IoT

SoCs now support Bluetooth mesh standard

Mon, Nov 05, 2018

The addition of the Bluetooth mesh networking standard to the RSL10 Bluetooth 5 Radio SoCs, introduces mesh networking and new development support, says ON Semiconductor.

Standardised Bluetooth mesh networking is now supported with the ON Semiconductor Mesh release, enabling many-to-many device communications. Device manufacturers can deploy large-scale, low-power Bluetooth mesh networks for smart homes, building automation and asset tracking.

The ON Semiconductor RSL10 Mesh release is claimed to have the industry’s lowest power consumption. It consumes just 62.5nW in deep sleep mode and seven milliwatts (mW) peak receive power to preserve battery life. The RSL10 radio’s energy efficiency was recently validated by the EEMBC’s ULPMark where it became the first device to break 1,000 ULP Marks, and produced Core Profile scores more than twice those of the previous industry leader, reports ON Semiconductor.

Prototyping and testing of Bluetooth Low Energy peripherals for node-to-node and mesh connectivity is now easier with the RSL10 USB Dongle. ON Semiconductor’s BLE Explorer software applications and the RSL10 USB Dongle enables developers to scan, connect, and wirelessly interact with prototypes while monitoring and logging behaviour.

The RSL10 Bluetooth Mesh package is available now.

ON Semiconductor supplies energy efficient, power management, analogue, sensors, logic, timing, connectivity, discrete, SoC and custom devices. The company’s products help engineers in automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, medical, aerospace and defence applications. ON Semiconductor has a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centres in key markets throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions.

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IP innovates with visually lossless image compression for GPUs

Fri, Nov 02, 2018

Providing a reduction in memory footprint, Imagination Technologies has announced PowerVR PVRIC4 technology which provides cost savings for memory and bandwidth-constrained devices such as DTVs, smartphones and tablets.

The company explains that its new generation of powerful image compression technology will enable SoC to reduce costs without a discernable loss of image quality. PVRIC4 enables random-access visually lossless image compression, ensuring bandwidth and memory footprint savings of at least 50 per cent, confirms Imagination, and enables systems to overcome performance bandwidth constraints.

PVRIC4 is provided as a standalone IP block for SoC manufacturers, already used by partners.

PVRIC4 features a dual-pipeline framebuffer compression engine. A new lossy pipeline, used only if the lossless pipeline does not achieve 50 per cent compression, ensures that even difficult to compress ‘noisy’ images are compressed with the highest fidelity. A decision logic block determines which output should be used to guarantee the compression ratio, and highly tuned algorithms ensure the image quality change is imperceptible. The hybrid solution offers SoC manufacturers high fidelity ensuring bandwidth and frame buffer allocation savings on graphics and video content, says the company, all performed in hardware and achieved without any performance overhead.

PVRIC4’s bandwidth savings translate into better battery life and cost savings for system manufacturers. RAM and bandwidth can be freed for other uses, such as enabling simultaneous fast 5G downloads while the GPU is in use, or a reduction in the number of DRAM devices used in the system.

PVRIC4 will be available as a feature in next-generation PowerVR GPUs and is available for licensing now as a standalone IP block.

Imagination Technologies provides a range of silicon IP (intellectual property) including key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics.

Imagination Technologies was acquired in 2017 by Canyon Bridge, a California-headquartered, global private equity investment fund.

http://www.imgtec.com

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Microcontroller secures updates for the connected car

Thu, Nov 01, 2018

Large on-chip memory and support for secure over the air (OTA) updating of electronic control unit (ECU) software lets vehicle manufacturers streamline maintenance using the latest addition, the SPC58NH92x microcontrollers, says STMicroelectronics.

The EVITA (e-safety vehicle intrusion protected applications) -compliant hardware security module keeps connected cars and occupants safe, says STMicro. Being EVITA Full compliant, it implements industry-leading attack prevention, detection, and containment techniques, adds the company.

As critical vehicle powertrain, body, chassis, and infotainment features increasingly become defined by software, securely delivering updates such as fixes and option packs OTA are cost-efficient and convenient. The SPC58 H has been added to the Chorus series of automotive microcontrollers. It has three high-performance processor cores, more than 1.2Mbyte RAM and powerful on-chip peripherals, and can run multiple applications concurrently to allow more flexible and cost-effective vehicle-electronics architectures.

Two independent Ethernet ports provide high-speed connectivity between multiple Chorus chips throughout the vehicle and enable responsive in-vehicle diagnostics, adds STMicro. There are also 16 CAN-FD and 24 LINFlex interfaces, enabling Chorus to act as a gateway for multiple ECUs and support smart gateway functionality via two Ethernet interfaces which are also on-chip.

To protect connected-car functionalities and allow OTA updates to be applied safely, the Chorus chip contains a hardware security module (HSM) which is capable of asymmetric cryptography.

The SPC58NH92x, has 10Mbyte on-chip flash and features a triple-core architecture clocking at 200Mhz equipped with more than 1.2Mbyte RAM, delivering up to 1763 CoreMark containing ST’s Power Architecture z4 core, which gives developers the flexibility to host multiple applications on one microcontroller, or to run multiple tasks concurrently. The device offers also ASIL-D safety capabilities.

The SPC58NH92x’s context-swap mechanism allows current application code to run continuously even while an update is downloaded and made ready to be applied later at a safe time. The older software can be retained, giving the option to roll-back to the previous version in an emergency. Hyperbus and eMMC/SDIO high-speed interfaces to off-chip memory are also integrated, enabling further storage expansion.

Configurable smart low-power modes enable the SPC58 microcontroller to perform critical functions even when in standby.

http://www.st.com

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Farnell element14 adds Symbisa IoT deployment and data monitoring

Tue, Oct 30, 2018

Combining hardware, mobile connectivity and easy access to data to make the IoT accessible, Hanhaa’s Symbisa is an Excel-integrated IoT device that is now available from Farnell element14.

The Symbisa module is an all-in-one, always-connected device, approximately the size of a smartphone, that carries sensors capable of detecting and collecting environmental information including GPS location, orientation, temperature, light and humidity. Typical applications include the monitoring of temperature and humidity of greenhouses or storage areas, or tracking equipment on hire, including whether it has been in an accident or dropped in transit.

Based on Microsoft Excel and with an Excel add-in, it enables users to bring real-world data streams directly into any desktop or mobile device that runs Excel for Office 365. Each Symbisa sensor is associated with a custom function in Excel, as are pre-configured events, meaning sensor data flows directly into Excel worksheet cells.  Users can also push data from Excel up to a unit’s e-ink display.  It can therefore be used by anyone with basic spreadsheet knowledge, says the company, to explore the possibilities of the IoT, interpreting sensor data, developing dashboards and triggering events that require follow-on actions in a matter of minutes – without coding, engineering capabilities, or a WiFi or network link-up.

Connectivity is through Hanhaa’s secure global mobile network which charges by how often data is captured rather than the amount of data used. Users can send messages or barcodes direct from Excel to be displayed on the e-ink display on the module, ready for a person or machine to read and action in the field.   

Key sensor parameters are location accuracy, with standard GNSS resolution down to three meters provided with the position dilution of precision (PDoP) parameter). Symbisa also detects shock up to ±16g, ambient light at 560nm and has a pressure sensing range of 260 to 1260 hPa and humidity sensing range of five to 90 per cent non-condensing. It operates at -15 to +50 degrees C.

The Symbisa board measures 130 x 100 x 10.5mm and weighs 160g and has quad band GSM radio for communications. Units also carry an e-ink display for text and/or barcode messaging, a battery sufficient for over two weeks’ standalone use, and a USB 2.0 connector for re-charging or hard-wired configuration.

Symbisa is exclusively available from Farnell element14 in Europe and Newark element14 in North America.

http://www.element14.com/symbisa

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