Author Archives: richard wilson

R&S scopes trigger on Manchester- and NRZ-coded buses

RTO-K50_46340_09b_small_textimageRohde & Schwarz has added more trigger and decoder options for its RTO and RTE oscilloscopes so that they can be used to debug serial protocols that employ Manchester or NRZ coding.

This coding is typically used with interface buses such as Profibus, Dali or MVB.

It is also used in the aerospace and defence sector in proprietary serial protocols.

The RTx-K50 trigger option covers data rates of up to 5Gbit/s and supports up to 50 different telegram formats.

According to the R&S, users can define their own preamble, frame ID, data, CRC and other telegram fields. Protocol decoding also takes Manchester code violations into account.

R&S writes:

“Users can trigger on telegram and data content with the R&S RTx-K50 option. The decoded protocol content is displayed in an easy-to-read, color-coded format. Time correlation with the analog signal makes it easy to identify faults caused by signal integrity problems.”

A tabular list of the protocol contents can also be provided.

 

Richard Wilson

Processor brings 1080p video to car rear-view mirrors

ONSPR2822_AP0200_LRESON Semiconductor has developed a range of image co-processors to work with 1.2 and 2 megapixel image sensors specifically in automotive rear view and surround view cameras.

According to Sandor Barna, vice president at ON Semiconductor, the processor will support both 1080p and 720p video in automotive applications.

“We have added higher resolution, multiple interfaces and new automotive-targeted features such as ASIL support,” said Barna.

The AP0200, AP0201 and AP0202 support up to 2 MP 1080p image sensors, and the AP0102AT supports up to 1.2 MP 720p image sensors.

The chips will be used for functional safety features Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) levels A and B. They support 30 frames/second (fps) operation at 1080p, 45 fps at 960p and 60 fps at 720p.

They also support Ethernet or parallel output interfaces, and incorporate I2C, SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and general purpose input/outputs (GPIOs).

Each has an operating temperature range of -40 °C to +105 °C (ambient) and is fully AEC-Q100 qualified.

The co-processors are designed to be used in combination with the firm’s image sensors such as the 1 MP AR0140AT, AR0132AT and AR0136AT, as well as the new AR0230AT 2 MP 1080p sensor.

 

 

Richard Wilson

USB will carry 4K video with new connector design

USB Type-C

USB Type-C

Could a USB connector support 4K high definition video? This is what the industry intends and a new look USB connector is likely to start appearing in PCs, TVs and mobiles over the next year.

The Type-C connector, as it is called, is expected to take over from the micro USB as the standard connector for multi-gigabit USB 3.0 interfaces.

What do USB Type-C connectors offer over the Type-A and Type-B USB connectors we are all so familiar with?

It will support the 10Gbit/s data rates which will make it a practical alternative to today’s HDMI connectors on your television.

The connector’s 32-pins can be configured to support higher speed video data standards such DisplayPort, MHL, and Thunderbolt. This is referred to as “alternate mode” Type-C.

Significantly, the Type-C connector in alt mode will support 4K video as defined in the USB 3.1 standard.

USB has made its name by being a power connector as well as a data interface. The new connector extends the power capabilities. The maximum power rating is 100W.

But it also supports bi-directional power flow to allow a device to either source or sink power.

It also supports simultaneous power and data transfer.

Type-C connectors also offer scalable power ranging from 5.0V at 0.5A for handheld devices up to 20V at 5.0A for fast charge.

The big change to the mechanical design of the Type-C connector is its reversible plug orientation and cable direction.

Type-C needs new USB transceivers, filters and interface devices and the first ICs are appearing on the market.

One of the first Type-C controller/driver packages comes from NXP Semiconductors, and others are likely to follow very soon.

The important Type-C devices are: the USB3 re-drivers, ESD protection and filtering devices, USB PD PHY, authentication, load switches and high speed switches.

The PC and mobile industry, including Apple, seems to think the redesign of the USB connector interface is necessary and worthwhile to support the growing hunger for high speed data transfers to mobile devices.

 

 

 

 

Richard Wilson

Will car makers become internet companies?

MG_81991-960x4251Connected vehicles will create a new business opportunity proving the internet-based mobile services to the driver.

Car manufacturers will soon be competing against technology companies to provide the online services to connected cars.

Autonomous connected vehicles are seen as the first major market for so-called internet of things (IoT).

This will be an important market for IC and hardware system suppliers. But arguably the biggest market opportunity will be in the provision v of online services that support the IoT devices in the car.

Car manufacturers see this as their domain and they want a major slice of the business. But to do this they will have to compete with IT firms and partner with software suppliers.

According to chip supplier NXP:

“The race to win the future mobility services business has begun. It is wide open on how automakers will fare versus the technology companies.”

Existing automotive technologies and business models that have worked for the car industry for a century are not so well suited to a changing car market with autonomous vehicles and IoT-connected cars.

“So will technology companies like Uber win this race by adopting new and successful business models?” asks NXP.

In order to address the connected vehicle opportunity it will be necessary to form cross-industry groups. This will combine car makers with electronics firms and software services suppliers.

No single sector will be able to capitalise on this market, due to its diversity and the range of technologies required.

Putting electronics management systems in cars was only the beginning. Connecting vehicles to the internet will add a far greater level of complexity to the automotive business model.

According to NXP, the convergence of personal and public transportation markets, will force car manufacturers to make “a leap of faith and fundamentally transform their value chain”.

NXP believes car makers will find themselves fighting on two major battlefronts.

Their core activity will be designing new forms of autonomous connected vehicles, but to be successful in the connected vehicles market they will need to develop and sell internet based services.

Whether they are successful in doing this will determine they business growth in the years ahead.

 

Richard Wilson

Chips at risk from bad voltages, says Mentor

voltage-806f401d-b106-4dee-9afe-615e54afca16Electrical reliability and protection from electrostatic discharge (ESD) has become more important to IC designers as on-chip geometries shrink and device complex increases.

ESD is not a new phenomenon in chip design but its importance to IC designers has increased in recent years.

The main factors for this are:

·         Smaller on chip geometries for wiring as well as feature size.

·         Multiple power islands on the one chip

·         Designing in third-party silicon IP

“The big risk designers have is from allowing inappropriate voltages being applied to different parts of the circuit on the same die,” says Carey Robertson, product marketing director at Mentor Graphics.

Chip reliability is also enforced by industry standards such as the ISO26262 automotive device certification.

This puts greater pressure on the chip designer to check for issue such as electrical overstress, over-heating and latch-up at all stages of the design.

“This means designers must ensure the longevity of devices especially if they are being designed into applications such as automotive or medical,” says Robertson.

So what does the designer need to think about?

·         Current density limits for specific areas of the die

·         Identifying power islands within the design

·         Pad spacing

·         Bond wire widths

·         Resistance matching

Foundries have their own reliability check. For example TSMC will give designers an ESD/latch-up design kit with as many as 60 design rule checks for 28nm devices and below.

For many designers this could be a new task for them, and the EDA firms have now introduced tools which can automate the process to a great extent.

Mentor’s tool for performing ESD and multiple power domain checks is called Calibre PERC.

According to Robertson, geometrical and electrical verification requirements must be described by a topological view rather than single device/pin to net relation.

“The tool can give a topological view incorporating many layout-related parameters as well as circuitry-dependent checks,” says Robertson.

According to Robertson, there will be an inevitable increase in the design cycle runtime, but he says this can be typically “a matter of hours”.

Designers will have to budget for this, because this is a world where customers are increasingly looking for device longevity as well as performance and low cost.

 

Richard Wilson

M2M connections increasing, but don’t call it IoT

M2M1The market for M2M cellular modules and wireless terminals is predicted to grow dramatically over the next three years.

By the end of 2019 the market for cellular M2M modules is expected to reach $2.2bn, according to a new report by Beecham Research.

The numbers of modules and wireless terminal is predicted to more than double in the same period.

Despite the move to 3G and 4G and talk of 5G, Beecham Research says that 2G modules will continue to provide for the majority of new M2M connected devices for the next few years.

“This is particularly the case in Europe where there are no plans to end 2G services. But while 2G module shipments will continue to increase in volume over the period, as a percentage of total shipments they will decline from almost 80% in 2014 to just 50% by 2019,” said the Beecham Research report.

The most common applications for cellular M2M connections are likely to be in smart meters, security alarms, medical devices, parking meters and connected cars systems.

“The increasing sophistication of M2M applications is driving the need for higher speeds, including real time video in security and connected car markets and the addition of service layers on telematics applications such as job scheduling and mobile payment systems,” says David Parker, senior analyst at Beecham Research and author of the report.

“There are a number of potentially disruptive factors in the market including the timing, pricing and acceptance of new technologies like LTE-M and the rise of alternative methods of connecting objects such as mesh networks, low power wide area (LPWA) and satellite.”

M2M wireless terminal sales are expected to more than double in revenue terms in the period to 2019.

These products are much more diverse and can cost from $150 up to $2,000 for complex multi-radio gateways.

 

Richard Wilson

M2M connections increasing, but don’t call it IoT

M2M1The market for M2M cellular modules and wireless terminals is predicted to grow dramatically over the next three years.

By the end of 2019 the market for cellular M2M modules is expected to reach $2.2bn, according to a new report by Beecham Research.

The numbers of modules and wireless terminal is predicted to more than double in the same period.

Despite the move to 3G and 4G and talk of 5G, Beecham Research says that 2G modules will continue to provide for the majority of new M2M connected devices for the next few years.

“This is particularly the case in Europe where there are no plans to end 2G services. But while 2G module shipments will continue to increase in volume over the period, as a percentage of total shipments they will decline from almost 80% in 2014 to just 50% by 2019,” said the Beecham Research report.

The most common applications for cellular M2M connections are likely to be in smart meters, security alarms, medical devices, parking meters and connected cars systems.

“The increasing sophistication of M2M applications is driving the need for higher speeds, including real time video in security and connected car markets and the addition of service layers on telematics applications such as job scheduling and mobile payment systems,” says David Parker, senior analyst at Beecham Research and author of the report.

“There are a number of potentially disruptive factors in the market including the timing, pricing and acceptance of new technologies like LTE-M and the rise of alternative methods of connecting objects such as mesh networks, low power wide area (LPWA) and satellite.”

M2M wireless terminal sales are expected to more than double in revenue terms in the period to 2019.

These products are much more diverse and can cost from $150 up to $2,000 for complex multi-radio gateways.

 

Richard Wilson

Touch displays need extra EMI protection, says supplier

Touch displays need extra EMI protection, says supplier

Touch displays need extra EMI protection, says supplier

Capacitive touch screen panels have their own particular problems with being susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI)

EMI coupling for capacitive touch screens can be a problem which  can result in the touch screen assembly being affected by external noise and emissions from the rest of the system.

As well as the system’s power and data processing functions, the display and associated electronics which may also emit EMI.

To address the issues of EMI in capacitive touch panels, display module supplier andersDX is now using customised driver ICs that have EMI specific filter circuits.

Mike Logan, display and input technology manager at andersDX said:

“Engineers understand that EMC needs to be tackled from the ground up. Capacitive touch screens are sensitive to EMI and protection can’t be added as an afterthought.”

These techniques will need to be applied on a case by case basis taking into account multiple factors and in particular the environment and the design of the host product.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. We will work with customers from initial concept right through to qualification, to ensure that the display works reliably in their application, doesn’t interfere with other systems in the environment and complies with the required standards,” said Logan.

 

Richard Wilson

Design kit for STM32F7 MCU has Arduino extension

Design kit for STM32F7 MCU

Design kit for STM32F7 MCU

STMicroelectronics’ STM32F7 series ARM Cortex-M7 core microcontroller just got easier to design in with a starter kit that has a Arduino Uno connector for coupling into the open source design environment.

Dubbed the Discovery kit, it comes with a 4.3-inch WQVGA colour LCD with touchscreen.

There is a 128Mbit Quad-SPI flash memory interface, 128Mbit SDRAM and interfaces for a micro SD card socket, Ethernet and USB OTG HS connector.

There are audio inputs and outputs, a camera connector and MEMS microphones.

The kit is available from distributor Rutronik which is also selling two versions of the STM32F7 MCU evaluation board. The STM32746G-EVAL2 and the STM32756G-EVAL2 with hardware cryptography acceleration.

The evaluation boards have a 5.7-inch touchscreen, 32Mbyte SRDRAM, the camera module and the RTC with backup battery.

The STM32F7 MCU with on-chip accelerator achieves 1082 CoreMark at 216MHz.

A version of the MCU, STM32F756, incorporates a crypto/hash processor providing hardware acceleration for AES-128, -192 and -256 encryption with support for GCM and CCM, Triple DES, and hash (MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-2) functions.

The series can be ordered at distributor Rutronik in seven different packages with 100 to 216 pins and as small as 4.5 x 5.5mm in WLCSP.

 

 

Richard Wilson

Concept Engineering upgrades netlist debugger for complex SoCs

Concept Engineering SpiceVision

Concept Engineering SpiceVision

German chip debugging tool firm Concept Engineering has released its latest generation tools.

StarVision PRO, RTLvision PRO, GateVision PRO, and SpiceVision PRO are scriptable debugging and visualisation tools.

As well as a debug tool for  analogue, digital and mixed-signal designs, StarVision PRO provides customisable design rule checks and automated netlist pruning.

There is an RTL debugger, RTLvision PRO, and GateVision PRO can be used for netlist debugging of more complex SoC netlists.

For SPICE simulation, the SpiceVision PRO can be used to view and debug transistor-level and post-layout netlists.

“With version 6, we continue to improve our specialized product family with individual tools for specific circuit debugging problems,” said Pascal Bolzhauser, product manager for Concept Engineering′s Vision product line.

Other features include:

  • StarVision PRO now also allows netlist pruning for the most common post-layout formats, DSPF and SPEF.
  • Improvements in the database API and GUI API allow even more sophisticated code to be developed and executed by the tool.
  • Enhanced batch processing capabilities allow more efficient processing of user-defined analysis and debugging tasks.
  • Unified File Open Dialog to load complex mixed-language SoC designs and libraries.

Version 6.0 products are available now to download from the company′s website. There are no additional fees for existing customers with valid licenses.

Richard Wilson