Low power microcontroller duo extends battery-powered sensors and wearables

Two microcontrollers from Maxim Integrated, the MAX32660 and MAX32652 are based on the low-power Arm Cortex-M4F. They are suitable for wearable sensors and battery-powered applications such as IoT sensors, environmental sensors, smartwatches, medical/preventive health wearables, and other size-constrained devices.

The MAX32660 and MAX32652 microcontrollers provide designers with the means to develop advanced applications under restrictive power constraints, says the company. Maxim’s family of Darwin microcontrollers combine its wearable-grade power technology with the biggest embedded memories in their class and what the company claims is some of the most advanced embedded security in the world.

The MAX32660 is characterised by powerful processing in a tiny form factor. Memory, size, power consumption, and processing power are critical features for engineers designing complex algorithms for smarter IoT applications. Existing solutions either have sufficient power consumption but limited processing and memory capabilities, or if they have higher power consumption there are more powerful processors and more memory. The MAX32660 offers designers access to enough memory to run some advanced algorithms and manage sensors (256kbyte flash and 96kbyte SRAM). They also offer power performance down to 50-microW/MHz), and a small form factor of 1.6 x 1.6mm in a WLP. They are also available at a cost-effective price point, adds Maxim, enabling engineers to build more intelligent sensors and systems that are smaller and lower in cost, while also providing a longer battery life.

The MAX32652 is a low power microcontroller with scalable memory. As IoT devices become more intelligent, they require more memory and additional embedded processors which can each be expensive and power-hungry, explains Maxim. The MAX32652 offers an alternative for designers with the low power consumption of an embedded microcontroller with the capabilities of a higher powered applications processor. With 3Mbyte flash and 1Mbyte SRAM integrated on-chip and running up to 120MHz, the MAX32652 can be used in IoT devices that strive to do more processing and provide more intelligence. Integrated high-speed peripherals such as high-speed USB 2.0, secure digital (SD) card controller, a thin-film transistor (TFT) display controller, and a security engine position are integrated. With the added capability to run from external memories over HyperBus or XcellaBus, the MAX32652 can be designed to do even more tomorrow, providing designers a future-proof memory architecture and anticipating the increasing demands of smart devices, Maxim believes.  

MAX32660EVKIT# and MAX32652EVKIT# evaluation kits are also both available via Maxim’s website.

http://www.maximintegrated.com.

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AI processing card is for edge computing

UP Bridge the Gap, a brand of Aaeon Europe, launches AI Core, believed to be the first embedded, compact artificial intelligence (AI) processing cards for edge computing.

AI Core is a mini-PCIe module powered by Intel Movidius Myriad 2 technology. This low-power module enhances industrial IoT edge devices with hardware accelerated deep learning and enhanced machine vision functionality. Aaeon Technology says it is one of the first IPC manufacturers to address the growing need for AI on the edge with dedicated hardware.

Most of the available IoT solutions are focused on connecting edge devices to the cloud. These deployments face challenges related to latency, network bandwidth, reliability and security. Not all the tasks and decision making processes can be addressed in cloud-only models. AI Core overcomes cloud limitations by bringing AI performance and hardware acceleration to be on the edge of the IoT.

AI Core is powered by the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 vision processing unit (VPU).  With 512Mbyte onboard DDR memory, this mini card module requires very little energy to enable local deep-learning and computing vision algorithms.

AI Core can be used for object recognition in drones, high-end virtual reality headsets, robotics, smart home devices, smart cameras and video surveillance.

AI Core is a companion board of UP Squared, the compact expandable board powered by Intel Celeron N3350, Intel Pentium N4200, Intel Atom x5-E3940, and Intel Atom x7-E3950 processor families. The mini-PCIe interface makes AI Core compatible with most industrial computer boards in the market, adds Aaeon.

Using the supported software tools, a neural network can be created and trained in the cloud and then run locally on AI Core.

AI Core is compatible with the Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick software development kit. 

AI Core is available for pre-order on UP Shop and will also be available soon at channel and distributor partners of Aaeon and UP. The delivery of AI Core starts in April 2018.

 

http://www.aaeon.com

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Industry support for Platform Security Architecture to protect IoT devices

Industry support for Platform Security Architecture to protect IoT devices

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