, 16KB of SRAM memory and 4KB of flash memory for data storage. Designed to withstand harsh conditions, the MCUs can operate reliably at ambient temperatures ranging from -40 °C to 125 °C. The MCUs come with standard serial communications interfaces, as well as digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) functions to facilitate high-speed and secure connections with sensors, displays and other external modules. The wide 1.6V to 5.5V input voltage range enables low-voltage, low-current operation and allows noise immunity, making the R9A02G021 ideal for battery-powered devices.

The R9A02G021 RISC-V MCUs are fully supported by Renesas’ e² studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE), offered to customers at no cost. The comprehensive toolchain includes a code configurator, the LLVM compiler and a fast prototyping board (FPB). Complete development environments are also available from Renesas’ partners: IAR with its Embedded Workbench IDE and I-jet debug probe, and SEGGER with the Embedded Studio IDE, J-Link debug probes and Flasher production programmers. Supporting documentation includes the FPB user manual, a Getting Started guide, schematics, Bill of Materials (BOM), and Gerber files.

The R9A02G021 RISC-V MCU is available today through global distributors, along with the FPB, software and development tools.

https://www.renesas.com/MCUs

Written by Annie Shinn

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