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Farnell, an Avnet Company has expanded the Technical Resources Hub to include new exclusive resources offering a deep dive into Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT) design and wide-ranging hot topics for electronic development engineers. The Technical Resources Hub is designed to provide engineers with comprehensive advice and training to support every stage of new product design. 

Innovation in IoT and Industrial IoT technologies is accelerating rapidly as the push toward greater automation and interconnectivity becomes a focal point for many critical industries. Engineers can now drill deeper into the different areas of IoT design and Industry 4.0 on the Technical Resources Hub with the addition of a ‘How To’ content series covering all stages of designing and implementing systems through to enabling integration via the cloud.

The ‘How To’ series features several short, instructional articles, teaching engineers how to design-in specific technologies and develop skills associated with implementing Industry 4.0 as well as more general IoT based designs. Instructional articles recently added to the Technical Resources Hub cover topics from ‘How to Implement different types of edge computing for Smart Factory applications’ to ‘How to establish control access to shop floor systems via gateways’ and much more.

Cliff Ortmeyer, Global Head of Technical Marketing, Farnell said: “Our new Technical Resources Hub is designed to share inspiration and knowledge, support component selection and enable upskilling with essential learning modules and resources. We are committed to providing maximum support to our customers through our online tools that accelerate the design process to bring products to market much faster.” 

The Farnell Technical Resources Hub features a comprehensive range of technical articles and application notes, whitepapers, webinars and podcasts, projects and training modules, videos and eBooks. Visitors can access innovative information on a number of technologies and applications along with valuable calculators, conversion charts and online component selection tools.

For easy navigation, the hub also includes pages focused on specific technologies, such as wireless, sensing, power management, motor control, lighting and display; alongside complementary application pages covering the IoT, transportation, medical, maintenance, safety and more.

Farnell stocks more than 950,000 products in its global online catalogue. Technical support is offered 24/5 to ensure customers can take advantage of the latest technology innovations for experiments and design. Farnell can also support customers as they take ideas from specification through to production with end-to-end product development solutions offered via the Avnet group and element14 Community. 

Brand new IoT and IIoT content, as well as a suite of additional resources, is available on the Technical Resources Hub now from Farnell in EMEA, element14 in APAC and Newark in North America. 

Infineon Technologies has announced a collaboration with Rainforest Connection (RFCx), a non-profit organisation that uses acoustic technology, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning to save the rainforests and monitor biodiversity. In this joint collaboration, RFCx will explore the use of Infineon’s gas sensing technologies to elevate and expand upon the capabilities of their current acoustic listening devices used to monitor and protect vulnerable rainforest ecosystems. This includes monitoring primates, birds, frogs, insects, bats and other organisms, and protecting against threats ranging from illegal logging to what can now also be forest fires with this collaboration.

“Infineon will enable us to better track rainforest ecosystems in various locations regardless of weather conditions and environmental concerns,” said Topher White, CEO and Founder, Rainforest Connection. “Our mission is to develop and leverage conservation technology to empower our partners and protect threatened ecosystems. With this new technology partnership with Infineon, we are thrilled to bring new levels of technology to help protect the rainforests. I am excited to keynote at their annual OktoberTech Americas event.”

RFCx’s scalable, real-time monitoring system protects and studies remote ecosystems through an approach using acoustic sensors – which will soon include Infineon’s gas sensing technologies at select locations – and AI / Machine Learning to empower partners on the ground to take action. Additional monitoring of the ecosystem soundscape at select locations with Infineon’s gas sensors will allow RFCx and its partners to detect fires in real-time, along with other potential threats. The platform streams data within the natural and remote regions of the world to local partners on the ground which may soon include local fire authorities.

“Infineon’s mission is to make the world an easier, safer and greener place,” said Bob LeFort, President of Infineon Americas. “This collaboration exemplifies our mission by leveraging Infineon technology and expertise to improve monitor activities in the rainforest to help prevent illegal deforestation, halt animal poaching and now explore gas and forest health monitoring in very remote areas. We are committed to using our technology to help fight climate change and protect natural resources.”

About Rainforest Connection

Rainforest Connection (RFCx) uses technology and big data to enable on-the-ground partners to save the world’s most threatened rainforests and habitats. Saving rainforests isn’t only the key to halting climate change, it is also vital to supporting many of the world’s poorest communities who rely on rainforests for food, shelter and livelihood.

About OktoberTech

At Infineon’s annual OktoberTech conferences, corporate innovators, start-ups, academics, investors and policymakers from across the ecosystem come together to discuss the latest technological advancements and industry transformations. Hosted by members of the Infineon management board, this year’s series is OktoberTech Americas on 21 October, followed by OkoberTech Japan on 26 October, and OktoberTech Asia Pacific on 27 October.

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG is a world leader in semiconductor solutions that make life easier, safer and greener. Microelectronics from Infineon are the key to a better future. In the 2020 fiscal year (ending 30 September), Infineon reported revenue of more than €8.6 billion with a workforce of some 46,700 people worldwide. Following the acquisition of the US company Cypress Semiconductor Corporation in April 2020, Infineon is now a global top 10 semiconductor company.

Infineon Technologies has announced software support for the newest emerging smart home standard: Matter. Many leading smart home products use Infineon’s AIROC™ Wi-Fi®, AIROC Bluetooth®, and PSoC™ 6 MCU products. In this regard, support for Matter in Infineon’s ModusToolbox™ Software and Tools is an important milestone for the adoption of the emerging standard and expected to accelerate the deployment of Matter products.

Interoperability has been a barrier to the broad adoption of smart home products. According to Parks Associates, 75 percent of customers purchasing a new smart home device want it to work with the existing devices in their home. Matter – the new smart home standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) – promises interoperable, secure connectivity for the future of the smart home. Several of today’s smart home market key ecosystem players – including Apple, Amazon, Google and Comcast – joined together in 2019 to develop and promote this new standard.

Many of the 320 million smart speakers in today’s homes are likely to be updated over-the-air to support Matter, after the Matter specification has been finalised. In general, it takes years for a new standard to be impactful; new infrastructure has to be rolled out and customers have to adopt it. The ability for smart speakers and other devices installed in consumer’s homes to be updated over-the-air will accelerate the deployment of Matter gateways to weeks or months, rather than years. This will potentially enable hundreds of millions of homes with these devices. The rapid deployment will create a new, large-scale opportunity for companies making Matter products.

Infineon’s software support for Matter helps two sets of companies. First, companies already using Infineon’s AIROC Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and PSoC 6 MCUs, in many cases, can leverage the new software to add Matter capability to existing products. Next, product companies can take advantage of this new high-growth market by quickly bringing Matter-compliant products to market using Infineon’s software and broad portfolio of AIROC Wi-Fi, AIROC Bluetooth and PSoC 6 MCUs.

Infineon’s unique combination of software support for Matter, ModusToolbox software and tools, broad family of AIROC connectivity chips and PSoC 6 MCUs, and its involvement in Matter open-source development puts it in a strong position to help companies quickly bring Matter products to market. This will help accelerate the adoption of this new smart home standard.

About Infineon’s PSoC 6 MCUs

The PSoC 6 family is the perfect solution for secure, low-power, feature-rich IoT products. The family is built on an ultra-low-power architecture, including advanced low-power design techniques to extend battery life up to a full week for battery powered applications. The dual-core Arm® Cortex®-M4 and Cortex-M0+ architecture lets developers optimise for power and performance simultaneously. Using its dual cores combined with configurable memory and peripheral protection units, PSoC 6 enables Platform Security Architecture (PSA) level 2 certified MCUs.

Designers can use the MCU’s rich analog and digital peripherals to create custom analog front-ends (AFEs) or digital interfaces for innovative system components such as MEMS sensors, electronic-ink displays. Through comprehensive software support available in ModusToolbox, PSoC 6 MCUs, pair seamlessly with Infineon’s AIROC Wi-Fi, AIROC Bluetooth, or AIROC combos radio modules. The PSoC 6 MCUs feature the latest generation of industry-leading CapSense™ capacitive-sensing technology, enabling modern touch and gesture-based interfaces that are robust and reliable.

About Infineon’s AIROC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices

Infineon’s AIROC wireless products, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combos, have shipped more than a billion devices and are the go-to choice for IoT solutions. The broad portfolio includes high-performing, reliable, ultra-low-power products that deliver robust industry-leading performance.

AIROC products leverage a common software framework across Android, Linux, RTOS platforms and are pre-integrated with Infineon’s ModusToolbox software and tools, allowing developers to deliver high-quality, differentiated products to market on time and on budget.

About Infineon’s ModusToolbox Software and Tools

Infineon’s ModusToolbox Software and Tools brings best-in-class connectivity, computing, security, and sensing together in a single platform. It combines the rich design resources of Infineon’s wireless libraries and the analog and digital peripheral libraries of its PSoC microcontrollers with an open-source, Eclipse-based IDE. Purpose-built hardware, multi-vendor RTOS support, and standards-based security solutions provide a solid foundation, that is validated by various cloud services. ModusToolbox unifies Infineon’s offerings, providing open access to third-party solutions, and freeing engineers to focus on delivering high-value, differentiated products. ModusToolbox is available for download.

Availability

Infineon has a broad family of PSoC MCUs and AIROC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth products available today. Infineon’s software support for Matter is in the open-source Matter repository, and additional Matter-specific capabilities will be added to ModusToolbox in future releases. The latest version of ModusToolbox is available now for download. Learn more about Infineon’s support for Matter.

Infineon makes the IoT work

Microelectronics make up the core of every IoT solution. Infineon’s sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, communication modules, and security components underpin every device. The company is a one-stop technology partner for realising smart, energy-efficient, and secure IoT applications with development boards, evaluation kits, and design tools additionally supporting manufacturers. More information about Infineon’s contribution to IoT: www.infineon.io.