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Demo kit enables NFC reader functionality on Renesas Synergy platforms

Wed, Apr 14, 2021

Fabless semiconductor company, Panthronics, has developed an extension of the evaluation kit for its PTX100R NFC Reader IC which will accelerate development of NFC applications on the Renesas Synergy family of 32-bit microcontrollers.

Panthronics developed an IoT NFC reader application to run on the Renesas Synergy TB-S3A1 development board for the Synergy S3A1 microcontrollers which are based on a 48MHz Arm Cortex-M4 core. NFC physical and protocol layer operations are performed on a Panthronics PTX100R Evalboard, which connects to the TB-S3A1 board via its Pmod header. The application provides full NFC reader functionality conforming to the standard ISO 14443A/B/F/V specifications.

The PTX100R Evalboard and IoT NFC Reader application are integrated into the Synergy software package from Renesas and its e2 studio integrated development environment (IDE).

Commenting on the introduction, Mohammed Dogar, senior director of global business development at Renesas, said: ‘Simple contactless communication is one of the key supporting technologies for the IoT, enabling important functions such as secure device authentication, device onboarding, and pairing with a gateway for Wi-Fi or other networks.

The PTX100R NFC hardware and application means that any Synergy MCU user, whether or not they are NFC experts, can introduce NFC functionality into their system design quickly and easily, he adds.

The demo kit’s Panthronics PTX100R Evalboard provides a complete hardware environment for evaluating the operation of the PTX100R reader IC. The NFC readers are designed from the ground up and offer higher sensitivity, more accurate wave-shaping, higher output power and a simpler hardware implementation than conventional NFC reader ICs, says Panthronics.

Developers of NFC-based end products such as mobile point of sale terminals and mobile phones can use the PTX100R to complete product development faster, with easier validation of conformance with standards such as EMVCo 3.0.

The PTX100R Evalboard supports full NFC functionality. It includes a 50 x 50mm detachable antenna board, with its matching circuit, which allows users to evaluate the PTX100R’s performance with their own antenna.

Developers using the PTX100R Evalboard can also take advantage of dedicated applications engineering support provided directly by Panthronics via the online PTX Support Portal. The portal provides password-protected access to a knowledge base of product data, articles and guidance for each of four types of application: point-of-sale terminals, wireless charging, IoT devices, and mobile devices. It also provides APIs, a configuration tool and a GUI with installer. Registered users of the portal can access 24/7 engineering support by issuing ticket requests.

Bernhard Gruber, director of applications at Panthronics, said: ‘Renesas and Panthronics have worked closely together to integrate the PTX100R’s functionality and firmware into the Synergy Platform development system. For developers building applications on the Synergy Platform, there is now a ready-made way to integrate NFC reader functionality, and benefit from the robust connectivity and design flexibility afforded by the PTX100R.’

Design engineers may request a Renesas Synergy IoT Reader Demo Kit or a PTX100R Evalboard via the Panthronics website.

http://www.panthronics.com/products

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Super Micro achieves 5petaFLOPS performance in 4U form factor

Wed, Apr 14, 2021

At Nvidia’s GTC21 virtual event this week, Super Micro Computer has unveiled Tier 1 systems that achieve 5petaFLOPS of artificial intelligence (AI) performance in a 4U form factor.

Supermicro’s systems include the flagship Intel-based SYS-420GP-TNAR or the AMD-based AS -4124GO-NART(+), featuring the 4U server powered by the Nvidia HGX A100 eight-GPU board, with the option of either 40Gbyte (HBM2) or 80Gbyte (HBM2e) of memory on each GPU. These systems are currently shipping worldwide.

The range of supported GPUs includes the Nvidia A100 80Gbyte, A100 40Gbyte, A40, RTX A6000, A30, A10, and A16 GPUs, aiming at AI Inference and mainstream computing, mainstream graphics and video, and virtual desktops, all with AI technologies.

All Nvidia products are available across a range of Supermicro systems that use third Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors or third Gen AMD EPYC CPUs. Super Micro’s design means more GPUs are packaged into less space (higher density) than other system suppliers. All of the new GPU systems are Nvidia-certified or are currently undergoing certification.

Supermicro systems with NVIDIA HGX A100 modules (choice of 40Gbyte HBM or 80Gbyte HBMe memory) comprise the AS -4124GO-NART/+ dual third Gen AMD EPYC processors with Nvidia HGX A100 eight-GPU, the SYS-420GP-TNAR/+ dual third Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Nvidia HGX A100 eight-GPU and the AS -2124GQ-NART/+ dual third Gen AMD EPYC processors with Nvidia HGX A100 four-GPU.

Supermicro systems with PCIe 4.0, supporting Nvidia A100/PCIe, A30, A16, A10, and RTX A6000 are the AS -4124GS-TNR – dual third Gen AMD EPYC processors supporting up to 8 double-width GPUs, the SYS-420GP-TNR – dual third Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors supporting up to 10 double-width GPUs, the multi-node AS -2114GT-DNR single third Gen AMD EPYC processor supporting up to six single-width or three double-width GPUs per node, the SuperBlade SBA-4119SG – single third Gen AMD EPYC processor supporting one double-width GPU or two single-width GPUs per blade, with up to 20 blades in an 8U enclosure and the workstation class SYS-740GP-TNRT – dual third Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors supporting up to four double-width GPUs.

The systems can run various advanced application workloads, including the Nvidia AI Enterprise software suite, which is optimised and certified by Nvidia to run on VMware vSphere, and Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise an end-to-end real-time simulation and collaboration platform for 3D workflows.

Supermicro participates in the Nvidia-Certified Systems program, which validates the hardware and software configurations needed for maximum productivity. These systems can handle massive amounts of data with advanced networking, allowing for complex models to be developed and incorporate new AI and other advanced algorithms. 3D visualisation enables better comprehension of physical reality, while graphics virtualisation enables IT administrators to consolidate systems infrastructure and centralise and secure their data. Nvidia-Certified Systems allow for easy and fast deployment in the data centre. Supermicro also says it leads the industry with NEBS Level 3-certified GPU servers for 5G and telco customers.

According to Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro, the company’s collaboration with Nvidia enables it to design a portfolio of GPU systems and platforms which customers can use to “exactly match their workload requirements to system architecture to achieve superior scale, performance, efficiency, and cost”.

“Supermicro offers multi-GPU optimised systems that deliver advanced solutions to AI, deep learning, high performance computing (HPC) and video streaming applications,” he said. “Leveraging our building block solutions and our time-to-market advantage, we continue developing and releasing application-optimised solutions. Our flexible 2U two-node GPU system with PCIe 4.0 is tuned for cloud gaming and social media and leads the industry with support for up to three double-width or six single-width GPUs per node,” he added.

http://www.supermicro.com

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MxFE digitiser targets aerospace and defence applications

Tue, Apr 13, 2021

From Analog Devices comes a 16-channel, mixed-signal front-end (MxFE) digitiser for aerospace and defence applications, including phased array radars, electronic warfare, and ground-based satellite communications.

The new digitiser includes four AD9081 or four AD9082 software-defined, direct RF sampling transceivers. It is designed to accelerate customer development by providing reference RF signal chains, software architectures, power supply designs, and application example code.

ADI has also introduced a digitising card to complement the platform and facilitate system-level calibration algorithms and demonstration of power-up phase determinism.

The ADQUADMXFE1EBZ 16-channel, mixed-signal front-end digitiser offers 16 FR receive (Rx) channels (32 digital Rx channels) and 16 RF transmit (Tx) channels (32 digital Tx channels). It provides application-specific examples in MatLab application scripts and a GUI, and has flexible clock distribution.

The ADQUADMXFE-CAL digitising card key provides both individual adjacent channel loopback and combines channel loopback options, combined Tx and Rx channels output via SMA connectors and on-board log power detectors with AD5592R digitisation.

Analog Devices is a global high-performance semiconductor company dedicated to solving tough engineering challenges.

http://www.analog.com

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Fujitsu launches IoT connectivity solutions mesh evaluation kit

Tue, Apr 13, 2021

Fujitsu Components America has released a low-cost IoT connectivity solutions mesh evaluation kit that the company says simplifies feasibility testing of all use cases for wireless IoT solutions driven by fully scalable and robust Wirepas mesh technology and Fujitsu hardware.

Each Fujitsu mesh evaluation kit ships with all the required components and tools to build a mesh network of sensors, including five FWM8BLZ07Y sensor nodes with the following onboard temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, accelerometer, luminance and sound level sensors. There are five FWM8BLZ07P mesh nodes set as asset tags and 20 FWM8BLZ07P mesh nodes set as Wirepas anchor nodes for location awareness. One FWM8GWZ01 wi-fi gateway with two Wirepas sink nodes connects the mesh network to the cloud service and one concise manual explains the usage and installation of the included hardware and software package.

The kit comes with a three-month software evaluation licence that gives customers access to the full-production grade Wirepas network tool, the Wirepas positioning engine and the sensor data webpage, which are all connected to a cloud instance.

The mesh evaluation kit contains all the necessary settings and cloud setup to ensure quick and easy installation.

Once installed, a web-based monitor presents all the sensor data, which visualises the asset location tracking function and provides insight on how the Wirepas network works.

Fujitsu works with a host of industry partners that specialise in back-end software and can design a custom offering to fit special use cases.

The Fujitsu IoT connectivity solutions mesh evaluation kit is available now.

Fujitsu Components America markets and distributes electronic and system components and sub-systems throughout North and South America. Products include relays, touch panels, thermal printers, wireless modules, and input and pointing devices.

The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

https://www.fujitsu.com/us/products/devices/components

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Demo kit enables NFC reader functionality on Renesas Synergy platforms

Super Micro achieves 5petaFLOPS performance in 4U form factor

MxFE digitiser targets aerospace and defence applications

Fujitsu launches IoT connectivity solutions mesh evaluation kit

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