Author Archives: richard wilson

MIPI speeds up M-PHY and aims at in-car links

MIPI interfaces in a mobile device

MIPI interfaces in a mobile device

MIPI Alliance, the group driving the standardisation of mobile phone interfaces, has announced an updated version of its physical layer interface that supports an 11Gbit/s data rate for chip-to-chip within the phone.

MIPI M-PHY specification also widens protocol support to include third-party protocols as well as native MIPI protocols.

This latest release, v4.0, doubles the potential bandwidth per channel compared to the previous specification.

It introduces adaptive receiver equalisation to overcome channel distortion and support a peak transmission rate of 11.6Gbit/s per channel or 46.4Gbit/s aggregate data rate over four channels.

According to Joel Huloux, chairman of the board of MIPI Alliance, this will “dramatically bolster performances and throughput of data transmitted on 2 pins and offers companies new opportunities to enhance the capabilities of protocols that operate on this technology.”

The M-PHY spec now also scales optical media converter data rates up to Gear 4, giving designers the capability to build connections that are meters in length to support MIPI M-PHY’s on automotive systems.

For example cameras that use CSI-3, when based on UniPro enabled by M-PHY v4.0, will be able to transmit 4K video with 60 frames per second and 12 bits per pixel on a single differential pair.

Support for M-PHY v4.0 will be included in the next versions of MIPI UniProSM and MIPI CSI-3SM, which will undergo development later in 2015.

Standards that have adopted MIPI M-PHY include Mobile PCI Express (M-PCIe) and SuperSpeed USB Inter Chip (SSIC).

MIPI M-PHY has also been adopted by Google, along with the MIPI UniPro transport layer in the MIPI UniPort-MSM interface, to serve the modular needs of the Project Ara smartphone platform.

 

 

Richard Wilson

MIPI speeds up M-PHY and aims at in-car links

MIPI interfaces in a mobile device

MIPI interfaces in a mobile device

MIPI Alliance, the group driving the standardisation of mobile phone interfaces, has announced an updated version of its physical layer interface that supports an 11Gbit/s data rate for chip-to-chip within the phone.

MIPI M-PHY specification also widens protocol support to include third-party protocols as well as native MIPI protocols.

This latest release, v4.0, doubles the potential bandwidth per channel compared to the previous specification.

It introduces adaptive receiver equalisation to overcome channel distortion and support a peak transmission rate of 11.6Gbit/s per channel or 46.4Gbit/s aggregate data rate over four channels.

According to Joel Huloux, chairman of the board of MIPI Alliance, this will “dramatically bolster performances and throughput of data transmitted on 2 pins and offers companies new opportunities to enhance the capabilities of protocols that operate on this technology.”

The M-PHY spec now also scales optical media converter data rates up to Gear 4, giving designers the capability to build connections that are meters in length to support MIPI M-PHY’s on automotive systems.

For example cameras that use CSI-3, when based on UniPro enabled by M-PHY v4.0, will be able to transmit 4K video with 60 frames per second and 12 bits per pixel on a single differential pair.

Support for M-PHY v4.0 will be included in the next versions of MIPI UniProSM and MIPI CSI-3SM, which will undergo development later in 2015.

Standards that have adopted MIPI M-PHY include Mobile PCI Express (M-PCIe) and SuperSpeed USB Inter Chip (SSIC).

MIPI M-PHY has also been adopted by Google, along with the MIPI UniPro transport layer in the MIPI UniPort-MSM interface, to serve the modular needs of the Project Ara smartphone platform.

 

 

Richard Wilson

UK first to test on-the-move electric car charging

Highways England motorway charging

The trial of on-the-move wireless power charging for electric vehicles will start this year

The UK’s largest trial of on-the-move wireless power charging for electric and hybrid vehicles will start later this year.

The UK government has announced plans for trials of what it calls “off-road” power technology to investigate the introduction wireless charging on the country’s motorways and major A roads. This would involve charging vehicles on the move, without the need to stop and charge the car’s battery.

The trials follow the completion of the feasibility study commissioned by Highways England into ‘dynamic wireless power transfer’ technologies.

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said:

“The potential to recharge low emission vehicles on the move offers exciting possibilities. The government is already committing £500m over the next five years to keep Britain at the forefront of this technology.”

The trials, which are expected to begin later this year following a procurement process, will involve fitting vehicles with wireless technology and testing the equipment, installed underneath the road, to replicate motorway conditions.

The government has yet to appoint a prime contractor for the project.

The trials are expected to last for approximately 18 months and, subject to the results, could be followed by on road trials.

A longer-term plan is to also install plug-in charging points every 20 miles on the motorway network as part of the government’s Road Investment Strategy.

 

Richard Wilson

Infineon Aurix MCUs get free Tasking RTOS and tools

Infineon's TriCore Aurix MCUs have free software development tools

Infineon’s TriCore Aurix MCUs have free software development tools

Infineon’s TriCore Aurix microcontrollers now have free software development tools courtesy of Altium.

The Lite Edition of the Tasking VX-toolset for TriCore includes a one year license and can be requested now on the Infineon or Tasking websites.

Harm-Andre, Tasking product manager, writes:

“We were often asked about the availability of a quick and easy way to explore the advantages of Tasking compiler technology for Infineon Aurix microcontrollers and our partnership with Infineon has allowed us to develop a free toolset that provides the embedded software developers around the world with the complete TASKING TriCore compiler experience with no compromises to features and performance.”

This toolset features the Aurix configuration tools, which include:

  • Integrated Pin Mapper, which can be used to assign the peripheral module signals to physical pins on the chip.
  • Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for TriCore. This has a real-time, multitasking kernel designed specifically for time-critical embedded applications that require a high degree of modularity and configuration.
  • Software Platform Builder provides a graphics editor and code generator which can configure low-level drives, C files, header files, and the RTOS.

Additional information can be found in the Lite Edition v1.0r1 Release Notes.

 

Richard Wilson

STM32F7 gets safety-critical system design tools

ThunderBench screenshot

ThunderBench screenshot

Phaedrus Systems, the UK-based supplier of development tools for safety-critical embedded systems, has announced that its Emprog ThunderBench C/C++ development tool suite supports the STM32F7 discovery kit (STM32F746NGH6, to be precise), which includes the STM32F7 ARM Cortex-M7 based MCU.

The kit is typically used for applications such as audio and video players, audio recorders, and home intruder alarms. The kit also supports audio, video and colour touchscreen design features.

Chris Hills, CTO of Phaedrus Systems, writes:

“Emprog ThunderBench provides development support for the entire ARM Cortex-M family. ThunderBench provides the most comprehensive integration of C/C++ compiler, debugger, IDE within an Eclipse platform.”

Options include static code analysis, JTAG probes and a Segger RTOS. ThunderBench also has many Board Support packages for the ARM Cortex family.

According to the supplier, there is support from third-party vendors for ThunderBench via Eclipse plug-in capabilities.

 

 

 

Richard Wilson

Wireless network design adapts to change

TE 2If you are considering building a distributed antenna system (DAS) for your next wireless network, John Spindler, director of product management at TE Connectivity makes suggestions about how to configure your system.  

Distributed antenna systems have evolved over the years, there have been several technology bandwagons onto which vendors have climbed.

At first, a distributed antenna system (DAS) consisted of an RF source, like a repeater, and half-inch (or thicker) coaxial cabling in both vertical and horizontal runs that distributed the signal to passive antennas throughout a building, inside of a tunnel or along a roadway. So the system was completely passive, having no active electronics.

The upside to this approach was that the coax, being a broadband medium, could carry any signal, but the downsides were that the coax was costly and often difficult and expensive to install, and the signal attenuated with distance, so the proximity of the antenna to the RF source determined the strength of its signal.

Also it’s not a solution that’s been able to maintain performance with 3G and 4G technology and broad spectrum or multi-operator network demands.

Coax-based systems are popular in countries that still predominantly use 2G or 3G, and with relatively low labour costs, where the added cost of pulling heavy coax through ceilings or walls isn’t an issue or where only voice service is needed.

As technology evolved, DAS manufacturers adopted one of two approaches. They either used low-power amplifiers in the building’s ceilings, close to the distributed antennas, or they used high-power amplifiers in the wiring closet to feed remote antennas via half-inch coax (a sort of hybrid approach to what we now know as active and passive DAS).

The high-power adherents insisted that amplifiers didn’t belong in ceilings, where they would be hard to service, while the low-power adherents insisted that the best system performance (particularly for data) was obtained by putting the amplifier as close as possible to the antenna.

For years, this difference amounted to somewhat of a war among DAS vendors, mobile operators and system integrators, but as the market developed, it became clear that each approach was suited for different use cases.

In a hotel, for example, the ceilings are often high and made of plaster or sheetrock, and it’s difficult to gain access for placing ceiling-mounted remote amplifiers. In these cases, the use of closet-mounted, high-power amplifiers is a better fit for the application.

TE 1In offices and enterprises, ceiling-mounted amplifiers are easier to deploy because of the drop ceilings. Ceiling-mounted amplifiers are also important in use cases where you need to ensure high data rates and/or to create a very “hot” dominant signal in the structure because of interference from outside sources – buildings in central London are an example of such a case.

Most vendors have introduced both high-power and low-power versions of their products, so you can have it your way when it comes to matching the DAS architecture to the specific needs of the venue or environment.

So the important factors to consider are the link budget (how “hot” a signal you need), performance requirements (especially in multi-band and multi-technology systems), and the total cost (for the product, installation, and support of the system). DAS is no longer a one-size-fits-all proposition, and the beneficiary is the end user.

 

Richard Wilson

Maker move sees Windows 10 IoT Core run fast on Raspberry Pi

microsoftMicrosoft has jumped into the maker community with the public release of Windows 10 IoT Core which will run on the Raspberry Pi 2.

Microsoft has designed in support for Python and Node.js, including a new Express Node.js project template. It also claims that GPIO performance on the Raspberry Pi 2 has improved by x8 to x10.

Analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) and pulse-width modulation (PWM) are now supported via breakout boards and ICs.

Microsoft is aiming to tap into the maker community by supporting frameworks they prefer to build apps with. So there is support for the standard UWP languages like C++, C#, JS and VB, but it also means bringing support – including full tools, debugging, and project systems – for Node.js and Python.

There is also support for Arduino boards from Windows and so they can talk to Windows devices as if they were virtual shields.

This release of Windows 10 IoT Core requires a development machine running the 7/29/2015 release of Windows 10 (Build 10240) and Visual Studio 2015.

“The project templates for the standard UWP languages create projects that look like standard UWP projects, but for Node.js and Python we’ve worked hard to make these apps look and feel just like they do on other platforms,” said Microsoft.

A guide to Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2 on the element 14 website which includes community-created guides and design projects.

Richard Wilson

Sellafield clean-up removes 50-year-old radioactive relic

Large-Decanner-77-610x400A giant relic from the earliest days of Britain’s nuclear industry has been dredged from the bottom of Sellafield’s oldest storage pond.

The machine, weighing six tonne, has lain at the bottom of the pond more than half a century before being lifted clear last month.

In order to safely hoist the rusting hulk to the surface, the machine, called a decanner which was originally used to strip the outer coating from nuclear fuel rods before they were sent to be ‘reprocessed’, had to be cut in half with a innovative underwater ‘diamond wire saw’.

Project manager David Birks said:

“We spent months planning for the job, but there’s only so much preparation you can do before you have to have a go. And when we did have a go, we found that the reality was different to the drawings and the underwater camera inspection.

“You would be forgiven for thinking that this kind of heavy lift would pretty straightforward, but when you bring in the fact that it has been submerged underwater in a contaminated pond for decades, this makes things hugely complicated.”

Constructed in the 1950s to receive, cool and decan fuel from the Windscale reactors during the cold war, the storage pond is one of the site’s most hazardous facilities containing a radiological inventory of sludge, oxide fuel, metal fuel and remaining intermediate level waste which needs to be retrieved, reprocessed and safely stored.

Robotic technology is an important tool in the clean-up, and as with so much of the technology being developed for the Sellafield operation, much of this is being made available to industry through collaborations.

The history of the facilities, collectively known as Legacy Ponds and Silos, featured in a BBC4 documentary ‘Britain’s Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield’, which was broadcast on August 10th, was presented by physicist Jim Al-Khalili.

 

 

Richard Wilson

Atmel EEPROM needs just two pins, one wire

Atmel has designed a self-powered EEPROM, the AT21CS01, which requires only two-pins—a data pin and ground pin - for operation.

Atmel has designed a self-powered EEPROM, the AT21CS01, which requires only two-pins—a data pin and ground pin – for operation.

Atmel has designed a self-powered EEPROM which requires only two-pins—a data pin and ground pin – for operation.

As the devices are self-powered, there is no need for a power source or Vcc pin, with a parasitic power scheme over the data pin.

These single-wire EEPROMs have a specified power standby of 700nA, 200µA for write current, and 80µA for read current at 25 deg C.

The AT21CS01/11 products include a product identification with a plug-and-play 64-bit unique serial number in every device. According to the supplier this means the memory chip can be used with wearable and internet-connected healthcare devices.

The chips have an electrostatic discharge (ESD) rating (IEC 61000-4-2 Level 4 ESD Compliant).

Padam Singh, director of marketing, memory products, Atmel, writes:

“Our new Single-Wire EEPROM family makes it convenient to add serial EEPROM using just one-pin from the MCU/MPU without the need to route the Vcc to the device. In addition, the plug-and-play 64-bit serial number is the easiest way to add identification to various accessories and consumables.”

The AT21CS01 devices offer a security register with a 64-bit factory programmed serial number and an extra 16-bytes of user programmable and permanently lockable storage.

The devices use the I2C protocol and up to eight devices can be connected on the same bus.

There are two variants of the device available to support different voltage requirements. Atmel’s AT21CS01 is targeted for low-voltage applications operating at 1.7V- 3.6V.

For applications that require higher voltage ranges such as Li-Ion/polymer batteries, the AT21CS11 will support 2.7V- 4.5V operating range and is the ideal product to meet IEEE1725 specifications for electronic identification of battery packs.

The Atmel AT21CS01 devices are available now in production quantities in 3-lead SOT23, 8-lead SOIC and 4-ball WLCSP. The AT21CS11 will be available in Q4, 2015.

 

Richard Wilson

Imagination demos Vulkan open API on Android

PowerVR gnomes

Imagination will demonstrate a prototype of the new Vulkan open-source graphics API

Imagination Technologies will demonstrate a prototype of the new Vulkan open-source graphics API on a Google Nexus Player  with its PowerVR GPU.

The intention is to demonstrate at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Los Angeles this week, the capability of the soon to launched Vulkan API for the Android graphics developer community.

Vulkan, which is not yet publicly available, will mark the entry of open standards consortium Khronos into the low-level graphics API field.

Vulkan is an open standard API for graphics processors which is designed to make the most of  multi-threaded processor architectures.

It will be positioned as a lower level graphics API than existing OpenGL ES APIs.

Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group writes:

“Today, OpenGL and OpenGL ES provide access to billions of GPUs, and Khronos will continue to evolve and maintain these popular 3D APIs. The complementary Vulkan open standard API will deliver high-efficiency access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs, providing applications with direct control over GPU acceleration for maximised performance and predictability.”

Google is supporting Vulkan on its Android products.

 

 

 

Richard Wilson