Embedded Systems Conference: Controllers, wireless, boards ease system integration

Embedded Systems Conference 2009 (ESC) product introductions include new controllers, wireless connections, board-level products, modules, and developer tools, among others to make system integration easier. See photo. Link to air-hockey-playing robot video.

By Control Engineering Staff March 31, 2009
KukaReal-Time Products: new software combine Microsoft Windows with a real-time operating system (RTOS) on a single or multi-core processor

KukaReal-Time Products announced new software packages at ESC that combine Microsoft Windows with a real-time operating system (RTOS) on a single or multi-core processor. Certified software packages allow Microsoft Windows to run with multiple RTOS platforms: VxWorks, Microsoft Windows CE, QNX and On Time RTOS-32. The packages extend the Kukavirtualization product line, including VxWin that combines Microsoft Windows with VxWorks and CeWin that combines Windows with WinCE (Windows CE). Kuka photo. www.KUKA-RTOS.com

San Jose, CAEmbedded Systems Conference 2009 (ESC) product introductions include new controllers, wireless connections, board-level products, and developer tools, among others. Some tools that ease system integration follow from CMD, Freescale, Lantronix, Microsoft, National Instruments and others, with links to additional resources. Activities at ESC include Build Your Own Embedded System, theater presentations, survival kit, product teardowns, and opportunities to meet design teams; ESC Silicon Valley 2009 is in in San Jose, CA, March 31 through April 2.
A sampling of product introductions follows. Watch a robot programmed to play air hockey (see Freescale). Learn about a math, science, and engineering video game for pre-high school students (bottom).

Accent licenses ARM Cortex-M3 Processor for low-power wireless use
: ARM and Accent S.A., a leading fabless SoC provider offering highly differentiated platform-based System-on-Chip (SoC) products, announced at Embedded Systems Conference, that Accent seleted the ARM Cortex-M3 processor for its next generation BASEsoc RF (radio frequency) platform offerings. The modular platform is said to be easily customizable and supports integration of different wireless standards, such as ZigBee, Bluetooth, RFID, and UWB, reducing risk and time to market. An ARM processor-based, complex RF-IC could be fully specified, developed and ramped to volume production by Accent in less than nine months, company says.
www.arm.com and www.accent-soc.com

California Micro Devices offers devices for for electrostatic discharge
(ESD) protection and electromagnetic interference (EMI) filtering at Embedded Systems Conference. These products fit a wide range of applications, such as embedded and industrial computing, and consumer electronics, the company says. PicoGuard XS devices integrate low capacitance diodes with inductors to enable high frequency ESD protection and provide matching impedance without requiring external compensation. Application specific interface protection products integrate ESD protection with analog, logic and EMI filtering. They replace dozens of discrete components while improving performance, reducing board space and overall cost. These are available for HDMI, VGA, USB and CompactPCI. Also, CMD Praetorian III EMI Filters integrate spiral inductors with capacitors and ESD protection diodes in one chip design, helpful for mobile handset applications and other portable electronics. www.cmd.com
Freescale offers a ESC keynote address, technical sessions, and exhibits , with an upbeat tone. Dr. Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Networking and Multimedia Group, and the company’s chief technology officer, says Freescale Semiconductor is “convinced that the embedded space will drive strong long-term growth.” Despite challenging macroeconomic conditions, the embedded market remains one of the bright spots, providing technology advancements key to enabling growth, says Dr. Su. The Freescale ESC booth is replicated online showing more than a dozen products and a demonstration, the Flexis AC face-off: robotic air hockey competition video demo with Nuvation. www.freescale.com
Lantronix introduces new Linux capability with Embedded Device Server MatchPort AR. It is designed to appeal to a growing Linux development community, expanding the market opportunity for related products, company says. The Linux software development kit (SDK) simplifies and accelerates development. It includes a board support package (BSP) and development environment with an industry-validated set of Linux software tools built around the Linux 2.6 kernel.
www.lantronix.com
Microsoft announces MSDN Embedded Subscription and Windows Embedded Developer Update : Today’s ESC industry address is to include announcement of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition with MSDN Embedded subscription and Windows Embedded Developer Update service. The new offerings, Microsoft says, expand the Windows Embedded software-plus-services platform with developer services that provide a cost-effective way to license Microsoft platforms and tools, receive technical support, and obtain early access to Microsoft updates. www.microsoft.com/embedded

Software Kids Time Engineers video game introduces pre-high school students to basic engineering, science and math principles in a fun and entertaining setting. Learn more .

National Instruments introduces 15 Embedded I/O Modules for board-level hardware . New Embedded NI C Series Modules and power quality, strain, and communications functions. The I/O modules expand measurement communication capabilities of NI Single-Board RIO embedded control and data acquisition devices. They combine an embedded real-time processor, a reconfigurable field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and onboard analog and digital I/O on one printed circuit board (PCB). Applications for the NI Single-Board RIO devices include any that require flexibility, high performance and reliability in a small form factor. They help lower development time and costs by giving engineers and scientists all components required for a reliable, high-performance embedded system on one printed circuit board, says John Hanks, vice president of product marketing for data acquisition and industrial control at National Instruments. www.ni.com

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– Edited by Mark T. Hoske , editor in chief
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