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November 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Microchip Releases Tiny SAM R34/R35 LoRa SiPs and Development Kit

Microchip has been offering RN2483 & RN2903 LoRa modules for respectively 868 MHz and 915 MHz frequencies for several years, but the company has now announced SAM R34 and SAM R35 LoRa systems-in-package (SiP) that offer similar functionality in a much smaller form factor. Both SiPs integrate a Microchip SAM L21 Arm Cortex-M0+ based MCU,a sub-GHz RF LoRa transceiver operating from 862 to 1020 MHz, and a software stack. That means you don’t need different SiP depending on the region, and the only difference between SAM R34 and SAM R35 is the latter does without a USB interface for lower cost. Microchip SAM R34/R35 key features and specifications: MCU – Arm Cortex M0+ MCU @ 48 MHz System Memory – Up to 40 KB RAM including 8KB LP-RAM Storage – Up to 256 KB Flash for application code and stack Wireless Connectivity 862 MHz to 1020 MHz coverage Up to 20 […]

September 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Octavo Systems Adds eMMC flash and Oscillator to its TI Sitara AM335x SiP

Octavo Systems unveiled their OSD3358 System-in-Package (SiP) in 2016 with the package integrating TI Sitara AM3358 Arm Cortex-A8 SoC, 256 to 512MB memory, PMIC, LDO and passive components into a single package. The SiP is notably found in the $25 PocketBeagle board, which only adds a micro SD card slot, a micro USB port, and a few passive components to the PCB. The company has now gone further by also adding an eMMC flash and an oscillator to their OSD335x C-SiP. That means another version of PocketBeagle could potentially be made without the micro SD card, using the eMMC flash in the SiP instead, and adding an oscillator – missing in PoketBeagleBone – necessary to use low power modes and RTC wake-up. OSD335x C-SiP main specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x Arm Cortex-A8 processor @ up to 1 GHz with PowerVR SGX530 GPU, PRU Subsystem System Memory – Up […]

May 20, 2018May 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ZiP (zGlue Integration Platform) Enables the Design & Manufacturing of Low Cost Custom Chips

When I first started to read about zOrigin on Crowdsupply, I was not really impressed. Meh… Yet another Bluetooth LE fitness tracker with a few sensors, and an Android app. But as I read further, I found out the interesting part was inside the device: ZGLZ1BA, a custom chip manufactured using ZiP (zGlue Integration Platform) chip-stacking technology, which produces something similar to SiP (System-in-Package) but at a much lower cost and manufacturing lead time. But let’s have a look at zOrigin tracker first, which acts as a demonstration / evaluation platform for ZiP technology. Key specifications & features: “SoC” – ZGZL1BA ZiP with Dialog Semiconductor DA14585 16MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 MCU with BLE Analog Devices AD8233 Heart Rate Analog Front End (AFE) Macronix MX25R4035F 2 Mbit Flash Memory MCube MC3672 Accelerometer Maxim MAX77734 Power Managment IC (PMIC) SiTime SIT1552 32 kHz Oscillator Vishay SI8466EDB MOSFET 30 passive components Package […]

April 5, 2018April 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

OSD3358-SM-RED Beaglebone Black Compatible Board Comes with Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 4x USB Ports, and More

Octavo Systems is known for their OSD335x system-in-packages (SiP) that integrate Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x Cortex A8 processor, memory, LDO, and some passive components into a single package, as well as related development kits such the $25 PocketBeagle which was introduced by the BeagleBoard foundation last September. The company has now launched OSD335-SM-RED development board featuring their OSD3358-512M-BSM SiP with 512MB RAM, with Gigabit Ethernet, micro HDMI, four USB 2.0 port, BeagleBone Black headers, some sensors, etc… OSD3358-SM-RED specifications: SiP – Octavo Systems OSD3358-512M-BSM with TI Sitara AM3358 Arm Cortex-A8 processor @ up to 1 GHz, 512MB DDR3 Memory, power management Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – micro HDMI port Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet USB – 1x µUSB Client, 4x USB 2.0 ports (via USB hub) Sensors – 9-axis IMU, barometer, temperature sensor + header Expansion – 2x expansion connectors compatible with BeagleBone Black […]

March 1, 2018March 1, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Silicon Labs WF200 WiFi Transceivers & WFM200 WiFi Modules are Designed for Battery Powered Devices

When it comes to power consumption, WiFi is not the best wireless standard around, and even the most power efficient WiFi SoCs/modules consume several times the power required for Bluetooth LE Tx or Rx. Yet we still have plenty of battery powered devices relying on WiFi, so companies are working on improving efficiency, and Silicon Labs has recently announced the WF200 transceivers and WFM200 modules that support 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and are said to slash power consumption in half. WF200 / WFM200 highlights: Low transmit (Tx: 138 mA) and receive (Rx: 48 mA) power 200 µA average Wi-Fi power consumption (DTIM = 3) Link budget of 115 dBm for long-range Wi-Fi transmissions Excellent antenna diversity and wireless coexistence in crowded 2.4 GHz environments Security – Secure boot and host interface, hardware cryptography acceleration supporting AES, PKE and TRNG Packages – 4 mm x 4 mm QFN32 transceiver and […]

January 5, 2018January 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

AcSiP S76G/S78G SiPs Integrate LoRa, GPS, and MCU into a Single 1.3×1.1 cm Package

LoRa has been combined with GPS in several products such as Rakwireless RAK811 LoRa tracker board, or Dragino LoRa/GPS HAT board among others, with all designed for far based on a LoRa module, plus a GPS module. LoRa GPS tracker will soon even smaller as AcSiP has developed S76G and S78G systems-in-package (SiP) that combine LoRa, GPS and an MCU into a single 1.1 x 1.3cm package. The two new modules are not listed on the company’s IoT-LoRa products page yet, but they appear to be an evolution of their S76S / S78S LoRa + MCU SiP released in 2016, so the new modules should have the following features: MCU – STMicro STM32L073x Arm Cortex M0+ MCU with up to 192 KB of Flash memory and 20 KB of RAM LoRa AcSiP S76G – Semtech SX1276 supporting global 868 MHz or 915 MHz ISM-Bands. AcSiP S78G – Semtech SX1278 supporting […]

December 7, 2017December 7, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ESP32-PICO-KIT v4 Board Based on ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP Now Available for $10

A little while ago, I received a bunch of ESP32 PICO Core development boards which were based on Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32, 4MB SPI Flash, and other components. The advantage of such chip is that is requires less external component, and allows for smaller designs. For example, the boards I received would leave two row of pin on each side of the board, while most other ESP32 boards will only expose one row on each side. I used the board to play with Micropython ESP32 port, and later-on when I launched a giveaway of 8 of the boards, I found out the name had changed to ESP32-PICO Kit, with the documentation listing v3 with all pins connected to male headers, and v4 with 6-pin not connected to a male header as shown in the photo below. Both versions of the board also have a different pin layout. But […]

October 31, 2017February 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

SAMA5D2 Based SiPs Combine ARM Cortex-A5 Processor With Up to 128MB DDR2

Atmel SAMA5D2 ARM Cortex-A5 processor was released about two years ago with extended temperature range and lower power consumption compared to previous SAMAD5 processors, with the new SoC still targeting industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), wearables and point of sale applications. In recent years, we’ve seen companies packing main components into systems-in-package (SiP) with products such as Octavo Systems OSD3358 and Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 with integrate an existing processor with memory, storage, and/or PMIC. Microchip (previously Atmel) has now done the same for their SAMA5D2 processors with SiPs combining the Cortex A5 SoC with DDR2 memory. Four SAMA5D2 SiPs have been launched: ATSAMA5D225C-D1M based on ATSAMA5D22C MPU with extra SD/SDIO, QSPI, FLEXCOMs (2x), I2S, and timers (2x) and: 128 Mb (16 MB) DDR2 DRAM 90 Peripheral I/Os 196 BGA Package Designed for RTOS/bare metal development ATSAMA5D27C-D5M based on ATSAMA5D27C MPU with: 512 Mb (64 MB) DDR2 DRAM 128 Peripheral I/Os […]