Embedded Computing Design

Rome wasn’t built in a day — and neither are professional (or just experienced) programmers. Whether you’re 14 or 40, coding and programming can be a hobby, a useful skill to add to your resume, or something more. But you have to start somewhere, right? That somewhere could be this little CodeBug^TM.

MUNICH. Skyworks Solutions, Inc. and Sequans Communications S.A. introduced the SKY66431, a multi-band, multi-chip 5G Massive IoT system-in-package (SiP) solution that combines Sequans’ Monarch 2 modem with Skyworks’ RF front-end solution, creating a small, high-performing single package LTE-M/NB-IoT connectivity platform that maintains low power consumption.

Unless you’re a network engineer, you probably don’t think about how much energy the mobile network infrastructure that connects our smartphones and other gadgets consumes. But if you did, you’d be shocked. According to the International Energy Agency, global data transmission networks consumed 260-340 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2021. That’s roughly the same amount of energy that England, the country, consumed in the same year (333.2 TWh).

MUNICH, GERMANY & TOKYO, JAPAN. Renesas Electronics Corporation is expanding its low-power WAN product line as part of its strategy to deliver connectivity devices used for smart cities, smart homes, medical devices and industrial applications. The RYZ024A supports Cat-M1 and NB-IoT internet connectivity independent of a gateway, consuming 1µA (microamp) in power savings mode. The RYZ024A supports extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) with an extended voltage range of 2.2V to 5.5V, making it suitable for battery-powered applications.

LEUVEN, BELGIUM. Septentrio recently launched the AsteRx SB3 ProBase, an IP68 housed GNSS base station receiver that features quad constellation GNSS technology. The AsteRx SB3 ProBase, a complement to the company's SB3 receiver family, is designed to be an integrated base station capable of setting up local, high-precision RTK or densifying customers' existing networks, according to Silviu Taujan, product manager at Septentrio.

Arm announced its Arm Virtual Hardware solution, a cloud-based virtual modeling platform that provides models of Arm subsystems and third-party development boards to allow software developers, OEMs, and service providers to begin software development as well as software and hardware co-design without physical silicon or complex board farms. This virtual approach enables embedded systems developers to both use and scale modern development practices like MLOps and DevOps flows at scale.

Agile Analog recently made available a full set of analog IP designed to accelerate IoT designs. The blocks envelop a device’s processor core and memory to provide the analog functions needed to facilitate communications between the digital and the analog aspects of IoT devices.

DALLAS. Texas Instruments (TI) introduced Matter-enabled software development kits for Wi-Fi and Thread SimpleLink™ wireless microcontrollers (MCUs) designed to simplify the Matter protocol's adoption in Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The software and wireless MCUs (such as the CC3235SF and CC2652R7) can be used to create secure, ultra-low-power, and battery-powered smart home and industrial automation IoT applications that connect with devices across proprietary ecosystems.

LONDON. A recent cross-industry survey of technology vendors, enterprises, and service providers conducted by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) found that Wi-Fi 7 is emerging as an important innvestment area for new connectivity technology. Wi-Fi 7 is designed to supercharge current Wi-Fi capabilities by utilizing technologies such as multilink operation and time sensitive networking (TSN) — suitable for applications such as Industry 4.0 — as well as dynamically using the 6GHz spectrum with automatic frequency coordination.

PAIGNTON, UK. Spirent Communications plc announced that the Spirent GSS7000 GNSS simulator has been integrated into passive and over-the-air (OTA) antenna test systems from Microwave Vision Group (MVG). The output from Spirent’s GNSS test equipment closely mirrors the real world so that developers can perform representative testing.

Generally, face identification isn’t something we pay attention to, or at least I don’t. It was super cool when iPhones started using it instead of the fingerprint scan in lieu of a password, but that was a couple years ago — it’s old news, especially in the world of technology, right?

HATFIELD, UK. Antenova Ltd. announced the release of Invicta, a compact, efficient flexible printed circuit (FPC) antenna for 2.4 - 2.5 GHz Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth frequencies that connects to PCBs with an IPX MHF (UFL) connector and cable. The Invicta antenna features 70% efficiency on average across the 2.4 GHz band, enabling designs to operate across greater distances and through obstacles like walls, thereby expanding the coverage range of wireless devices that utilize those protocols. 

HOD HASHARON, ISRAEL. Valens Semiconductor successfully completed a joint interoperability high-speed data transmission testing session between a Sony Semiconductor Solutions transmitter and a Valens Semiconductor receiver to demonstrate MIPI A-PHY communication features such as error correction and retransmission mechanisms.

BERLIN. imc's recently released CANSASfit HISO-HV-4 measurement module, part of the company's CANSASfit series of compact, robust modules for CAN-based test tasks, can perform measurements in high-voltage environments — such as mobile applications and test benches in e-mobility and battery testing fields.

CML Microcircuits recently released the CMX90G301 and CMX90G302 Positive Gain Slope Amplifiers, general purpose gain blocks based on the company's SµRF RFIC/MMIC design capability that are designed for wireless applications — like 4G/5G infrastructures and devices that operate in license-free bands — that operate in the 1.4—7.1 GHz frequency range.

PLANO, TEXAS. Samsung Foundry’s 3nm process technology now supports Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Calibre® nmPlatform tool, a solution for physical verification of next-generation integrated circuits (ICs). This certification allows customers to use the Calibre nmPlatform tool with the performance and power efficiency of Samsung’s 3nm Gate All Around (GAA) process. 

BEAVERTON, OREGON. Tektronix, Inc., in collaboration with Anritsu Corporation, announced a solution that enables testing of PCIe® 6.0 (Base) receivers and transmitters and addresses the demands of next-generation high performance systems. With this release, Tektronix provides a cohesive PCIe 6.0 transmitter and receiver test solution that delivers faster test times, higher-quality measurements, and an intuitive user interface.

AUSTIN, TEXAS. Izuma Networks announced that it has acquired Pelion’s Device Management business, an IoT services platform. Izuma Networks, founded earlier this year by Travis McCollum and Ed Hemphill, will focus on the edge computing services market. Izuma Networks closed an investment by SoftBank Group that will be used for new hires and improving upon the IoT services previously encompassed under Pelion Device Management, with a focus on development and dev-ops.

MUNICH, GERMANY. Smart home solutions are designed not only to make life easier, but to do it in ways that are more sustainable for the planet as a whole and its individual resources. Up until recently, establishing a secure, fully connected smart home has been a challenge because of the separate protocols and device ecosystems permeating products across the market. The Connectivity Standards Alliance’s (CSA) newly released Matter 1.0 specification aims to overcome that obstacle by providing device makers with a single standard to follow for smart home applications such as smart locks, thermostats, sensors, security systems, lighting, and more.