Smart Cities

Digital input ICs halve footprint and lower power

Wed, Nov 07, 2018

To meet the size, power and performance requirements of Industry 4.0, Maxim Integrated has added to its family of digital input devices.

One, the MAX22192, is integrated into the company’s new Go-IO programmable logic controller (PLC) reference design.

Increased automation means a need for real-time decision-making and feedback-loop mechanisms. These intelligent Industry 4.0 systems require digital input ICs inside the PLCs to receive on/off status signals. They must also be robust, high performing and robust for integration throughout manufacturing environments.

Maxim’s expanded portfolio of IEC61131-2-compliant digital input devices is claimed to offer the industry’s smallest solution size (by as much as 50 per cent), the lowest power dissipation (by as much as 60 per cent), and is up to six times faster and has the most robust performance (integrating 1kV of surge protection and integrated diagnostics).

The family also includes a parasitically powered digital input that reduces power dissipation by up to 60 per cent and does not require a discrete isolated power supply.

The digital input devices available from Maxim are the MAX22190 eight-channel octal digital input with serial peripheral interface (SPI), accurate input current limiters, built-in surge protection of more than 1kV and wire break detection in a 5.0 x 5.0mm package.

The MAX22191 single-channel, parasitically powered digital input with accurate input current limiters and 250ns (max) propagation delay is in a 2.8 x 2.9mm package; the

MAX22192 eight-channel octal digital input with isolated SPI, wire break detection and accurate input current limiters in a 6.0 x 10mm package.

The MAX22195 high-speed octal digital input ICs have parallel output and accurate input current limiters, 300ns (max) propagation delay, parallel interface, low power, low heat dissipation, fault tolerance with built-in diagnostics, configurability and a robust design in a 5.0 x 5.0mm 32-TQFN package.

These ICs join the MAX14912 and MAX14913 octal high-speed, switch/push-pull driver with integrated surge protection, diagnostics and fast/safe demagnetisation, the MAX14914 universal digital IO with surge protection, high-side switch/push-pull driver/digital input and an SPI and the MAX14483 six-channel, high-density, high-speed, low-power digital isolator optimised for daisy chained SPI applications.

Evaluation kits (MAX22190, MAX221919, MAX22192 and MAX22195) are also available.

Visit Maxim at electronica 2018 in Hall C4, Stand 440.

https://www.maximintegrated.com

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Development of a smart city concept at Munich Airport

Mon, Nov 05, 2018

Munich Airport and the renowned Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have reached an agreement to work together in the development of the LabCampus Innovation Center at Munich Airport.

Plans to launch the LabCampus future project–an innovation lab on the airport campus that will promote cooperation between companies and across industry boundaries–were announced by Munich Airport in March of this year. Starting on November 1, the renowned Senseable City Lab, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will be on board to provide conceptual support for the establishment and development of the new innovation campus. Under an initial three-year cooperation agreement, the MIT Senseable City Lab, based in Cambridge, MA, will act as a research partner, supporting the team in Munich as it turns the campus into an innovative smart city. The goal is to build an ideal urban environment offering optimal conditions for people and companies to work together efficiently, creatively and–above all–under one roof. This will provide a setting to design and develop products and services for the world of the future and to test them onsite. To make this a reality, LabCampus GmbH will work with MIT to establish a future-ready infrastructure right from the start, focusing on state-of-the-art technologies in the areas of energy, mobility and urban planning as well as the connectivity between them for optimal sustainability and livability for the users.

“This cooperation is a major milestone for our innovation site,” says Dr. Marc Wagener, Managing Director of LabCampus GmbH. “We will be working with MIT researchers to study and evaluate the most important trends and digital technologies that can benefit us in the development and successful implementation of a smart city concept.” Prof. Carlo Ratti, Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab is also delighted: “This is an excellent opportunity for us to be involved in creating a smart city from the earliest stages. It gives us a chance to look ahead and weave everything, including future needs, into the infrastructure from the very beginning.”

MIT Senseable City Lab is the first global player outside of Europe to sign a cooperation agreement with LabCampus GmbH. Research institutions that have signed on as innovation partners include FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Hasso Plattner Institute as well as the Fraunhofer Institute, which is also exploring the possibility of renting space at LabCampus. LabCampus is engaged in detailed talks with other international groups, too. For more information: www.labcampus.de

Caption: Dr. Marc Wagener (left), Managing Director of LabCampus GmbH and Professor Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT Senseable City Lab, signing a cooperation agreement on November 1, 2018 (Copyright: Munich Airport)

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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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http://www.onsemi.com

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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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About Smart Cities

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