Embedded Computing Design

If you’re looking to reduce size and weight in your high-density power supply designs, check out Texas Instruments’ (TI) latest EMI filter ICs. The company claims that they’re the industry’s first of their kind. And there’s no performance hit. In fact, you can actually increase system performance, efficiency, and reliability. Applications that can take advantage of these devices include automotive, enterprise, aerospace, and industrial.

The advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) systems being designed into current and future vehicles demand high reliability for obvious reasons. And that reliance pushes its way down into the components used. To that end, TDK has developed its CLT32 series of miniaturized inductors specifically for the power-management units within these vehicles.

Power Integrations has made a name for itself in high-voltage ICs for energy-efficient power conversion. Recently, the company released a 900-V gallium-nitride (GaN) extension to the company’s InnoSwitch3 family of flyback switcher ICs. Designed with the company’s patented PowiGaN technology, the devices can deliver up to 100 watts with more than 93% efficiency, eliminating the need for heat sinks and thereby simplifying the design of space-challenged applications.

Here we go again; 8-bit MCUs are not dead yet. I said a few years ago that I’d give this argument up, and simply wait for the official announcement, but apparently, I shouldn’t hold my breath.

Far-field voice is something that’s hard to decipher, mostly because it’s far. I know that’s overly simplistic, but it’s true.

Infineon has partnered with a bunch of folks to simplify the lives of system developers, specifically those who want to integrate Bluetooth. Those partners include module vendors and software providers.

The LoRa Alliance is an open, nonprofit association that represents the LoRaWAN standard. LoRaWAN is growing quickly and expanding into a host of both new geographies and new applications. To see where its headed and why it’s been so successful, I spoke to the Alliance’s Chairwoman, Donna Moore, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

If somebody told you they could help you get 80% of your design completed, or at least put you on the path to getting that far, you’d likely jump at the chance. Throw in three hours of tech support to help you engineer, debug, and test, and it becomes a no-brainer. That’s exactly what we’re offering to the first 50 embedded engineers/developers who sign up for a workshop devoted to connecting IoT devices to the AWS Cloud.

Human presence detection (HPD), an application of visual sensing, is the art of knowing when a person is present, determining their status, and their environment. If implemented effectively, it has the potential to reap many benefits, particularly regarding security and lowering power consumption, when compared to traditional methods.

Five years ago, the experts said that autonomous-drive vehicles were five years out. Now, five years later, they still appear to be five years out? Why is that?

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a hot technology. The topic/technology seems to be coming up more and more.

Intel recently launched a new addition to its Sapphire Rapids scalable processor family. The addition delivers a performance boost, but as you might expect, it’s a whole lot more involved than that.

If you’ve been in the embedded space for any length of time, you’re likely familiar with the ThreadX real-time operating system, which was a product of Express Logic. That company was acquired by Microsoft, and its President, Bill Lamie, went along with the team to Microsoft…until now.

The last Tear Down I did, the Meta Quest 2 VR headset, got lots of fanfare. As an end product, it’s super cool. And from a design perspective, I was awed by what the engineering team was able to accomplish.

Security, security, security. You’d think by now that the process for security would be so automated and automatic we wouldn’t be having these same discussions as to why designers are reluctant to design it in, or what applications really require it. Alas, here we are.

5G brings a lot of promise to the embedded space, in addition to many other spaces. This week’s Embedded Executives podcast guest knows far more about 5G than most people.

We’ve had this discussion (debate? argument?) before—is it time for 8-bit MCUs to go away and be replaced by 32-bit devices that obviously offer way more functionality and come pretty close in cost? The discussion is back on the table thanks to an announcement STMicroelectronics made this week, making the latest entrant in its STM32 family a potential 8-bit killer.

Bob Scaccia, the President and CEO of USA Firmware, knows more about firmware than anyone I’ve ever come across. And speaking of firmware, it is an art that does not get nearly the attention  it should, and for a long list of reasons. In this podcast, I'll go through those reasons and a lot more firmware-related issues. Tune in.

The chip shortage is getting better. It’s getting worse. No, it’s getting better. These are the responses I continue to hear.

As an embedded developer, does a “common platform” reduce your ability to innovate?