The push is on to add internet capability to everything, and the challenge for design engineers is to figure out how to power each of these IoT nodes. If there is an AC power line or conventional long-life battery available, the decision is greatly simplified, of course. But such power is unavailable in many cases, and energy harvesting can look like an attractive, free, no-headache alternative. However, there are many facets and limitations with this type of “free” energy, beyond the initial component cost. First, before even looking at harvesting as an option, it’s critical to put together a power budget. How much current and voltage will the IoT node need? What power is needed at each phase of operation? To get all of the answers to your power questions and to discover the latest green solutions, visit Avnet.com.
Securing the edge with ARM TrustZone for v8-M
ARM's new 32-bit ARMv8-M architecture was introduced in 2015, adding TrustZone security extensions for Cortex-M microcontrollers (MCUs), among other f...
Analytics-driven embedded systems, part 2 - Developing analytics and prescriptive controls
In Part 1, we motivated the use of analytics within embedded systems using examples such as the BuildingIQ intelligent climate control system and the...
Industrial IoT Roadshow: Ease of Use, Ethernet TSN help National Instruments address the range of IIoT applications
Kyle Voosen, Senior Business Segment Manager for Physical Test Systems and Industrial IoT at National Instruments is responsible for hardware and soft...
EdgeX Foundry joins industry-wide push for IoT interoperability
You're sitting in your cubicle working on a zigbee driver for some connected "thing" when you decide to see if Google can provide any shortcuts. After...
National Instruments platforms and tools evolve for IIoT developers of all skill levels
Almost 31 years ago National Instruments (NI) introduced LabVIEW, one of the first visual programming languages and design environments for system dev...
Industrial-grade flash is important to embedded designs
If you're following the trends in flash storage devices these days, you've inevitably seen the amazing advances in storage capacity at constantly redu...
electronica 2016: COM Express Type 7 pinout takes small form factors into the datacenter
PICMG's COM Express technology, in all of its various shapes and sizes, has been deployed for more than a decade now in size, weight, and power-consci...
Fog computing with minimal resources
Edge devices don't always have the compute power to make compute-intensive decisions. Hence, data is collected at the edge and transferred to the clou...
Will MCAP mean the end of resistive touchscreens?
Resistive touchscreens arguably should have been resigned to the technological scrap heap alongside ZIP drives and dial-up modems long ago. However th...
Retrofitting Industrie 4.0
The new generation of factory machinery across every manufacturing industry has an unprecedented level of integrated intelligence. Historically, this...
The latest in industrial flash
The raison d'être of the flash storage industry is arguably cross compatibility, thus strict adherence to industry specifications make it notoriously...
Panel PCs in POS environments - commercial projects now industrial
To this day I find myself regularly debating the improper crowbarring of commercial IT solutions into industrial applications, where a natural lack of...
Raspberry Pi goes custom for industrial, commercial applications
Raspberry Pi Trading is partnering exclusively with element14 to provide customized Raspberry Pi A, B/B+, Compute, and Pi 2 model designs for use in i...
PCAP versus Resistive - Let the battle commence!
Join us as we test how rugged the most popular industrial touchscreen technologies truly are, from aggressive stabs of the innocent biro to more malic...
Microchip "does the math" in converter IC for thermocouple design
At Sensors Expo earlier this year I had the chance to sit down with John Austin, Product Marketing Manager with Microchip's Analog and Interface divis...
COMPUTEX Taipei: VIA Technologies fuses silicon, software, and systems expertise for evolving embedded
The first day of COMPUTEX Taipei also netted a meeting with Richard Brown of VIA Technologies, who reintroduced me to the company that first developed...
Intersil buck controller eliminates intermediate power conversion
It seems to be power-supply design last few days, as this is the third blog in row to cover that topic (See the blog on Sonics' ICE-Grain technology a...
COMPUTEX Taipei: ARM mbed helps bring "digital voice to physical things" in Zebra Zatar LBS platform
One of the more interesting meetings of the show for me, Thomas "TK" Kurian, Senior Director, New Growth Platforms at Zebra Technologies explained to...
Open Interconnect Consortium adds interoperability to the Internet of Things
A few months back when I first heard about the formation of the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) I thought to myself, "Do we really need another IoT...
New Inventory Search Tool helps engineers cut to the chase in component selection