ICs & Semiconductors

Integrated devices from onsemi support KNX and PoE for building automation

Thu, Jun 09, 2022

Supporting the KNX and the PoE building automation protocols respectively, the NCN5140S and NCL31010 are integrated devices released by onsemi to shorten the development of smart building control panels and connected lighting.

For the development of access and control panels, the NCN5140S is the first system in package (SiP) certified with the KNX Association. The NCN5140S integrates all critical and certifiable elements of a KNX device, including a digital KNX transceiver, a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller with a pre-certified software stack, and system power DC/DC converters, into a single package. The level of integration reduces material costs, said onsemi, and allows manufacturers to develop very slim and modern designs of less than 5mm total depth. 

The second introduction address PoE for Ethernet-powered connected lighting. The NCL31010 integrates an intelligent LED driver and PoE interface into a single package to support for both the lighting and power delivery needs of fully connected and managed lighting systems.

The pre-certified KNX SiP and intelligent LED driver can provide manufacturers with the latest technology and a headstart to develop complex, full-scale automation systems in a shorter time, said the company.

KNX products must demonstrate compliance to supported protocols and profiles through the association’s certification program to ensure seamless connectivity. The NCN5140S platform is pre-certified, so device KNX certification testing is not necessary. All that is needed is a KNX declaration of product modification, confirmed onsemi, eliminating the time and engineering efforts of a complete certification process. 

The IEEE 802.3bt compliant NCL31010 can deliver over 90W via PoE. It integrates a Visible Light Communication buck LED driver. This involves modulating data directly onto the LED light, which remains imperceptible to the human eye, allowing it to broadcast data and function as a location beacon for use in indoor positioning systems.

The NCL31010 and the NCN5140S are available now through onsemi sales support and authorised distributors. 

http://www.onsemi.com

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Nvidia updates TAO toolkit to simplify AI modelling

Thu, Jun 09, 2022

The latest version of Nvidia’s Train, Adapt and Optimise (TAO) toolkit, is claimed to simplify and accelerate the creation of AI models for speech and vision AI applications.

Developers can use the power of transfer learning to create production-ready models customised and optimised for particular use cases without the need for massive amounts of data, explained Nvidia. Typical applications include detecting defects, translating languages, or managing traffic.

The latest version boosts developer productivity with the introduction of pre-trained vision and speech models. It also includes key new features such as ONNX model weights import, REST APIs, and TensorBoard integration.

It is now possible to build a new AI service or integrate AI into an existing one with REST architecture (representational state transfer) application programming interfaces (APIs). The TAO Toolkit service can be managed and orchestrated on Kubernetes. With TAO Toolkit as-a-service, IT managers can deliver scalable services using industry-standard APIs.

It is also possible to fine-tune and optimise non-TAO models with TAO. It is possible to import pre-trained weights from ONNX and take advantage of TAO features like pruning and quantisation, with support for image classification and segmentation tasks.

Developers can understand model training performance by visualising scalars such as training and validation loss, model weights, and predicted images in TensorBoard. They can also compare results between experiments by changing hyperparameters. 

In addition, pre-trained models speed up the customisation process with the ability to fine-tune through the power of transfer learning, with less data. Some of the new pretrained models in this latest version can apply data gathered from lidar sensors for robotics and automotive applications, advised Nvidia. It is also possible to classify human actions based on human poses. This can find applications in public safety, retail, and worker safety use cases.

Another use for pre-trained models is to estimate key points on humans, animals, and objects to help portray actions or simply define the object shape.

Users can create custom voices with just 30 minutes of recorded data to power smart devices, game characters, and quick service restaurants for example.

Enterprise support for TAO Toolkit is available with Nvidia AI Enterprise, an end-to-end software suite for AI development and deployment.

http://www.nvidia.com

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Sitara AM62 processors expand edge AI while cutting the power budget

Tue, Jun 07, 2022

Sitara AM62 processors have been released by Texas Instruments. The company said that they help expand edge artificial intelligence (AI) processing and the low power design enables support for dual-screen displays and small size human machine interface (HMI) applications. 

According to Texas Instruments (TI), the next generation of HMI will bring new ways of interacting with machines, such as enabling gesture recognition to give commands in a noisy factory environment or enabling the control of machines by phones or tablets with a wireless connection. The AM62 processors bring analytics to edge devices at low power, including suspend states as low as 7mW. There is also no need to design for thermal considerations, said TI, which can give engineers flexibility to deploy new capabilities in size-constrained applications or industrial environments. Adding edge AI features to HMI applications, including machine vision, analytics and predictive maintenance, can advance HMI beyond a mere interface to enable human-machine interaction. 

The AM62 processor starts at less than $5.00 to bring low-cost analytics to HMI devices with basic camera-based image processing and edge AI functions, such as detecting and recognising objects, said TI. AM62 processors also enable dual-screen, full HD displays and support for multiple operating systems, including Mainline Linux and Android operating systems. AM62 processors also support both wired and wireless connectivity interfaces. 

Additionally, the AM62 processors can reduce power consumption in industrial applications by as much as 50 per cent compared to competing devices, said TI. They can thus enable an application powered by AA batteries to remain on for over 1,000 hours. This is possible, said TI, due to a simplified power architecture. The device features only two dedicated power rails and five power modes. Deep sleep mode at less than 5mW enables longer battery life, while an active power of less than 1.5W is made possible by a core voltage of 0.75V. Reducing system power consumption extends battery life and helps engineers meet design requirements for handheld or size-constrained devices. Achieving optimal power performance is further simplified with the new TPS65219, a companion PMIC specifically designed to meet AM62 processor power supply requirements, said TI. 

There is a wide range of tools and resources for AM62 processors including multiple open-source software such as Mainline Linux, to simplify the application development process and help accelerate time to market. A hardware ecosystem includes a third-party evaluation module. 

The AM625 and AM623 processors are now available in a 13 x 13mm, 425-pin ALW package. It is available directly from TI and authorised distributors.

TI will showcase the AM62 processors and demonstrate system-level solutions for edge AI and electric vehicle charging HMI applications in at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany (21 to 23 June 2022) at its stand in Hall 3A #215.

http://www.TI.com

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Microchip offers ISO 26262-compliant, AUTOSAR-ready DSCs

Tue, Jun 07, 2022

Digital signal controllers (DSCs) from Microchip Technology support AUTOSAR, OS, MCAL drivers and functional safety for automotive designs.

The addition to Microchip’s dsPIC33C DSCs portfolio, is the ISO 26262-compliant dsPIC33CK1024MP7xx family. The latest DSCs cover the large memory segment with 1Mbyte flash to enable applications running automotive software like AUTOSAR, OS, MCAL drivers, ISO 26262 functional safety diagnostics and security libraries. The dsPIC33 DSCs also includes a central processing unit (CPU) with deterministic response and specialised peripherals for general automotive, advanced sensing and control, digital power and motor control applications. 

The dsPIC33C DSCs enable accelerated development and a high level of system optimisation while reducing total system cost, claimed Microchip. They have been developed in response to OEMs experiencing increasing application complexity and the need for AUTOSAR, ISO 26262 functional safety-compliant and secure solutions for electric and autonomous vehicles. 

“The AUTOSAR-ready dsPIC33C DSCs enable designers to achieve a high level of system optimisation by implementing AUTOSAR-based applications, functional safety goals and security use cases in a single microcontroller while meeting robust automotive application requirements,” said Joe Thomsen, vice president of the MCU16 business unit at Microchip Technology.

By adopting AUTOSAR-ready devices, designers can improve risk and complexity management while decreasing development time through reusability. Customers who have previously designed bare metal or non-AUTOSAR automotive applications and are now adopting AUTOSAR can scale up by staying within the dsPIC33C DSC ecosystem, pointed out the company. The AUTOSAR ecosystem for the dsPIC33C DSCs includes MICROSAR Classic from Vector, KSAR OS from KPIT Technologies and ASPICE- and ASIL B-compliant MCAL drivers from Microchip.

Microchip has expanded its functional safety packages that include FMEDA reports, safety manuals and diagnostic libraries to cover the ISO 26262-compliant dsPIC33CK1024MP7xx DSCs. These AUTOSAR-ready dsPIC33C DSCs, used together with Microchip’s TA100 CryptoAutomotive security ICs, enable the implementation of robust security in automotive designs.

Software and tools from Microchip Technology include certified MPLAB XC16 compiler functional safety licenses, MPLAB X IDE (integrated development environment), MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC), programming and debugging tools for dsPIC33C DSCs, ISO 26262- and ASPICE-compliant MCAL drivers for dsPIC33C DSCs, ISO 26262 functional safety packages for dsPIC33C DSCs and software libraries and reference code for security use cases. Third-party software includes MICROSAR Classic from Vector and KSAR OS from KPIT Technologies. Third-party hardware tools include TRACE32 debugger from Lauterbach.

http://www.microchip.com

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