Intel Sandy Bridge
AMD eBrazos APU
Bug Labs Bug 2.0
Who says CES is just about consumer products? Well, most people do but there were a lot of semiconductor and system vendors at the show as well hawking their wares. We got quite a few of them to show off their technology for our cameras. You can see the results at Engineering TV's CES 2011 video coverage for Electronic Design. Also check out our CES 2011 Trade Show coverage page for more articles.
Our video editors are still scrambling to get all the videos up but I have indexed a sizable chunk here and split them into sections. Check out the Engineering TV's CES 2011 playlist for the latest.
Microprocessors
- NuFront NuSmart 2816 2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 SoC Optimized for Mobile Computing
- AMD DirectX 11-capable Mobile Graphics Technology
- AMD Delivers the World's First and Only APU for Embedded Systems
- The AMD Fusion Family of APUs
- New MIPS-based Consumer Electronics at CES 2011
- VIA Nano X2 Processor and VL810 USB 3.0 Hub Controller
- NVIDIA Tegra 2 Brings Console-Quality Gaming to Mobile Devices
- Freescale Showcases Tablets with i.MX51 and i.MX53 Family of Processors
- BUG 2.0 Modular Wireless Development Platform
- Sigma Designs SMP8910 SoC Delivers VXP Video Processing to Connected Media Players
Intel's Sandy Bridge (Fig. 1) was everywhere. Most systems on display were consumer oriented but it was Intel's embedded news that sparked a lot of interest with developers (see An Embedded Sandy Bridge). AMD's Fusion and eBrazo's (Fig. 2)Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) platforms (see APU Targets Embedded Applications) were on display as well. In addition, VIA Technologies was showing off their multicore VIA Nano X2. AMD and NVidia had graphics boards on display and NVidia was also showing off systems that took advantage of the Tegra 2. Freescale had mobile examples using their i.MX line of processors. Sigma Design's was showing off their multimedia SoC. Likewise, NuFront's 2 GHz NuSmart 2816 dual core Arm processor (see 2GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 Targets Tablets) was inside some mobile reference designs.
Finally, Bug Labs was showing off their Bug 2.0 (see Build With A Bug) development kit based on Texas Instrument's OMAP processor. The modular system Bug 2.0 system (Fig. 3) includes wireless connectivity and adds a graphics interface for display modules.
Storage
Specialized processors are showing up in SoC's (system-on-chip) designs for gateways and NAS (network attached storage). We took a look at a number of new digital platforms at CES and Storage Visions.
- Marvell HyperDuo for 6Gb/s SATA Controllers
- PLX Gateway & Media Platform Reference Design
- Applied Micro Processors for NAS Solutions
- APM Network Processors for NAS and High-End Wireless Access Points
- APM 3x3 .11n Wireless Access Point Reference Design
Marvell's HyperDou SATA controller (see SATA Controller Pins Files On SSDs) blends solid state disk (SSD) storage with a hard disk drive (HDD). Marvell also had their Armada processors (see ARM Microcontroller For The Cloud Delivers Quad Cores And Quad Peripherals ) on display.
PLX Technology and Applied Micro were showing of platforms targeted as NAS boxes and gateways. This included Applied Micros' Mamba (see Multicore Server Processor Slims Down Secure Networking).
Power and Sensors
Intelligent systems are also hiding processors. We saw a number of solutions that looked very interesting in addition to being very programmable.
- NXP High Performance Mixed Signal Lighting and Smart Energy Solutions
- Sensor Fusion: The Freescale MAG3110
- Making Multiple Temperature Sensors Easy/a>
- IDTP95020 Intelligent System Power Management
That is it for now. We saw more at the show and most of what we saw will be in the videos. There were quite a few microcontroller and microprocessors that we didn't get to or can't talk about yet but they will be showing up on Electronic Design later in the year so stay tuned.