New on Embedded.com

Exclusives

Mark Saunders, Cypress Semiconductor

HW/SW co-development (with finally some emphasis on software)

Ateet Mishra and Rajiv Mittal

Reducing signoff corners to achieve faster 40 nm SOC design closure

Highlights

The hackers have your PlayBook

Software liability laws – Part 2

On remembering the past & anticipating the future

Editor's Note

Bernard Cole Site Editor Embedded.com

It is only five days into 2012 and it's already clear that many of you have made New Year's resolutions to ignore the predictions of another flat year for IC sales and the resultant decline in chip executive confidence.

Instead, you're forging ahead with new products and designs. News and product introductions this week include Linaro's downloadable builds of Android Version 4.0 , Intel's 32 nm Atom and 22 nm Ivy Bridge , Broadcom's settop box and gateway ICs, Greenpeak's motion-enabled RF4CE SoC , the Green Hills Integrity 11 RTOS upgrade , and the Asix USB 3.0 to Ethernet controller.
Design article submissions have also continued unabated. In addition my Editor's Top Picks on hardware/software codevelopmen t, optical navigation, and 40 nm SoC design , other articles cover securing USB dongles, developing secure code, and implementing field oriented control.

Jack Ganssle's column is Part 2 in a series on software liability laws , and we have another security blog from David Kleidermaker on “The Hackers have your Playbook . “

Design How Tos

HW/SW co-development (with finally some emphasis on software)

In this Product How-To article, Mark Saunders of Cypress looks at the problems of hardware/software co-development from the point of view of the software designer using the company's PSoC Creator to illustrate his exposition.

Reducing signoff corners to achieve faster 40 nm SOC design closure

How to reduce the number of timing signoff corners as SoCs move to smaller dimension nanometer processes by better understanding of the impact of smaller geometry variations across multiple corners.

How to design secure USB-based dongles

There are several ways to design a secure dongle that balances system cost with the level of security required for a particular application. This article describes helpful techniques.

Let your finger do the (optical) navigating

Here's a brief tutorial on optical finger navigation for use in smartphone user interfaces and how to take advantage of spatial detection algorithms for better image correlation, higher reliability, simpler assembly, and less power consumption.

Weighing scale design—Measure signals accurately

Typically, weigh scale designs use a resistive load cell configured as a Wheatstone bridge. In the load cells, the signal levels are low and the effects of noise are prominent. Here's how to measure this signal accurately to meet the requirements of precision measurement for weighing scales.

Developing secure code using SPARK (Part 1)

Software for secure, high-reliability systems can benefit from Correctness by Construction and by language subsetting in Ada via SPARK.

Implementing field oriented control of a brushless DC motor

Field Oriented Control (FOC) provides efficiency for significant energy and dollar savings when driving the motors that drive the world.

Highly efficient and reliable power supply for LED street lighting

To achieve long operating life, you need a a lasting, robust power supply for street-lighting applications

Circuit Protection Design for Photovoltaic Power Systems

Learn about the special circuit protection requirements of solar energy systems.

In-vehicle infotainment software architecture: Genivi and beyond – Part 1

This article discusses next-generation infotainment system architectural approaches that address automotive networking security issues from the ground up.

Embedded Systems Bookshelf

Excerpts

Embedded Books Reading Room
Bernard Cole's favorite links to book excerpts.

Reviews

Engineer's Bookshelf
Airport fiction blows. A look at books other engineers are reading and why you should read them, too. Recommend and write a review yourself. E-mail Brian Fuller.

Jack Ganssle's Bookshelf
A list of book reviews by Jack Ganssle, contributing technical editor of Embedded Systems Design and Embedded.com.

Max's Cool Beans
Clive “Max” Maxfield, the editor on Programmable Logic DesignLine, often writes about interesting books.

Product News

Spreadtrum offers Android platforms for $100 smartphones

Spreadtrum Communications Inc. has announced that is has Android platforms that should enable customers to make $100 retail TD-SCDMA and EDGE/Wi-Fi smartphones with 1-GHz clock performance. The TD-SCDMA platform is based on the SC8810 chip and the EDGE/Wi-Fi platform is based on the SC6820 chip, Spreadtrum (Shanghai, China) said.

GreenPeak rolls SoC for motion-enabled RF4CE remote controls

GreenPeak Technologies has announced the launch of the GP570, a chip that will allow the development of low cost motion-enabled remote controls designed for smarter and intuitive navigation of interactive entertainment services.

Green Hills' major upgrade INTEGRITY 11 supports next-gen embedded systems

Green Hills' INTEGRITY 11 RTOS includes an array of technological advancements addressing security, reliability, performance, communication, and usability requirements in next-generation embedded systems.

PolyCore Software supports ThreadX RTOS on Tensilica's Xtensa multicore devices

To enable developers to more quickly adapt their applications to Tensilica's multicore configuration, Express Logic, Inc. and PolyCore Software, Inc. (PSI) have partnered to enable PSI's Poly-Platform to support Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS on Tensilica's Xtensa multicore devices.

Transceiver supports NFC capability in cars

Designed for automotive applications, the Melexis MLX90132 is a 13.56MHz, fully integrated, multi-protocol RFID/NFC transceiver IC that supports ISO/IEC protocols 18092, 14443A and B, 15693 as well as 18000-3

ASIX releases the world's first single-chip USB 3.0 to gigabit Ethernet controller

ASIX Electronics Corp. claims that the AX88179, the company's latest addition to ASIX's USB-to-LAN product portfolio, is the world's first USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet controller.

19-inch industrial computer based on the Intel QM57 chipset

DSM Computer has added three variants to its 19-inch Infinity computer family, based on DSM's new PICMG 1.3 industry slot CPU 96M4371o.

Silicon Labs claims lowest power wireless microcontroller

Silicon Labs is aiming to have the industry's most energy-efficient microcontroller and wireless MCU with several architectural and technology innovation in its C8051F96x

Intel i5 or i7 processor-based rail certified computers engineered with industrial grade components

Captec's RCC-Series of rail certified computers has been specifically engineered with industrial grade components to ensure high reliability and availability.

News

CES: Ceva recognizes gestures with new core

DSP specialist Ceva will demo at CES the first of a new family programmable vision processing cores handling gesture and face recognition.

Analyst sees another flattish year for ICs in 2012

Semiconductor revenue is forecast to grow by zero to 4 percent in 2012, after likely growing about 1 to 2 percent in 2011, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Chip executives’ confidence in decline, says KPMG

The Semiconductor Business Confidence Index, a metric based on survey data gathered by audit and consultancy company KPMG LLC, has fallen to 46 in 2011, compared with 60 in 2010 and 61 in 2009, the firm said.

‘Accelerated’ Android 4.0 available on ARM dev boards

Linaro, a not-for-profit engineering organization that works with open-source software for the ARM processor architecture, has announced downloadable builds of v4.0 of the Android operating system on development boards from Samsung and ST-Ericsson.

Intel rolls 32-nm Atom, preps 22-nm Ivy Bridge

Intel rolled out 32 nm Atom chips for netbooks and embedded systems and is reportedly planning to release its 22 nm Ivy Bridge notebook and desktop CPUs in April.

Intel’s Medfield benchmarks leaked

Purported specifications and benchmarks of Intel's upcoming 32nm Medfield platform have been leaked online, detailing performance figures set to rival if not beat current chip market leaders in the tablet space.

Touchscreens adopt on-cover over in-cell

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