mcu News - Page 30 of 48 - CNX Software

August 22, 2019August 24, 2019 by Siji Sunny - 15 Comments

Qt for MCUs – Qt Announces support for Microcontrollers

[Update August 24, 2019: Added information about expected release date and license] About Qt for MCUs Qt- The well known opensource toolkit for creating graphical interface announced their new release: Qt for MCUs, targeting MCU’s. The new graphical toolkit will be capable of running on devices without operating system. This may be a game changer in the entire MCU world, since Qt for MCUs allows developers to create fluid user interfaces on cost-effective micro controllers. This means we will be able to see smartphone like GUI’s which are running on low-end MCU’s with limited resources. With reference to their press release, assuring that Qt-GUI will consume less power to save the battery life. Qt for MCUs Software Stack While developing any applications for MCU, developers still can use their powerful declarative UI language QML and rich set of ready-made Qt Quick controls. And the C++ APIs, helps the user interface […]

August 14, 2019August 14, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Padauk PMS150C “3 Cents” MCU Supports SDCC Open Source Toolchain

Back in 2016, I tried to find the cheapest MCU, and discovered Holtek HT48R002 8-bit RISC MCU @ 8MHz with 1K x 14-bit OTP memory, and 64 bytes of RAM that was selling for around 8.5 cents per unit for 1k orders at the time, and about the same now. But this morning, I read a post about sub-10-cents microcontrollers where cpldcpu details offering of several mostly little known vendors including Bojuxing Industrial, Eastsoft Micro, or Puolop. But Paudauk PMS150C especially caught my attention since price starts at $0.033, or 3 cents, and EEVBlog community has been working on getting SDCC open-source toolchain to work on the MCU. PMS150C MCU specifications: CPU – Processing unit with 79 “powerful” instructions Memory – 64 Bytes data RAM Storage – 1KW (1K x 14-bit) OTP program memory Peripherals 1x hardware 16-bit timer; 1x hardware 8-bit timer with PWM generation 1x general purpose comparator […]

July 13, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Arm Techcon 2019 Schedule – Machine Learning, Security, Containers, and More

Arm TechCon will take place on October 8-10, 2019 at San Jose Convention Center to showcase new solutions from Arm and third-parties, and the company has now published the agenda/schedule for the event. There are many sessions and even if you’re not going to happen it’s always useful to checkout what will be discussed to learn more about what’s going on currently and what will be the focus in the near future for Arm development. Several sessions normally occur at the same time, so as usual I’ll make my own virtual schedule with the ones I find most relevant. Tuesday, October 8 09:00 – 09:50 – Open Source ML is rapidly advancing. How can you benefit? by Markus Levy, Director of AI and Machine Learning Technologies, NXP Over the last two years and still continuing, machine learning applications have benefited tremendously from the growing number of open source frameworks, tools, […]

July 5, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SAMD21 MINI / Wemos D1 SAMD21 M0 Mini Development Board Sells for $7 and Up

Microchip / Atmel SAMD21 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller has been around for several years, and we covered various boards based on the MCU include the official Arduino Zero launched in 2014, Arduino Tian, and the tiny SAM 15×15 or Exen Proto boards among others. Another SAMD21 development board has now shown up on Electrodragon website: SAMD21 Mini Development Board sold for $14.50 on the website, but you’ll also find it, under the RobotDyn or Wemos brand on Aliexpress for $7.05 and up. SAMD21 Mini Board / WeMos D1 SAMD21 M0 Mini Specifications: MCU – Microchip ATSAMD21G18 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 48 MHz with 32KB data RAM, 256KB flash USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming Expansion 2x 14-pin headers with 19x digital I/O (including 12x PWM), 6x Analog I/O 3.3V logic level Programming – 6-pin ISCP connector Misc – Power, Tx and Rx LED’s, button Power Supply Input […]

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - 1 Comment

GAPPoc AI development boards based on the GAP8 RISC-V Chip

GreenWaves has developed a development board based on the GAP8 chip which can be evaluated from a GAPuino board, a generic board that can run off a low power external power source or USB and is compatible with the Arduino ecosystem. Recently the company moved beyond the generic board to the GAPPoc, platform which stands for GAP8 Proof of Concept. The GAPPoc is focused on a class of applications which can be embedded on a single board and able to carry hardware such as crystal or external memory, sensors, a radio fit, and a battery. The board will be geared towards a set of low power functions for a particular class of applications. This is a family of boards designed to increase the range of abilities in edge Artificial Intelligence. At this time there is only a single board with a platform to enhance AI, targeting Computer Vision in the […]

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Fusion for TIVA v8 Development Board Enables Debugging & Programming over WiFi

Texas Instruments TIVA Arm Cortex-M4 MCU family was first introduced in 2013, I tested a TIVA Launchpad the following years, and since microcontrollers have usually a long life span they are still in use today, and should still be available for many years. I’m writing about this TI MCU family today because MikroElektronika has just announced Fusion for TIVA V8 development board for TI TIVA, Stellaris and MSP432 microcontrollers with plenty of I/Os including some MikroBus expansion slots, as well as support for debugging and programming over WiFi in addition to the usual USB-UART interface. Fusion for TIVA v8 board specifications: MCU – Socket for MikroElektronika MCU CARD Display Interfaces 2x 20-pin TFT display connector 1x 16-pin LCD connector for 2×16 characters LCD displays in 4-bit mode, optional PWM backlight driving feature Programming – On-board CODEGRIP programmer/debugger, JTAG connector for connecting an external programmer/debugger Connectivity – Ethernet port, WiFI in […]

April 24, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

RK3588 8K Arm Cortex-A76/A55 SoC, Rockchip Roadmap to 2020

Rockchip had their annual event yesterday offering a view of past achievements, as well as a glimpse into the future with new products announcements. The company is ready to go to the next level with their Rockchip RK3588 featuring Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55 cores, 8K video decoding support, 4K user interface support, an NPU 2.0 (Neural Processing Unit) manufactured using an 8nm LP process. The processor should have eight cores in a 4+4 dynamIQ configuration according to a tip from “coldfish”, and the new 8nm process is expected to increase performance by 20 to 30 percent, while the power consumption will be reduced by 40 percent. Mass production is expected for Q1 2020. The company also showed a slide with their video encoder/decoder IP, and Gen3 should be in RK3588 since that’s the only one with an 8K 60 fps decoder using either AVS3 or H.266 (VVC). I’m quite confused with […]

April 23, 2019April 23, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

AJIT is a Microprocessor Made in India

There are only a few countries with companies that can design and/or manufacture chips. Some of the ones that come to my mind off the bat include: the US, China, Taiwan, Japan, France, and Italy. But India did not… That’s until recently as IIT Bombay conceived AJIT the first Indian microprocessor, which was then manufactured at the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab and Haryana states. Details are limited. For example, I’m unable to find out which architecture was used by the processor, but we do know it’s a microcontroller class 32-bit microprocessor clocked at 70 to 120 MHz with an arithmetic logic unit, a memory management unit, a floating point unit, as well as a hardware debugger unit. The sample pictured above has been manufactured with a 180nm process, but they plan to move to a 65nm process eventually. Tools used for development include AHIR-V2 which […]