Xilinx Embedded Kit Discounted

Xilinx has discounted a few development kits including the Spartan-6 FPGA Embedded Kit available for $695.  It features the MicroBlaze core and Eclipse IDE for software development.  The included SP605 Evaluation board is a high-end platform with 10/100/1000 Ethernet, SFP transceiver connector, GTP port, PCI express x1 edge connector, DVI/VGA out, 128MB DDR3 and multiple I/O connectors.

TI Low Cost eZdsp Dev Kit Special Offer

The TI C5535 eZdsp dev kit is now available for just $55 through Oct. 24 Dec. 31, 2011 (extended).  Normally priced at $99, the kit demonstrates the low cost TMS320C553x ultra-low-power fixed-point DSP family which start at about $2 in production volumes.  The kit features the TMS320C5535 DSP, an on-board emulator for debugging, USB 2.0 with free software framework for HID and audio class, Code Composer Studio IDE and eXpressDSP development software, the DSP/BIOS kernel, audio I/O connectors, headphone with mic, micro SD slot, a small 96x16 OLED display,  pushbuttons and a 60 pin expansion connector.

The development board is supported by Spectrum Digital Incorporated. You can find all the documentation at the eZdsp5535 Support website. There you will find manuals, errata, schematics in pdf and orcad, gerbers, and layout info.  You can also download software and information for booting over SPI (the board will also boot over SD card).  An audio expansion board is listed, but only schematics and hardware information is provided at the time of writing.

According to the press release from TI, the included code composer studio is a full-featured version  normally priced at $495.  I expect the software tools will be limited to this processor family, but that would still be a good value.

EEWeb

Today my main website is featured on EEWeb as the enginering site of the day.  Aaron Clarke - List of DSP Resources | EEWeb

EEWeb is a electrical engineering community site with sections focusing on analog design, RF design, power management, embedded design, test and measure, components and PCB design.  There is also a forum, jobs and even an original electrical engineering comic.

Freescale Kinetis Challenge Seeks Innovative Embedded Applications for ARM Cortex-M4 Cores

The Freescale Make It Challenge: Kinetis MCUs is accepting registration until August 1, 2011 for embedded applications.  The winner will receive up to $11,000 cash in total prizes.  There will also be cash prizes for semifinalists and second and third place winners.  An online training session, a quiz and a design paper are required to enter.

Lattice MachX02 PLD Development Kit Limited Time Offer

For a limited time you can purchase a MachXO2 Pico Development Kit for $29.  Last year they had a similar offer for the Lattice XP2 FPGA Brevia development kit which is now selling for $49.  It supports designs with common interfaces like UART, SPI, I2C,  and LCD control with reference source code.  This link gives a complete list of XO2 reference IP.  The kit also includes design software and a USB interface for JTAG debugging.

NXP Promoting I2C Bus Chips With Giveaway

NXP Semiconductor is asking for video entries in a promotion for it's I2C chips.  Tell them what you would like to do with the NXP I2C demonstration board and you could win one.  There are no videos available yet, but this page will have a gallery of the best entries.  This isn't a general purpose development board, and the retail value is only about $40, but might be worth looking at if you plan on using I2C.  Also, be aware that the PC software to interface with the board is a little old, and support is only listed for windows OSes up to XP.

If you don't want to upload a video, you might still be interested in a free I2C sample kit.  They have kits available for industrial, portable, or computing applications.  For portable applications they list gaming and are promoting Fast-mode Plus (Fm+) I2C-bus technology which is compatible with NXP cortex-M0 ARM processors.

Intel Atom Development Kit Givaway

Intel is giving away limited quantities of its new Atom processor embedded development board valued at over $650. You must apply to the Intel® Embedded Seed Board Program and sign an NDA if your design is accepted.

The Kit contains and Atom E640 SOC at 1GHz on a Nano-ITX board with 1GB DDR2, GigE, SATA, USB and PCI Express. You also get the Wind River Embedded Development Kit.

Git for Windows and Emacs Part 2

I like to have the text and bin utils available when editing in GNU Emacs on windows.  That will allow me to use ediff, directory compare, and grep without any problems.  I used to install GnuWin32 for this purpose, but I found that the windows version of Git, mysysgit, will provide all the necessary commands.  If I am doing Git commits or other work I still do that outside of emacs in the git shell (see Part 1).

On windows, to use mysysgit with emacs, I start up emacs with a shortcut that runs a bat file.  Here are the contents of one I named 'gitemacs.bat' that sets the path and starts emacs:

PATH=c:/ac/emacs-23.2/bin;%PATH%
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\Program Files\Git\bin\sh.exe" --login -i -t -c runemacs.exe"

KNOWN ISSUE: When I try to run make with a cross compiler from within Emacs with compile-command, I get this an error:
/usr/bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file

TODO: Improve git command usage from within Emacs possibly by using git.el and git-mswin.el

Google Honors Edison With Doodle and Datacenters

If you visit Google today you will see a doodle commemorating Thomas Edison's 164th Birthday.  I found this short bio of Edison and his invention factory  from RadioElectronics.com a little more readable than Edison's Wikipedia entry.

It is interesting that the DC power distribution that Edison advocated is now making inroads in data centers to save energy.  This IEEE Spectrum article, 'Direct Current Networks Gain Ground,' has the alternate title 'Edison Vindicated' in the print version of the magazine.  Google utilizes DC power in its 'Manhatten Project' data center design revealing this big energy saving secret in 2009.  It will be very interesting to see what affect a DC power network will have on embedded system designs  It has the potential to make consumer electronic devices cheaper and easier to use, eliminating the need for manufacturers to provide, and for consumers to carry around, a wall wart or black brick power supply.

Easily Add a Graphical Meter to Your Embedded Sensor Project

Lascar Electronics recently was awarded an Electronic Products 2010 product of the year award for its PanelPilot platform.  PanelPilot is a graphical software development tool to create custom meters.  Lascar also sells a line of compatible LCD displays.  Currently, two models are available, a 2.4" and a 2.8", either can be purchased online for under $100.

The displays can monitor real-time data using interfaces on the back.  One allows direct monitoring of voltage using four screw terminal jacks.  A USB interface to a PC allows programming your custom graphical meter you created with PanelPilot.  I2C and SPI interfaces are available for controlling the meter from an embedded system, although this feature isn't yet supported by the development software.  Even without a serial interface, you could use an analog output from a development board like the Arduino or BeagleBoard.  This would give you an attractive real-time indicator without writing a lot of software or building your own display hardware.