New on Embedded.com
Exclusives
Mark Grayson, Kevin Shatzkamer and Klaas Wierenga, Cisco Systems
Mobile Internet basics: Transport layer mobility problems
Mike Micheletti. LeCroy
Taking full advantage of 8b/10b encoding in your USB 3.0 design
Tyler Gilbert, CoActionOS
Taking advantage of the Cortex-M3's pre-emptive context switches
Highlights
CES Day One: Trends to watch in 2012 and some things unveiled
EE Times editorial wrap up of CES press day
EE Times editorial wrap up of CES Unveiled
Gadgets and faces at CES Unveiled
Editor's Note
My secular editorial equivalent of holidays such as Christmas are conferences such as the Consumer Electronics Show being held this week in Las Vegas, Nev. Everyone in the electronics and embedded systems design industries tries to be there with technology 'gifts' that will both wow the consumer and impress the companies that build devices so they will use the newest hardware and software technology in their designs for the following year.
This week's CES is a cornucopia of such gifts. To get a broad view of what is going on at CES before diving into the specific stories and articles, I recommend reading the following:
CES Day One: Trends to watch in 2012 Gadgets and faces at CES Unveiled Editorial Wrap up of CES Unveiled
To keep up to date for the rest of this week at CES, go to two special UBM sites: EE Buzz , which collates all relevant CES news stories, blogs, tweets, and videos irrespective of their source, and EETimes CES 2012 , which includes all UBM Electronics staff-written news, commentary, and analysis.
For some background on the technologies featured at CES, my Editor's Top Picks are “Mobile Internet Basics,” and “8/10 bit encoding in your USB 3.0 design.” Other design articles this week on Embedded.com include Bluetooth low energy design, calculating multicore power, software-defined radio design, and energy harvesting.
And for a change of pace go to “It's Donald Knuth's 74th birthday and he's talking ” and view the videos the computer programming pioneer has recorded, as well as read Jack Ganssle's career advice in “Hot fields for the college-bound . ”
Design How Tos
Mobile Internet basics: Transport layer mobility problems
In this series, the authors of “Building the Mobile Internet” provide a tutorial on extending Internet connectivity into mobile networking by using extensions of protocols such as IPv4 and IPv6 as well as mobile specific protocols such as DSMIP, IKEv2 and MoBIKE. Part 1: Dealing with transport layer mobility.
Taking full advantage of 8b/10b encoding in your USB 3.0 design
A step by step guide to implementing 8b/10 bit encoding in a USB 3.0 design including how and when to use commercially-available SuperSpeed PIPE PHYs, versus a custom design with general purpose deserializer components to allow direct access, capture and recording.
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.
When the Power Fails: Designing for a Smart Meter's Last Gasp
A smart meter is powered by the same bus the meter is monitoring. When power is lost, the meter must record state information to flash memory or send out a wireless signal — the meter's last gasp. The problem of efficiently and cost-effectively providing hold-up energy typically falls to power supply designers. Try one of these flyback switch mode designs to provide for that last gasp.
Toyota accelerations revisited—hanging by a (tin) whisker
Several accelerator pedal position sensors had tin whiskers that could cause short circuits.
New metric for phase-change memory
A team from IBM Research-Zurich proposes a new non-resistance-based cell-state metric for phase-change memory.
Define drain-current conditions when calculating power for multi-core SoCs
Automotive electronics for safety applications are increasingly implementing multi-CPU architectures with on-chip redundancy to ensure applications using minimal software overhead. Such redundancy is good for safety, but on the other hand has disadvantages such as higher die area, noise, and power consumption.
Bluetooth low energy and proprietary RF for HID applications—A comparison
This article reviews and compares the Bluetooth Low Energy technology with proprietary protocols in the HID market. A look at interoperability, flexibility, complexity, power, and cost.
Hands on RF: Handle multiple waveforms in a software-defined radio platform
This paper steps through a software defined radio project that used the secure Xilinx® Zynq™-7000 Extensible Processing Platform (EPP).
Power-management functions for energy harvesting
Understand the functional blocks needed for this role in a harvesting design
Capacitive proximity detection spurs automotive convenience features
A broad range of motion detection depends on an astute application of technology. Moisture and rapid temperature changes are challenges.
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
CES: Wilocity first to market with WiGig wireless system
Wilocity will deliver what the company claims is the world's first multi-gigabit wireless system based on the newly completed and ratified WiGig 60 GHz standard, in mid-2012.
CES: InvenSense launches integrated 9-axis motion tracking device
InvenSense, Inc. announced the availability of the MPU-9150, which the company touts as the world's first fully integrated 9-axis MotionTracking device for mobile devices.
CES: Conexant introduces new low-power, high-definition audio codecs for mobile apps
The CX20752 and CX20754 from Conexant Systems Inc. are low-power HD audio codecs designed to provide high-quality audio for the mobile PC market, including notebooks, ultrabooks, and tablets.
CES: Frontier Silicon network audio module features dual-band 802.11n connectivity
Frontier Silicon announced the launch of Milan, a module for high volume networked wireless speaker and docker applications.
CES: Murata launches first capacitive coupling wireless solution
Murata's LXWS series capacitive coupling wireless power transmission module enables wireless recharging of tablet PCs and other mobile devices.
HTML5 platform for infotainment systems debuts at CES
QNX software platform allows automakers to customize user experience and leverage rapidly evolving mobile applications.
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.
Huawei's MediaPad Now Comes with Android 4.0
Huawei's MediaPad Now Comes with Android 4.0
Neurotechnology's new biometric technologies for Android include face and fingerprints in combination
Neurotechnology has launched a new line of embedded biometric technologies using face and fingerprints in combination.
High-reliability IP67 Ethernet switch targets domestic security applications
Parvus's DuraNET 10-10 network switch provides five 10/100 plug-and-play Ethernet ports in a ruggedized package.
Ace Thought launches multi-threaded software video decoder suite for ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore and Cortex-A15 MPCore
Ace Thought Technologies now offers a multi-threaded software video decoder suite for ARM Cortex-A series of application processors.
Touch controller features 65 sense I/Os
Cypress has launched a single-chip TrueTouch controller based on Gen4 technology for tablets, ultrabooks and laptops.
News
Samsung: Free the TV challenge
Nowadays, every TV manufacturer dreads being categorized as just another TV company. Samsung has a plan to combat the problem. And it might not be a bad plan.The Korean giant is determined to leverage its current position as the world's number one TV brand, the number one smartphone vendor, and one of the strongest semiconductor manufacturers. If the company plays its cards right, Samsung could be the latest company to rewrite the history of consumer electronics, which is traditionally plagued with a rat's nest of disconnected devices.
Nest Thermostat keeps it
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