FPGA Central

Embedded Technology Journal Update


a techfocus media publication :: April 7, 2009 :: volume XV, no. 01









FROM THE EDITOR



First there were things. Then things started to think: the first embedded systems. Now things are starting to Twitter. What does anytime, anywhere Internet connectivity do to embedded systems? How would your project benefit – or not – from always-on Internet access and adolescent-level loquaciousness? Does a Coke machine really need to microblog every transaction? Let’s take a look at how and where instant Internet changes things. This week we also look at FRAM, a “new” alternative to flash memory that’s been around for 25 years.

Thanks for reading! If there's anything we can do to make our publications more useful to you, please let us know at: comments (AT) embeddedtechjournal (DOT) com. If you'd rather sound off in public, please post your comments or questions in our new Journal Forums.

Jim Turley – Editor
Embedded Technology Journal









EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS











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LATEST NEWS



April 7, 2009



ADLINK Presents Value 3U and 6U CompactPCI® Processor Blades Based on the
Low Power Intel® Core™2 Duo and Supporting Dual Independent Displays



Netronome Illustrates New Architecture for 20Gbps Security Applications



Microsoft Windows Embedded Announces Winner of SPARKs Will Fly Developer Contest



EB Delivers Industry’s First Multi-Antenna Over-the-Air (OTA) Test Solution for LG Electronics



April 6, 2009



Microchip Technology Enables Digital Signal Processing on the 32-bit PIC32 MCU Family Via Free High-Performance DSP Library



Cypress’s New PowerPSoC® Family Changes LED Lighting Design Landscape With Industry’s First Integrated LED Driver and Controller on One Chip



Volkswagen Selects RTI’s Real-Time Messaging Middleware for Driver Assistance Applications



April 2, 2009



Voyager Becomes Universal C++, Java, and .NET Pervasive Platform



COMIT Interface Standard Makes Next Generation Computer-on-Module Products Easier to Use, More Reliable



April 1, 2009



SUMIT™ Interface Grows to 6 PCI Express x1 lanes



Sound Design Technologies Launches WOLVERINE™ Audio Processing Digital Signal Processing Platform



Micron Wins Prestigious Semiconductor Insight Awards for DRAM and NAND Flash Technology Innovations



Actel Now Shipping the IGLOO PLUS Starter Kit



RMI, a Leader in Multi-Core Multi-Threaded Processors, Sponsors the Linley Group Seminar “Embedded Network Security Design”



Darim Vision’s 4/8/12/16 Channel H.264 Stand-Alone Networked Video Encoder Combines Performance With Intelligence



CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES



The Twitter of Things?
Developments in Embedded WiFi
(Bryon Moyer)
Like Flash, But Different
(Jim Turley)
Safe, Secure, and ARMed
(Jim Turley)
15 Billion Nodes, and 8 Bits
(Dick Selwood)
Playing “What If…” With Multicore Processors
(Jim Turley)
Scopes
Much More than Just a Wriggly Line
(Dick Selwood)
Free Linux Microprocessor*
(Some Restrictions Apply)
(Jim Turley)



JOURNAL WEBCASTS



CHALK TALK From Desktop to Target: What You Need From A Development Suite. Is embedded software development and debug a challenge for your team? Join Amelia Dalton as she chats with Jit Sivalogan of Mentor Graphics about setting up a productive environment for embedded development. (Mentor Graphics)

CHALK TALK Simplified Verification of DSP Algorithms in Hardware. Moving algorithms from MATLAB to FPGAs? Join Amelia Dalton as she explores options for verifying DSP designs implemented in FPGAs with Tim Vanevenhoven from Xilinx. (Xilinx)

CHALK TALK Using Embedded Hypervisors in Mobile Devices. Join Amelia Dalton as she explores the use of embedded hypervisors to create safe and secure software for mobile devices with Rob McCammon of Open Kernel Labs. (Open Kernel Labs)

CHALK TALK Embedded Networking With MicroBlaze and Spartan-3A FPGAs. Join Amelia Dalton as she works her way to "Hello World" on an FPGA-based embedded system with Xilinx Spartan-3A and MicroBlaze. (Xilinx)



[click here for more webcasts]











The Twitter of Things?
Developments in Embedded WiFi
(Bryon Moyer)

The internet has been a massive game-changer for humanity. It started as a way for people to get information, then a quicker way to communicate, then a way to do business. And now… well, perhaps we’ve come full circle back to getting information. But it’s become clear that there is such a thing as too much information. Thanks to ubiquitous access to the many ways of keeping in touch with those people whom you know are interested in your every move, your every thought, your every… synaptic firing, we can all practically live in each other’s brains.

We can now know when you started breakfast, what you had for breakfast, whether you liked it, when you finished, and whether you cleaned the dishes after or just put them in a heap for later. We could, if you wanted, receive a record of every chew. [more]







Like Flash, But Different
(Jim Turley)

As status symbols go, memory chips are about as low as you can get. Even in the nerdy world of embedded chips and software, memories are low on *** appeal, low on differentiation, and low on most designers’ list of interesting devices. They are, in a word, generic.

So what’s new and exciting in the world of embedded memories? Uh... nothing, really. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile reexamining your assumptions about memory and memory types. There’s a decades-old memory technology that perhaps has been overlooked for too long.

We’re talking here about FRAMs, specifically the ferroelectric RAM chips made by Ramtron International Corporation. Ramtron has been making FRAMs for longer than some of us have been out of diapers. [more]










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