Memory system demands for medical equipment are similar to many defense sector application requirements, which call for decent prices but cannot sacrifice quality and performance.
White Electronic Designs Corporation offers a line of CompactFlash (CF) cards tailored specifically to the medical community for devices such as ultrasounds, video imaging equipment, and drug infusion systems.
To help track and notify customers of part changes, a rigorous source and revision control process combined with strictly controlled bill of material (to component level) and firmware procedures provide consistent access to high-quality products with the correct density, memory, controller, and firmware configuration.
Utilizing a proprietary technique at both the hardware and firmware levels, these cards have built-in protection to mitigate power-down related failures. The medical CF cards’ single level cell NAND devices provide 100,000 write/erase cycles per cell. Other features include error detection and correction and an optional conformal coating that provides protection and chemical resistance.

Virtualization within the firmware layer on an embedded PC promises to enable enhanced security features in systems using a Windows operating system.
Phoenix Technologies Ltd. has announced Phoenix HyperSpace, a platform that could ignite a PC revolution by transforming the mobile PC experience. Using Intel processor technology, HyperSpace provides a unique computing environment that PC designers, security innovators, and content providers can use to create instant-on applications available before, during, and after Windows bootup and shutdown. Next-generation PC users will benefit from one-click remote system maintenance, repair, lower battery consumption, and embedded security. Possible applications and content include multimedia players, IP soft phones, e-mail, instant messaging, Web 2.0 browsing, and safe shopping.
The HyperSpace platform is enabled by an efficient hypervisor from Phoenix called HyperCore, which is embedded within the core system firmware or BIOS. HyperCore is a lightweight zoned virtual machine monitor that runs specialized core services side by side with Windows.

Historically, many designers have dismissed USB-based storage solutions because they associated USB with the retail-grade thumb drive form factor, which falls short of rigorous embedded systems applications requirements. With the introduction of the SiliconDrive USB Blade from SiliconSystems, OEMs now have a USB-based advanced storage solution that meets their next-generation application requirements.
SiliconDrive USB Blade is ideally suited for space-constrained designs and as a boot drive for operating system storage or in event and data logging applications. An innovative edge connector has spring-loaded snaps at either end of the slot to ensure the SiliconDrive USB Blade is held securely in place, allowing installation vertically or at a right angle.
Other features include PowerArmor, which delivers enhanced protection from host system voltage and power anomalies, and SiSMART, a precise monitoring system that accurately forecasts storage system usable life. SiliconDrive USB Blade’s comprehensive suite of integrated security technologies can protect data from unauthorized access or IP theft.

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) represent the next evolution in lighting products. Their widespread design capabilities may deliver significantly improved levels of efficiency and environmental performance with the same quality of illumination found in traditional products.
GE Global Research, General Electric’s centralized research organization, has successfully demonstrated roll-to-roll manufactured OLED lighting devices, a key step toward making OLEDs and other high-performance organic electronics products at lower costs than possible today. The demonstration leads the way to a possible cost-effective system for mass-producing organic electronics products, such as flexible electronic paper displays, portable TV screens the size of posters, solar-powered cells, and high-efficiency lighting devices.
The few organic electronics products available today are relatively high cost and made with more conventional batch processes. A roll-to-roll manufacturing infrastructure for creating high-performance, low-cost devices would allow more widespread adoption of organic electronics products. GE’s research program aims to introduce OLED lighting products to the market by 2010.

The behavior of fluids at the microscale can differ from macroscale behavior in that factors such as surface tension, energy dissipation, and fluidic resistance start to dominate the system.
Dolomite has released a new microfluidic connector that enables engineers and scientists to interface to microfluidic chips, easing microfluidic-based fluid control systems development.
The new Dolomite microfluidic connector eliminates the need to drill expensive holes into the chip by incorporating holes into the actual chip fabrication process. Using this connector improves fluid flow, as the fluid paths are straight rather than perpendicular. The standard version of the new connector is a fluidic bus with four fluid I/O ports on a single integrated connector to make chip connection and disconnection simple and fast.

Microfluidic devices are developed using microfabrication techniques capable of creating microchannels and complex structures in glass. These devices are now being used in patient care systems, DNA testing, air pollution monitoring, fuel cell technology, and drug development.

With network connections now everywhere, designers need easy ways to add interfaces to existing hardware For just $99, a new kit provides a simple method of adding Ethernet to a design. The NetBurner Eclipse Ethernet Development Kit offers a complete set of powerful developer hardware, software, and tools that enable rapid development of embedded network-enabled products.

The included NetBurner Mod5270 Ethernet Core Module features a 32-bit 147 MHz Freescale ColdFire processor with a 10/100 Ethernet port, 47 digital I/O lines, three UARTs, and 12C and SPI ports. The kit also includes NetBurner’s Eclipse Integrated Development Environment delivering time-saving features such as single-click compile and load capability, intellligent code completion, and integrated graphical debuger. This enables developers to interact with external devices by writing code in ANSE C/C++ within the Eclipse environment and compile and loat it into a NetBurner Ethernet Core Module in seconds.

Speaking of networking, often the performance of the network is only as good as the cable used. A quality cable can provide better signal integrity and span longer distances. A new solution for Double Data Rate (DDR) InfiniBand cables combines conductor technology with tiny active analog signal drivers to allow cables three times longer than previously possible.

GORE Extended Reach DDR CAble Assemblies utilize the patented self-equalizing GORE EYE-OPENER+ Conductor Technology combined with Q:Active ultra small low-power analog semiconductors from Quellan to deliver exceptional signal fidelity over longer distances in the smallest cross-sectional area. Fitting application needs in between passive copper and optical cables, these cables offer lower crosstalk, less latency, and increased airflow in sizes ranging from 24 to 30 gauge and lengths ranging from 5 to 50 meters.

With more and more compute power and software being designed into automotive environments, developers need better tools to get their complex ideas implemented and to market faster than ever. The AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) specifications provide an open standard architecture for developing vehicular software, user interfaces, and management.

The Rhapsody AUTOSAR pack delivers an AUTOSAR modeling environment based on UML and SysML that allows users to capture AUTOSAR system models using AUTOSAR specific diagrams, notations, and terminology. This is achieved with five new AUTOSAR diagrams:

. Systems Diagram captures the overall. AUTOSAR system
. Software Component Diagram defines the software architecture
. Internal Behavior Diagram specifies the interface between the AUTOSAR System and standard
AUTOSAR Run-Time Environment with which it will integrate
. ECU Diagram defines the Electronic Controll Unit (ECU) types and their communication ports
. Topology diagram defines the physical topology or physical architecture of the system including all
the ECUs in the automobile and how they are connected.

Adding a USB hub and multiple ports to a system can be a bit of a challenge for designers. IPextreme and Cypress Semiconductor have teamed up to offer a low-power USB 2.0 hub core in an IP format for adding to third-party products using Cypress’ proven technology from the EZ-USB HX2LP and other products.

IPexteme’s USB20hub is configurable to accommodate two to seven ports. Customers can choose one transaction translator for all ports to minimize production cost or one transaction translator per port to maximize throughput. The USB20Hub design has very low power consumption and runs easily on USB bus power. Once implemented, the USB20Hub has externally configurable options such as the number of active ports, power management, port indicators, and remote wake-up. The USB20Hub IP core is fully synthesizable and comes packaged in an IPextreme XPack to maximize ease of integration through a simple IP configuration user interface with support for common EDA tools. The USB20Hub IP subsystem has received USB-IF compliance certification.

A hummingbird requires about 1 W to fly. The 500 MHz VIA Eden Ultra Low Voltage processor consumes no more than that under full load. Designed to meet the low-power requirements of industrial, commercial, and mobile applications, the fanless processor achieves unprecedented speed for an x86 processor in a 1 W power envelope. Within the 21 mm x 21 mm NanoBGA2 package, the VIA Eden ULV processor can squeeze into a small, light chassis.

Based on the VIA CoolStream Architecture, the processor is manufactured using an advanced 90 nm process, enabling speeds of up to 500 MHz with 1 W peak power and as low as 100 mW idle power consumption. Integrated into the processor is the VIA StepAhead Technology Suite, which boasts performance-enhancing features including the VIA V4 bus at 400 MHz, 16 pipeline stages, sophisticated branch prediction, and 128 KB full-speed exclusive L2 cache, ensuring the processor’s low power consumption doesn’t come at the expense of performance.

Global warming is reportedly providing us with plenty of extra heat. Imagine being able to turn that into power to run our embedded computing devices! Nextreme has developed a miniature, thin-film Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) that converts heat directly into electricity. Ideal for waste heat conversion applications, the solid-state TEG delivers power-generation densities > 3 W/cm2 and is optimized to provide power in a form factor that can be as much as 20x thinner than bulk material alternatives. Manufactured using semiconductor fabrication techniques, TEG can be utilized in applications including automotive, military/aerospace, thermal batteries, medical implants, and wireless sensor networks.

“In environments where a lot of heat is available, we have demonstrated power levels of up to 300 mW with devices that are not much bigger than a piece of confetti,” said Nextreme CTO Dr. Seri Lee.

Nextreme’s TEG devices generate electricity via the Seebeck Effect, where electricity is produced from a temperature differential applied across the device.

Functional density makes cooling a challenge, and solutions that aren’t cost prohibitive or don’t lead to excessively engineered products are sometimes hard to find. Virtium Technology has introduced DDR2 SODIMM, SO-RDIMM, and SO-CDIMM memory modules furnished with heat spreaders to remove heat more effectively than conventional air-cooled SODIMMs. The new heat spreader is available for all SODIMM product variants using mainstream 512 Mb and 1 Gb devices.

“With these new heat spreaders, Virtium directly addresses an industry-wide problem to control excessive or less-than-optimal operating temperatures in demanding embedded environments,” said Phan Hoang, Virtium Technology’s director of R&D. “This approach to heat removal offers multiple benefits including better thermal performance and improved reliability in adverse thermal environments with fewer single bit errors.”

Virtium’s heat-sink-equipped modules are intended for use in extended temperature ranges, thus solving thermal issues critical to system performance, and are ideal as AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC, MicroTCA, and PicoTCA memory for blade applications and PICMG SBCs.

The typical image of patients in hospitals with wires running from them to monitoring equipment may be a thing of the past now that wireless is gaining acceptance in health care. Toumaz Technology’s Sensium Platform Integrated Development Environment Resource (SPIDER) allows customers to rapidly create and test end-to-end Sensium-based solutions. The development kit contains two Sensium hardware development boards (one for the sensor transmitter and one for the receiver base station) and a Keil 8051 compiler and JTAG debugger.

The Sensium sensor interface and transceiver platform enables intelligent, ultra-low-power wireless monitoring of multiple vital signs – for example, ECG, heart rate, body temperature, respiration, and physical activity – in real time via standard handheld devices.

Each SPIDER board contains one Sensium TZ1030 and a patchwork area for user-supplied sensor transducers. The TZ1030 includes reconfigurable sensor interfaces, a digital block with an 8051 processor and hardware MAC/network controller, and an RF transceiver. Powered by a battery or from USB/SD supplies, the board includes all the necessary RF circuitry to simplify system development.

PCI Express is the de facto parallel bus of choice for many embedded designs. Custom I/O boards paired up with commercially available processor boards represent a large number of products. Developers of custom boards already have enough to worry about without letting thebus interconnect also become a point of design contention.

Kozio’s kDiagnostics products support testing the next generation of PCI Express peripherals, providing engineers with a tool to validate entire designs at the earliest prototype stages. Kozio supports multiple PCI Express links and provides testing of all memories, buses, and connected devices, including basic configuration testing, link protocol
testing, and transaction protocol testing, enabling a one-of-a-kind diagnostics solution for product developers in as little as two weeks.

Kozio, Inc.
www.kozio.com
kDiagnostics
RSC# 29962

Today, using FPGAs or ASICs provides the easiest way to add custom features to a microprocessor. Developers design the functions needed, then program the features into these additional
parts. Wouldn’t it be great if the microcode within the processor could be modified to create application-targeted microcode solutions for specific customer needs?

Freescale Semiconductor has introduced the Open QUICC Engine developer program for third-party developers and customers that want to optimize the communications functionality of applications
that leverage Freescale’s QUICC Engine technology. The program allows developers to customize Freescale microcode that runs on QUICC Engine technology to support industry-standard communications interfaces and protocols without having to add ASIC or FPGA devices to their applications. Customized microcode developed through the Open QUICC Engine program will be portable and scalable across QUICC Engine technology-based processor
platforms and applications.

Freescale Semiconductor
www.freescale.com/quiccengine
Open QUICC Engine
RSC# 30710

Imagine getting 32-bit microcontroller performance at the price of an 8- or 16-bit microcontroller. Now picture getting this same microcontroller within similar power budgets, one of the largest barriers to entry for 32-bit processors into 16-bit applications. Deeply embedded applications could have compute processing power only found in previously more expensive and power-hungry microcontrollers.

Luminary Micro, a fabless semiconductor company that designs, markets, and sells ARM Cortex-M3 processor-based microcontrollers, is the first to bring embedded developers ARM for
$1. Their Stellaris family of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) offers features such as an analog-to-digital converter and a sophisticated motion control unit, as well as large on-chip memories. The entire
Stellaris line of MCUs brings high-performance 32-bit computing to embedded microcontroller applications at a cost equivalent to legacy 8- and 16-bit devices. All of the Stellaris MCUs are targeted
at embedded and industrial applications, such as building and home automation, factory automation, motor control, and industrial power control devices.

Luminary Micro
www.LuminaryMicro.com
Stellaris MCUs
RSC# 30712

MultiWise Connector provides a new dynamic to satisfy the need for increased power density in small spaces. Configurations utilizing pins, contacts, and blades allow greater simplicity and flexibility in designs by offering engineers more options for lowering contact resistance while maintaining the necessary power/signal mix • OEM design engineers once restricted to packaging multiple connectors and circuitry together in an assembly can now combine the required connector features and circuitry together on one MultiWise Connector • With the introduction of blade pins, designers can take advantage of greater conductivity available in more rugged copper and brass alloy blades • Because these materials carry more current, the MultiWise Connector frees up precious space for additional components. Moreover, Onanon’s manufacturing processes can place SMT devices such as decoupling capacitors, resistors, and ICs directly on the connector.

It’s hard to imagine it has been 10 years since Microsoft announced an embedded Windows strategy at the last Las Vegas COMEX. it was not clear at the time what might result from the news and everyone was skeptical of Microsoft, but today the strategy is well established and many embedded applications now use either Embedded Windows or Windows CE. The latest announcement regarding Windows CE 6.0 further establishes Microsoft’s position in the embedded computing industry.

In conjunction with the 10-year anniversary of Windows Embedded, 100 percent of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 kernel is now available through the Microsoft Shared Source program. By providing access to certain parts of the Windows Embedded CE source code such as the file systems, device drivers, and other core components, embedded developers can choose the code they need, compile it, and build their own unique operating systems, quickly bringing their devices to market.

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 boasts a reengineered kernel with capabilities such as capacity for 32,000 simultaneous processes and 2 GB of virtual memory address space per process while maintaining the software’s real-time capabilities. This enables developers to incorporate more robust applications into more intelligent, complex devices used on the road, at work, and in the home.

Does your embedded application involve significant decision-making capability? Expert systems based on rules can be more appropriate than a compute-intensive algorithm. Rules engines have been around for many years, yet they have not truly established themselves in embedded applications. However, for many embedded applications, a rules engine is the way to go. Jess 7.0, a rule engine created by Sandia National Laboratories that enables software developers to embed intelligence in the form of business rules directly into their Java applications, is now available for licensing.

“Programming with rules allows software to express real-world conceptsiin a natural expressive way that helps business and IT says Craig Smith, software licensing.

Among Jess’ new features is an integrated Development Environment (IDE) for rules that increases programmer productivity and enhances collaboration. The IDE is based on the Eclipse platform and features tools for creating, editing, visualizing, monitoring, and debugging rules. Sandia offers Jess licenses to commercial, academic, and government institutions.

Systems-on-chip (SOCs) often have a significant impact on the bill-of-material cost for embedded designs. Complete subsystems, components and boards can be replaced with an SoC that has the required functionality integrated into the chip.

The Connect One iChipSec C02 128 is a secure IP communication controller chip that reduces the cost and speeds the design of new IP-enabled Point-Of-Sale (POS) terminals. The chip also includes many hardware enhancements that ensure high throughput by offloading IP and network security protocols from the hose processor.

The C)2128’s integrated ARM7 core processor, RTOS, security and networking protocal stack ensure efficient and secure high-speed transaction processing. For high bandwidth applications like video streaming, C02128’s high-speed parallel interface supports 32 Mbps with UDP/IP hardware acceleration. Data encryption/decryption also is accelerated in hardware, which reduces SSL3 transaction processing. The C02128 includes a 10/100BASE-T Ethernet media access controller and USB v2.0 full-speed host and device interfaces, enabling the use of the newest Wi-Fi chipsets and other USB peripherals.

iChipSec can act as a router among LAN, Wi-Fi, and modem platforms, as it includes a network address translation and port-forwarding functionality. This allows a payment terminal to serve as an access point or gateway for other terminals connected to it. helping to reduce infrastructure cost and enhance network security.