Sector News

Mouser offers NXP’s i.MX 8M processors for A/V and smart home use

Wed, Jun 13, 2018

Semiconductor and components distributor, Mouser Electronics, now stocks the i.MX 8M family of applications processors from NXP Semiconductors. The i.MX 8M family is designed to enable embedded designers to meet the new standards of user interface, intelligence and connectivity set by consumer electronic devices. The processors can be used to increase video, graphic, and audio system requirements for smart home and smart IoT applications, such as streaming video devices, streaming audio devices, industrial tablets, medical and fitness, digital signage, and general-purpose human machine interface (HMI) solutions.

The NXP i.MX 8M processors integrate a general-purpose Arm Cortex-M4F core for real-time low-power processing, a GC7000Lite graphics processor, and either two (i.MX 8M Dual processors) or four (i.MX 8M Quad and QuadLite processors) Arm Cortex-A53 cores running at up to 1.5GHz.

The i.MX 8M quad and i.MX 8M dual processors have hardware acceleration for video playback up to 4K and video decoding in h.265, h.264 and VP9. Both processors support 32-bit audio samples with up a sampling rate to 768kHz. The i.MX 8M QuadLite processor allows for video playback with software decoders if needed, for graphics, processing performance, and high-speed interfaces.

 NXP’s i.MX 8M processors are supported by the i.MX 8MQuad evaluation kit, which provides several memory options, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, USB 3.0 connectors, and PCIe high-speed interfaces. The board includes connectors for HDMI 2.0, MIPI-DSI for local displays, two MIPI-CSIs for camera input, USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, an audio interface expansion connector, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Mouser strives to empower innovation among design engineers and buyers by delivering advanced technologies. It claims to stock the world’s widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics’ website is continually updated and offers advanced search methods to help customers quickly locate inventory. Mouser.com also houses data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, and engineering tools.

http://www.mouser.com

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Power line communication (PLC) modem prepares for smart energy equipment

Wed, Jun 13, 2018

The PL360B PLC modem supports multiple standard and proprietary protocols used in smart grid infrastructure. According to Microchip, it enables manufacturers to respond to the utility companies’ need to improve the reliability and performance of smart meters and to address multiple markets, end-customer regulations and operational requirements. The single device can be adapted with firmware, reducing development costs and time to market.

The PL360B is designed to support PLC protocols in the frequency band up to 500kHz, such as ITU G.9903 (G3-PLC) and ITU G.9904 (Prime), as well as Cenelec, FCC and ARIB-compliant applications. The PL360B modem is supplied with reference designs for adding a PLC interface to any end-customer application requiring connectivity, including smart meters, lighting, home automation, building automation and remote control.

The PL360B modem offers up to a 25 per cent improvement in power consumption over previous generations, and has a Class D amplification scheme that optimises the modem transmission efficiency further.

The ATPL360 evaluation kit includes two evaluation boards to establish point-to-point communication. The kit includes PC tools designed to evaluate the performance of the PL360B, including a PHY tester for point-to-point test, PLC “sniffer” to capture PLC traffic in a deployed network and a PLC manager to manage the resulting network. G3-PLC and Prime-PLC communications firmware is provided free of charge.

A variety of reference designs is also available for a complete electricity meter with PLC, for a single PLC modem and for a master PLC device in charge of mastering the complete network of PLC nodes. All reference designs come with design files, bill of materials and schematics.

The PL360B and ATPL360 evaluation kit are available now.

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http://www.microchip.com/PL360B

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Signal switch ICs, clock generators and clock buffers chase 20Gbps protocols

Wed, Jun 06, 2018

Signal switches, clock generators and clock buffers for PCI Express (PCIe) 4.0 technology applications are now available from Diodes Incorporated

Addressing the expanding market for signal routing with different protocols in PCs, servers, embedded applications including artificial intelligence and fast data transfer generally, the PI3DBS16212 and PI3DBS16412 are 1-20Gbps 2-channel and 4-channel 2:1 differential multiplexers/demultiplexers with low loss, reflection, crosstalk and skew.

Offering greater flexibility of channels and routing, typical applications include switching high-speed serial signals employing the latest protocols, including: 20Gbps ThunderboltTM 3; 16Gbps PCIe 4.0 architecture; 10Gbps USB3.1 Gen2; 12Gbps Serial Attached SCSI 3 (SAS3); 8.1Gbps Display Port 4 (DP4); 12Gbps HDMI2.1, and 10Gbps Ethernet standards.

For the emerging PCIe 4.0 applications, the company says the PI3DBS16212 and PI3DBS16412 offer excellent signal integrity with an insertion loss of -1.3dB at 16Gbps. In this application, minimal skew between channels eases the timing budget between nodes, and power dissipation is low at typically 300-microA. The parts are fabricated with silicon on insulator (SOI) technology and have a small profile package at 2mm x 2mm for the 2:1 multiplexer.

Also driven by the adoption of the new PCIe 4.0 standard, the PI6CG18201, PI6CG18401, PI6CG18801, PI6CG15401 clock generators provide 1.8V 2/4/8 HCSL outputs and 1.5V 4 HCSL outputs, respectively, and use Diodes Incorporated’s proprietary phase-locked loop design to achieve the required tight jitter performance of less than 0.5ps.

The parts also provide the reference clock for SERDES chipsets supporting the PCIe 4.0 interface. Each output has its own enable with programmable slew rate and amplitude. On-chip termination resistors are incorporated saving up to 32 external resistors for the 8-channel version for space-constrained applications with the parts consuming about 85 per cent less power than traditional PCIe clocks. A spread-spectrum option is also available to reduce EMI in sensitive applications.

PI6CB18200, PI6CB18401, PI6CB18601, and PI6CB18801 are PCIe 4.0 2/4/6/8 HCSL output clock buffers fanned-out from a reference input. Like the clock generators, the slew rate and amplitude of each output is programmable and there are individual output enables for better power management. Additive jitter for the clock buffers is less than 0.05ps.

http://www.diodes.com

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Global Smart Home Market to Hit $155 Billion by 2023

Thu, May 31, 2018

Global Smart Home market rises 16% in 2017 to $84B; Strategy Analytics’ forecast predicts $155B by 2023. According to the report, “2018 Global Smart Home Market Forecast”

The global smart home market ended on an upbeat note in 2017 reaching $84 billion, up 16% from $72 billion in 2016 according to a report just released by Strategy Analytics . According to the report, “ 2018 Global Smart Home Market Forecast ”, worldwide consumer spending on smart home devices, systems and services will total nearly $96 billion in 2018 and grow at 10% CAGR over the forecast period (2018 to 2023) to $155 billion. North America will account for 41% of total spending or $40 billion, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at $26 billion and Western Europe at $17 billion.

New offerings from big brand tech firms such as Amazon, Google (Nest), ADT and Samsung are driving adoption in North America. In Europe, UK-based Centrica Connected Homes’ Hive along with Deutsche Telekom’s Magenta Home, Germany’s eQ-3 and the Netherlands Enco’s Toon are stimulating market demand. In Asia-Pacific, China’s Xiaomi, Korean service provider LG U+, Japan’s iTSCOM and Panasonic, as well as, Origin and Telstra in Australia are powering the market.

“The market continues to mature,” stated Bill Ablondi, Director of Strategy Analytics’ Smart Home Strategies advisory service. “Consumer awareness is rising, prices are coming down, and the technology is becoming more intuitive. Yet, there is still a high degree of fragmentation, with numerous firms competing for smart home consumers. Who will ultimately succeed in capturing growth in this market remains unclear.”

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success.

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