Microsemi On Embedded Buying Spree, Aquires Actel

Microsemi announced its acquisition of Actel today, the latest in a series of embedded buys.  Microsemi's growth is creating a new leader in high-end embedded markets including military, wireless, and mobile phones. See the press release for the Actel acquisition for more details.

Other recent acquisitions include mobile wireless and security chip companies.  Last month it was VT Silicon and Arxan Defense Systems, earlier in the year it was White Electronic Designs.

STMicroelectronics Offers Low Cost ARM Cortex M3 Kit

The price war continues among microcontroller development kits with the STMicroelectronics STM32 Discovery Kit available worldwide from these major electronics distributors for about $10 US.  It features an ARM Cortex-M3 that is the basis of the STM32 Value line of processors.  It is programmable via USB and you can download development tools and example firmware projects.

See the STM32 Discovery Kit Press Release for more details.

Actel Giving Away Evaluation Kits For Best SmartFusion Designs

The Actel SmartFusion design contest offers winners a free SmartFusion Evaluation Kit.  To enter you will need to answer questions about how you would utilize all of the features of SmartFusion.  These devices combine an FPGA, programmable analog, and an ARM Cortex-M3.   Your answers must describe  your use of the FPGA, choice of algorithms, OS,  network stack, external signals, and external transducers.

Add USB Host Support To Your MCU Design

The Maxim MAX3421E allows you to add a USB Host port to any microprocessor with an SPI interface.  This IC has recently returned to active production after being listed as not recommended for new designs.  It is offered as an Arduino shield (daughter board) from Circuits@Home and the code library for the USB Host Shield is on github.  You can find many articles on the design and use of the USB shield on the Circuits@Home blog.  The design is open hardware and you can order it from Batch-PCB as well.

For commercial projects, the MAX3421E is supported by USB Stacks from HCC-Embedded and Micro Digital.  HCC-Embedded also has an SD card module to add a USB Host to any board with an SPI capable SD card socket.  The schematics and layout are a free download from the website.

The MAX3421EVKIT-1 from Maxim can also be used for developing a USB stack for individual devices.  It can be ordered directly from Maxim ($57) or from Digikey ($62).  You can start with the MAX3421E EVKIT-1 Software and User Guide to develop your own driver for targeted devices.  I have been working with the MAX3421E with an ARM processor board and have added support for a mouse, keyboard, and hub to the design.

My New DSP Blog

See a short review of the new features on the Beagleboard-xM on my new blog, Discourse on Embedded Signal Processing.

From the About page:

Discourse on Embedded Signal Processing is a blog about applying signal processing algorithms in embedded systems. The focus will be on implementing signal processing on general purpose DSPs, FPGAs, and microcontrollers. Topics include new processors and architectures, development tools, design flows, design techniques, and new applications.

I don't plan on any changes to EmbeddedCoding.com, I will still cover some DSP topics here as well.  I will post less frequently to Discourse on Embedded Signal Processing, but I plan on having more in-depth articles.

NXP Microcontroller Design Challenge Winners

The NXP Cortex-M0 LPC1100 Design Challenge results are in.  The grand-prize winner is a flight logger that used text to speech to communicate commands over a walkie talkie.

See www.lpc1100challenge.com for details on the winning designs.  Over 10,000 LPCXpresso boards were shipped, and the contest encouraged NXP to port Linux to the platform.  Linux support will be available in time for a launch at ESC Boston 2010 in September.

Consumer Devices Use Adobe Flash With Open Screen Project Technology

The Open Screen Project was created by Adobe to increase design-in of the Adobe Flash Player on consumer devices like cell phones.  Many companies are partners in the project including ARM, Cisco, Intel, Google, and Texas Instruments.  Microsoft and Apple are not on the list probably because they have competing technologies. Intel subsidiary Wind River recently joined the initiative.  Benefits to membership include a royalty-free license to use flash device run-times, and permission to use the Open Screen Project and Flash logo.

This video shows a Flash player running on an Android phone.



There is an Open Screen Project Fund sponsored by Adobe and Nokia.  It awards grants to develop Flash  applications that run on Nokia devices.

Renesas Offers Free Evaluation Kit For High-Performance MCU

For a limited time you can get the Renesas RX610 Stick Renesas Demo Kit (RDK) for free. Register to become eligible for the RX-Stick and you will also be registered for the RX62N RDK to be released later this year.
The RX610 Stick includes some unique features like a 14x10 LED array, a slide volume potentiometer, and a 4-direction joystick.  It has an on-board debugger and you can download demo projects for audio, DSP, FPU, and benchmarking. Renesas has also created the RenasasRulz.com online community with a developer's forum and more information about  the RX610 Stick.  You can see the kit in action in the RX-Stick Demo Youtube Video below.



The RX600 series is at the high-end of the RX family which is the successor to the H8SX, R32C and 32-bit Renesas MCUs.

BatchPCB offers low cost for prototypes

BatchPCB is a service of SparkFun Electronics that provides low cost PCBs in small quantities for electronics enthusiasts.  There are some limitations and a slow turn-around with this service, but the idea is to make it cheap by batching your design with other orders. Here is a blog post about alternatives to BatchPCB if you find it too slow or need more than a few prototypes.  Here is a comparison of BatchPCB and a few other PCB Pooling services including MakePCB, and Eurocircuits. If you are new to PCB design, this article from IEEE Spectrum covers an engineer's first PCB design using BatchPCB.

You can sell your design at BatchPCB as well.  For example, you can buy a Breakout Board for the Maxim MAX3421E USB host controller designed by Oleg Mazurov of Circuits@Home.  You can find some open-hardware for sale as well, which seems like it could cause problems. One open-hardware company, AdaFruit Industries, requested one of its designs removed from the BatchPCB marketplace.

New Sample Projects for Microsoft Sensors and Location Platform

Microsoft released sample code for three new projects using the Sensors and Location Platform included in Windows 7.  The projects are Graphing Accelerometer Data in Windows 7, Sensor Video-Capture Solution, and Build Your Own Game Controller.   Each project contains a white paper, and sample firmware, driver and application source.  The game controller project uses the XNA Racing Game Starter Kit and a Parallex BASIC Stamp 2-axis accelerometer board.  The Sensor & Location Platform Team Blog also has a post about the game controller project.