February 2015
36
M
icrocontrollers
& S
o
C
s
the trail or give you real time warnings about
dangerous weather moving in your area? Or
even act as your car key? Eliminating that
challenge of lugging your car keys around
while on a run. The expectation is that con-
sumers can have all of this and more and will
be able to have it in the same form factor size
that they have already become accustomed to.
And activity tracking does not need to be lim-
ited to people. Miniature wearables will allow
scientists to track plants and animals, even as
small as insects. By collecting real-time data,
scientists can better predict changes to the
environment that will benefit all mankind.
We’re already seeing some of these appli-
cations come to life. For example, during a
recent vacation with my family, I observed
how a band on my wrist could unlock my
hotel door, check me in at amusement rides,
and charge purchases. The idea of this ver-
satile key will expand beyond just vacation
spots as well. Imagine if your smart key fob
for your car also controlled the outside light-
ing and locks in your home, so that as you
pull up into your driveway at night, your
home would be lit for entry. Just think from a
safety perspective, you’ll never have to worry
about arriving to a dark home again.
The IoT plays a significant role in a broad
range of healthcare applications as well. Spe-
cifically, a device like the Kinetis KL03 MCU
brings new benefits to patient monitor-
ing, where the device needs to be small and
non-intrusive. Patient monitoring is about
adding convenience and limiting costs for the
patient. When a device is small enough to be
inserted in a swallowable capsule for example
or embedded into other portable products
already available today (like the watch or key),
portability, processing, and overall device
capabilities grow exponentially!
Once upon a time IoT seemed like such a
futuristic concept, but, the reality is that the
IoT is here today – and luckily so are Kinetis
solutions, with more than 10 million of these
tiny Kinetis mini MCUs already shipped.
While it can be overwhelming to think about
the IoT in terms of interconnectivity of every-
thing – connecting billions upon billions of
devices – it becomes much more manageable
if each of us focuses on our individual contri-
butions that can provide value and benefit the
average consumer.
The new Kinetis KL03 MCU does just this by
enabling designers to launch the next gener-
ation of cost-sensitive, portable applications
requiring long battery lifetime. At just 1.6 mm
x 2 mm, it packs a powerful story in demon-
strating how small things can have a really big
impact on the IoT space.
n
Figure 2. Remote patient monitoring is one example of a use case of IoT
Hall-Stand 1-326
Axiomtek: 3.5-inch Embedded
SBC offers broad scalability
Axiomtek has launched CAPA881, offering
broad scalability from the latest 22nm 4th gen-
eration Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors with Intel
HM86 or Intel QM87 chipset (optional). The
3.5-inch single board computer comes with
a DDR3L SO-DIMM socket up to 8 GB. The
highly integrated 3.5-inch embedded board
features high performance, graphics, power
efficiency, security, and remote management
capabilities, making it ideal for a broad range
of intelligent systems such as embedded appli-
cations, gaming, DSA, DVR, IoT/M2M-related,
network computing, and many more.
Hall-Stand 4-116
Cadence announces 4th gen
Tensilica HiFi DSP architecture
Cadence Design Systems announced the
Cadence Tensilica HiFi 4 audio/voice digital
signal processor intellectual property core
for system-on-chip designs, which offers the
industry’s highest performance licensable
DSP core for 32-bit audio/voice process-
ing. This fourth generation HiFi architecture
enables emerging multi-channel object-based
audio standards and offers 2X the perfor-
mance versus the HiFi 3 DSP, making it ideal
for DSP intensive applications including dig-
ital TV, set-top box (STB), Blu-ray Disc and
automotive infotainment.
Hall-Stand 1-408
Concurrent: Atom E3800 based
processor board extends life
of VME based equipment
Concurrent Technologies announces its lat-
est 6U VME board featuring long-life cycle
devices to extend the life of existing applica-
tions through to the next decade. VP E2x/
msd is based on the Intel Atom E3800 pro-
cessor series offering users a choice: a low
power consumption single-core variant or a
performance orientated quad-core processor.
VP E2x/msd is available in a number of dif-
ferent operating temperature ranges from 0
to +70°C up to -40 to +85°C and will also be
available in a rugged conduction cooled vari-
ant for extreme environments encountered in
military and aerospace applications
Hall-Stand 4-116
Cadence: latest Xtensa processor delivers
significant architectural enhancements
Cadence Design Systems announced the 11th
generation of the Tensilica Xtensa processors.
The new Xtensa LX6 and Xtensa 11 processors
enable users to create innovative custom pro-
cessor instruction sets with up to 25 percent
less processor logic power consumption and
up to 75 percent better local memory area and
power efficiency.
Hall-Stand 4A-540
Elma: rugged COM Express-based
computer includes a Cisco-cer-
tified routing engine
Elma Electronic now offers a modular, high
performance embedded computer pack-
aged for applications in demanding mobile
environments. The modular COM Express-
based computer includes a Cisco-certified
routing engine complete with the full suite
of mobile routing protocols essential for net-
work attached equipment on the move. Elma
is an approved Cisco Solutions Technology
Partner.
Embedded World
News
