Mastering the groundswell of radio waves The intangible and the invisible electromagnetic spectrum of which radio frequency is a relatively small part is as valuable a natural resource like any other and one which commands our constant attention. From Hertz to Marconi to today’s RF engineers, microwave electronics basics may not have changed dramatically but […]
Microcontrollers
Oxford University spin-out embraces low-power to help wildlife conservation
by Lance Looper, Campaigns and Community, Silicon Labs Several years ago, a group of graduate students at the University of Southampton, along with Professor Alex Rogers, now at the University of Oxford, set out to use their smartphones to record the songs of a possibly extinct cicada in the forests of the U.K. The cicada […]
GPIB port expander enables peripheral I2C interface and level shifting
Diodes Incorporated announced the PI4IOE5V6416 16-bit I/O expander, which enables any digital device to be accessed and controlled over an I2C interface, across a range of input and output voltages from 1.8V to 5V. The PI4IOE5V6416 offers an ultra-low power solution to expanding the available GPIO on a microprocessor, microcontroller, ASSP, ASIC, or FPGA, using […]
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 […]
3D NAND Flash memory: Making HDDs obsolete in a data-centric world
A data-centric economy is evolving. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 debuted with 8 GB RAM and one terabyte (TB) of storage (purchasing a 512 GB SD card bumps it to 1 TB). The price tag is well over $1,000, so the rest of us will have to buy 1 TB of cloud storage from Google […]
Image gallery: Smart, small, and integrated at electronica 2018
Over 80,000 attendees from 80 countries spent four days at electronica 2018 in Munich last month combing 17 halls, 182K square meters of exhibition space, and meeting with as many of the 3,100 exhibitors as possible. The driving force for many of the new products introduced at the trade fair was, again, the need to […]
Digi International demos IoT devices on the Smart Edge — at electronica 2018
Digi International will highlight its Digi XBee3 series of smart edge IoT modules and modems, with a particular emphasis on their Digi XBee3 series of next-generation radio modules, modems, software and tools for IoT applications at the network edge at electronica 2018 in Munich, Germany, Hall B5, Stand 263. The latest in this series is offered in […]
Finalists announced for inaugural Embedded Computing category in LEAP Awards
Three finalists were announced for the inaugural LEAP Awards’ Embedded Computing Category, comprising innovative products and technologies. The competition was scored by a panel of independent technical/engineering-oriented judges. Responsible for the Embedded Computing category were these four judges: Plamen Doynov Research Professor University of Missouri-Kansas City Plamen Doynov became a research professor in physics last […]
New core targets a wide range of embedded applications in Industrial IoT
Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the development of its third-generation 32-bit RX CPU core, the RXv3. The RXv3 CPU core will be employed in Renesas’ new RX microcontroller (MCU) families that begin rolling out at the end of 2018. The new MCUs are designed to address the real-time performance and enhanced stability required by motor control […]
32-bit microcontroller family now supports Amazon FreeRTOS
Infineon Technologies AG now allows for easy and secured use of new generation sensors featuring new AI functionalities running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help facilitate connections required for cloud services and artificial intelligence, in particular. Also to that end, the company is releasing a connected development board with WiFI and EtherCAT connectivity for industrial […]