OpenISA VEGAboard Combines RISC-V and ARM Cortex-M Cores

VEGAboard

OpenISA has launched an Arduino compatible RISC-V development called VEGAboard that features RV32M1 wireless microcontroller with a RISC-V RI5CY core, a RISC-V ZERO-RISCY core as well as Arm Cortex-M4F and Cortex-M0 cores, and a radio operating in the 2.36 GHz to 2.48 GHz range. An external NXP Kinetis K26 Arm Cortex-M4 MCU is added to the board for OpenSDA (Open-Standard Serial and Debug Adapter) debugging over a single USB cable. The board was offered for free, I’m just not sure when, but they are already out of stock. Hopefully, they’ll start selling the board soon enough. VEGAboard (RM32M1-VEGA) board key features and specifications: Ultra-low-power RV32M1 Wireless MCU supporting BLE, Generic FSK, and IEEE Std 802.15.4 (Thread) platforms IEEE Std. 802.15.4-2006 compliant transceiver supporting 250 kbps O-QPSK data in 5.0 MHz channels, and full spread-spectrum encoding and decoding Fully compliant Bluetooth v4.2 Low Energy (BLE) Reference design area with small-footprint, low-cost […]

SDTxArm Pelion Kit is a Modular IoT Devkit Designed for Arm Mbed Cloud Platform

SDTxArm Pelion Kit

South Korea based Sigma Delta Technologies’ SDTxArm Pelion Kit is a modular development kit comprised of a baseboard, as well as CPU and interface modules that is specifically designed to work with Arm Pelion cloud based device management service and Mbed OS for wearables and IoT applications. DAP (Debug Access Port) Station Ver.2 baseboard key features and specifications: USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port Expansion I/Os via rows of through-holes 3x UART Interfaces 4x SPI Interfaces 3x I²C Interfaces 7x GPIO 4x analog inputs Debugging / Programming 1x TC2050 tag connection designed to allow programming without purchasing additional Interface if the user already has an appropriate Interface Module from other companies. I assume this is related to Tag Connect TC2050-IDC. 1x SD-TAG with JTAG/SWD signals Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port The DAP station takes an SDT Board (i.e. CPU board), as well as an interface board […]

NXP Unveils A71CH Secure Element Chip for Secure Peer-to-Peer or Cloud Connections

The industry clearly has an issue at hand with the security of the Internet of Things, and the problem is complex as some devices are easily accessible due to bad configuration (e.g. default username/password), while others may have security flaws at various levels of the software stack from the low level bootloaders to the operating systems, and applications. Nowadays, devices also need to be upgradeable, and communicate with the cloud, and that introduces other attack vectors in case malignant firmware is installed instead, or a man-in-the-middle attack occurs. While some people may claim security can be achieved by software only, we are seeing security evolving towards combined software and hardware solutions, for example with Arm Trustzone built into SoCs, but some companies are also introducing Secure Element chip, which Samsung has already done and integrated into their Artik  modules to secure data from the hardware to the cloud. NXP has […]

Atomo is a Raspberry Pi Compatible Modular Electronics Prototyping System (Crowdfunding)

Atomo is a modular electronics protyping system comprised of four elements: Control, I/O, Power, and Connector, with the PCBs for each category color-coded with respectively red, blue, green, and black. The connector board connects power, I/O and control(ler) boards together in a way that’s supposed to be neater than most hand made prototypes. The whole ecosystem includes 15 different boards: Controllers with 26-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header 2 IO Module Controller (CM-M2K22-A) based on NXP Kinetis K22F MCU 4 IO Module Controller (CM-M4K64-A) based on NXP Kinetis K64F MCU 8 IO Module Controller (CM-M8K64-A) based on NXP Kinetis K64F MCU Connectors 8 IO Module Connector (GM_M8P2_A) – Dim: 145mm x 100mm; power up to 40V @ 64A 4 IO Module Connector (GM_M4P1_A) – Dim: 71mm x 100mm; power up to 40V @ 32A 2 IO Module Connector (GM_M2P1_A) – Dim: 71mm x 65mm; power up to 40V @ 16A 2 IO Module Low-Power Connector […]

NXP Introduces Kinetis K27/K28 MCU, QorIQ Layerscape LS1028A Industrial SoC, and i.MX 8X Cortex A35 SoC Family

NXP pushed out several press releases with the start of Embedded World 2017 in Germany, including three new micro-controllers/processors addressing different market segments: Kinetis K27/K28 MCU Cortex M4 MCU family, QorIQ Layerscape LS1028A industrial applications processor, and i.MX 8X SoC family for display and audio applications, 3D graphic display clusters, telematics and V2X (Vehicle to everything). NXP Kinetis K27/K28 MCU NXP Kinetis K27/K28 MCU family is based on an ARM Cortex-M4 core clocked at up to 150 MHz with FPU,and includes up to 1MB embedded SRAM, 2MB flash, and especially target portable display applications. Kinetis K27/K28 MCUs share the following main features: 2x I2S interfaces, 2x USB Controllers (High-Speed with integrated High-Speed PHY and Full-Speed) and mainstream analog peripherals 32-bit SDRAM memory controller and QuadSPI interface supporting eXecution-In-Place (XiP) True Random Number Generator, Cyclic Redundancy Check, Memory Mapped Cryptographic Acceleration Unit K28 supports 3 input supply voltage rails (1.2V, 1.8V […]

SonikTech e-Paper Shield Starter Kit Relies on Teensy LC MCU Board

Soniktek Electronics has designed the “e-Paper Shield Starter Kit” featuring Pervasive Displays’ E2215CS062 e-paper screen, and an adapter board to connect it to Teensy LC (Low Cost) board powered by NXP Kinetis L ARM Cortex M0+ microcontroller @ 48 MHz, or other 3.3V MCU boards supporting SPI. Adapter board & display specifications: Supports Pervasive Displays 2.15″ E2215CS062 e-paper screen with 208 x 112 resolution, no backlight required, fully sunlight-readable Communication protocol – SPI  @ 3.3V Sensor – On-board thermometer with I2C interface Dimensions – Screen: 48 mm x 26 mm; adapter board fits into Teensy-LC module (36x18mm) The advantages of e-Paper display are that they don’t require power to maintain an image, and they can be read in sunlight, just like actual paper. I can’t remember having seen many – if any – low cost e-Paper development kits so far, and the project is open source hardware with design files and […]

NXP Modular IoT Gateway Supports Thread, Zigbee, NFC, Bluetooth and WiFi Connectivity

NXP has just announced a modular IoT gateway solution for large node networks (>= 250 nodes) based on Volansys i.MX6UL system-on-module, supporting wireless communications protocols such as Thread, ZigBee, NFC through add-on modules, on top of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. NXP Modular IoT Gateway specifications: SoM – Volansys i.MX6UL 200-pin SO-DIMM module with: SoC – NXP i.MX 6UL ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 528 MHz System Memory – 256MB to 1GB DDR3L  RAM Storage – 1GB to 4GB NAND flash, optional 4GB to 16GB eMMC flash, EEPROM for device info PMIC, Mbit Ethernet PHY Wireless Connectivity Expansion Modules: PN7120 explorer board for NFC Kinetis KW41 module for Thread support JN5169 module for Zigbee support 2x MikroBUS headers Baseboard connectors / features: Storage – 1x micro SD slot Connectivity – 1x 10/100M Ethernet port, Murata WiFi 802.11 b/g/n & Bluetooth 4.1 + EDR module with external antenna connector USB – 2x […]

A Closer Look at Ingenu RPMA Alternative to LoRa or Sigfox LPWAN Standards & RPMA Development Kit

I’ve recently started to write a bit more about long range LPWAN standards for IoT applications, especially LoRa and Sigfox, as commercial networks are being launched, and relatively low cost hardware platforms are being introduced to the market. There are also other highly expected standards such as Weightless and LTE Cat M that will bring more competition to the market. Ingenu RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) is another available standard that’s been in deployment for a while, and based on an earlier comparison of  long range LPWAN standards, it comes with long range, supports up to 384,000 nodes per “sector”, operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band, and offers high combined uplink and downlink bandwidth than competitors. Ingenu recently contacted me and provided some more details and information about their technology and development kit. One of the documents includes an “independent analysis completed by ABI Research, Inc.” comparing features […]