Low Cost CPLD Development Kit

The Lattice ispMACH 4000ZE Pico Dev Kit is on sale today for $36 at the Lattice store. Some example applications for the CPLD include adding GPIO and 5V input capability to your microcontroller. See this video for more info on consumer applications.

Altera Starter Kit Available For New Low Cost FPGA Family

Altera Cyclone IV FPGAs are now shipping in volume and are claimed to be lowest in cost and power. The Cyclone IV starter kit can be purchased at the Altera online store for $395. It includes a Gigabit Ethernet and SMA connectors. You can find more specifications and ordering information here.

Virtual USB Analyzer

The Virtual USB Analyzer is a useful tool created by Micah Dowty and Scott Perry hosted on sourceforge.net. It's free to use and listed as a fling in vmware LABS, a diverse collection of free tools created by VMware engineers.

You have to run the analyzer in Linux but you can take the traces with any guest OS running on recent versions of VMware products. At the moment the Windows version of VMware Player is not supported, but you can use VMware Workstation, Fusion or the Player that runs on Linux. You can also load captures taken from the Linux usbmon utility and the Ellisys USB Explorer 200 hardware analyzer.

I'm using this to see how Linux configures a keyboard to diagnose a problem with an embedded USB host. I think it will also be very useful when working on a new USB device that you need to test with multiple operating systems.

Fritzing

Fritzing is an unique project that allows hobbyists to design and produce electronic prototypes. Started as a University research project, it continues with the support of users with the purchase of the Fritzing starter kit. Included in the kit is an Arduino Deumilonove 328 microcontroller board. You can also download the design application without purchasing a kit.

Embedded Linux Conference 2010

The CELF Embedded Linux Conference is coming up on April 12th-14th, 2010 in San Francisco. Topics include Android, security, debug and real-time development. Here are a few titles:

Android: A Case Study of an Embedded Linux Project

Using a JTAG to Debug Linux Device Drivers

Creating a Secure Router Using SELinux

Effective Use of Scripting in Embedded Devices

FSCE: Reducing Context Switching Time on ARM

Understanding Threat Models for Embedded Devices

Experiences in Android Porting, Lessons Learned, Tips and Tricks

Case Study - Embedded linux in a Digital Television STB

Understanding and Developing Applications for Maemo Platform

PIO: Talking to the Outside World

Linux Without a Boot Loader?

Lantronix Embedd Linux Networking Contest

To promote the XPort Pro, a tiny self contained network server, Lantronix will give up to $6000US for the winning design. You will need to purchase an evaluation kit for $99 to enter.

NXP Microcontroller Design Challenge

The NPX LPC1100 Design Challenge just started and offers contestents a free NXP LPCXpresso development platform ($29 value), if your design is approved by the judges. If your design is not approved, you can still participate and win prizes by rating design entries and giving feedback. The LPCXpresso is unique in that it can be used as a stand alone JTAG debugger by cutting the traces between the LPC-Link and the Target portions of the board. The target section for the contest includes an LPC1114 (LPC1343 shown in the picture). The processor architecture is the new ARM Cortex-M0, designed to be small and energy efficient for battery-powered devices. The development environment is an Eclipse-based LPC IDE from Code Red Technologies, its free but limited to 128KB downloads. The prizes for the contest are given as Apple Gift Cards of up to $3000.

Analog Devices New BF50x DSP

The new 50x series Blackfin Processors offer 400MHz at $4.50, and come with a new analog-to-digital (ADC) control module (ACM), PWM units, optional on-chip flash and ADCs. This family is targeted mainly to industrial applications such as motor control, power inverters, uninterruptible power supplies, smart metering, and advanced sensing. They also are recommended for portable medical devices—with the lower cost and high performance, they may be attractive for consumer electronic devices as well. The BF506F EZ-KIT LITE development board is less expensive than other Blackfin EZ-Kits at $199, and includes a USB debug interface so you don't need to purchase a JTAG device. Embedded Linux is actively developed for the blackfin at http://blackfin.uclinux.org/ with toolchain development and a uCLinux port.

National Instruments/Tektronix Embedded Seminars

Measurement and Analysis Techniques for Embedded System Designers will be presented by National Instruments and Tektronix in 10 U.S. cities and Toronto starting March 2010. The half day session will include talks on automated control of measurements, advanced analysis tools, and examples of enhancing embedded system testing. They will showcase Tektronix test equiptment and National Instruments LabVIEW and LabVIEW SignalExpress software. Both analog and digital techniques will be presented.

Low Cost TI DSP Development USB Stick

The TMDX5505eZDSP USB Powered DSP development tool includes everything you need for fixed-point DSP development for $49. Texas Instruments recommends this processor family for low-power consumer applications such as voice recording, musical instruments, and portable medical devices. You can start developing without purchasing any other tools according to this introductory video. The eZdsp features an integrated codec with line-in and headphone jacks, as well as an expansion connector for custom projects. You can also download a DSP library and image processing library at TI's website. They include optimized assembly routines for the 55x that you can call from C code.