[Technology Report]
Smaller, Power-Packed Hi-Def Designs Rule This Year's ESC
The upcoming Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose will showcase a plethora of new products intent on expediting the delivery of lower-cost and higher-performance solutions.
It's tough to be optimistic these days. But based on some of the new products appearing at next week’s Embedded Systems Conference, it should be a good year for developers. The latest tools, chips, and platforms will roll out at the San Jose Convention Center, including Texas Instruments’ newest DaVinci microcontroller, which targets mobile hi-def presentation.
A few companies showed us their releases early, though a few surprises will likely pop up at the conference. Check our online coverage for breaking news. I’ll also be hosting a StackableUSB panel on Thursday if you make it to the show.
BOARDS AND MODULES IN SAN JOSE Micro/Sys will have a few more quarter-sized StackableUSB modules on display (see “USB Thinks Inside The Box” atwww.electronicdesign.com, ED Online 20112). These tiny, stackable devices use USB to communicate with each other (Fig. 1).
The USB1132 PIC32 Industrial Client microcontroller integrates an 80-MHz Microchip PIC32 on board along with 512 kbytes of flash and 32 kbytes of SRAM. The chip features a 16-channel, 10-bit, 500-ksample/s analog-to-digital converter (ADC), an RS-232 port, eight programmable LEDs, digital I/O, a serial peripheral interface (SPI), and I2C support.
The USB1124 is a low-power alternative that draws only 40 mA, suiting it for battery-powered applications. It has a 32-MHz Microchip PIC32 with 256 kbytes of flash and 16 kbytes of SRAM, and the complement of peripherals is similar to the USB1132.
The USB1108 is home to an 8-bit, 48-MHz, pipelined Silicon Labs C8051F340 8051 microcontroller with 48 MIPS of performance. It contains 64 kbytes of flash, 2 kbytes of EEPROM, and 4352 bytes of RAM. Peripherals include a 10-bit differential ADC, digital I/O, timers, pulse-width modulators (PWMs), serialperipheral interface (SPI), I2C, and a serial port.
Pricing starts at $165 for the USB1132, $145 for the USB1124, and $125 for the USB1108. They’re rated for industrial temperature operation from –40°C to 85°C.
WinSystems will show off its 90- by 96-mm PC/104-Plus PPM-LX800-G single-board computer (SBC), which features AMD’s 0.9-W LX800—a highly integrated, compatible, Pentium- class processor with availability through at least 2015 (Fig. 2). The board also includes 1 Gbyte of system DRAM and up to 16 Gbytes of CompactFlash. The video engine supports displays with resolutions up to 1920 by 1440 for CRTs or up to 1600 by 1200 for LCD flat panels.
An Intel 82551ER 10/100 controller provides Ethernet support. There are two USB 2.0 ports with in-rush and overcurrent protection and four RS-232/422/485 full-duplex serial UARTs, 16 lines of TTLcompatible (transistor-transistor level) digital I/O, and AC’97 audio. Also, it offers an enhanced integrated-drive electronics (EIDE) controller, parallel port, and PS/2 mouse/keyboard controllers.
The PPM-LX800-G requires only a 5-V power supply. The board will operate over the industrial temperature range from –40°C to 85°C without requiring a fan. It costs $495.
The RMB-C1 from Octagon Systems is a rugged mobile server designed for applications that require high performance in severe environments. As a member of the CORE Systems product line, it tightly integrates the electrical, thermal, and mechanical components into a complete system with no compromise to any one segment, according to the company.
Designed for fanless operation from –40°C to 75°C, the RMBC1’ s marine-grade, extruded, sealed enclosure houses a 1.5-GHz x86-compatible processor. Its full complement of I/O includes USB, CAN, VGA, serial, video, audio, and digital I/O ports. Expansion is possible using PC/104 and Mini PCI boards. Options include an internal battery-backup UPS, SATA flash drives up to 128 Gbytes, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi via the Mini PCI interface, and a 16-channel GPS with –158-dBm sensitivity.
Acces I/O will present a host of PC/104- and PC/104-Pluscompatible boards with its own USB offerings (Fig. 3). Dubbed USB/104, the boards use the standard USB cabling approach rather than the stacking StackableUSB approach. They allow designers t o stack boards or spread them around by up to 10 or 15 feet. The USB/104 form factor matches PC/104 so that USB/104 boards can be included on top of a PC/104 stack. Rugged USB connectors permit the boards to be used in most embedded applications.
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