Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the launch of its Failure Detection e-AI Solution for motor-equipped home appliances, featuring the Renesas RX66T 32-bit microcontroller (MCU). This solution with embedded AI (e-AI) enables failure detection of home appliances — such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines — due to motor abnormality. Property data showing the motor’s current or rotation […]
Microcontroller Tips
High-performance SSD controller performs 3.6 GB/sec sequential reads, 3.2 GB/sec sequential writes
Starblaze announced the availability of the STAR1000P NVMe solid state drive (SSD) controller for high-end client and entry-level enterprise applications. Performance optimizations enable the new controller to achieve sequential reads at 3.6GB/second and sequential writes at 3.2GB/second, up to 50 percent higher than Starblaze’s previous generation controller, STAR1000. The STAR1000P achieves random reads at 750K input/output operations […]
Protecting an MCU: Build your own optocoupler
Microcontrollers are widely used for controlling transistors and relays. Transistors and relays are used for actuating or (energizing) equipment with a higher voltage than an MCU can handle. For example, fans, lights, television, door locks, furnaces, and appliances can be automated using an MCU, however, most operate at higher voltages compared to the voltage tolerances […]
Static analysis technology updated with security for enterprise applications
Synopsys, Inc. announced the availability of a new version of its Coverity static application security testing (SAST) solution, which enables organizations to build secure applications faster. The latest release of Coverity addresses three increasingly important needs for enterprise application security teams: scalability, broad language and framework support, and comprehensive vulnerability analysis. Coverity enables enterprise organizations to scale […]
What’s new with Wi-Fi 6? Focus on high-efficiency
The first wide-spread home electrical appliance was the toaster, and 90% of homes today still have one.[i] Today, wireless connectivity to the internet is as ubiquitous as the electricity was a hundred years ago. Smartphones, tablets, wearables, laptops, televisions, Nest thermostats, Alexa, Google Home, Ring video doorbell sensors, surveillance cameras door locks, smart lighting, and […]
Smart-antenna controller cuts board space, BOM, and battery load for smartphones
STMicroelectronics’ STHVDAC-253C7 digital controller for tunable capacitors such as ST’s STPTIC family shrinks the size, bill of materials (BoM), and power consumption of antenna-tuning circuits for stabilizing smartphone RF performance. Using the STHVDAC-253C7 with STPTIC capacitors for impedance matching and frequency tuning almost completely eliminates the effects of environmental variations, resulting in stronger signal reception, […]
Energy efficient 8-bit MCU combines DMA controller, separated data EEPROM, six user I/Os in inexpensive SO-8 package
STMicroelectronics is boosting feature integration in low-cost, low-power 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) with the new STM8L050. As the latest in the ultra-energy-conscious STM8L series, it embeds rich analog peripherals, a DMA controller, and separated data EEPROM, all in an inexpensive SO-8 package with up to six user I/Os. Leveraging ST’s powerful, efficient STM8 core running at up to 16 MHz, the […]
Teardown: Rexing V1 dash cam
The Rexing V1 is a simple wedge-shaped dash camera that films in a 1080-line progressive scanning format. The lens is made of six glass layers and is fish-eyed to capture a 170° view of whatever it sees. There’s also a built-in vibration sensor, called a G-sensor in the promotional literature, that automatically locks any files […]
How to learn anything for free: Massive open online courses
Positions for someone with a Masters degree in Data Science are $300K and up, according to a friend of a friend of mine who works in Human Resources for a well-known company. The company’s data scientists, who work on algorithms to predict usage based on data collected from the product’s platforms, are continually lured away […]
Embedded controller CPU includes IEEE-1588 synchronization, security measures
United Electronic Industries (UEI) today announced the UEIPAC series of standalone embedded controllers now offers an optional 8347E CPU. This version includes IEEE-1588 synchronization, solid-state hard drives up to 32 Gigabyte, hardware-based Ethernet encryption plus twice the RAM, and 32 times as much FLASH memory. The UEIPAC Cube and RACK chassis systems offer an unprecedented […]