Embedded World 2016: where does the embedded world go?
Hello!
Long time we did not write. In the meantime ...
In the far kingdom, in the thirtieth state, in the Bavarian demesne, in the medieval city of Nuremberg, an exhibition called Embedded World is held. The goal of the exhibition is to gather manufacturers, developers, students and other interested citizens in one place. It takes three days - from 23 to 25 February.
')
Exhibition website: http://www.embedded-world.de
About 900 participants, about 25 thousand visitors. Two days barely enough to understand what was happening. Therefore, the exhibition lasts three days :)
Fate has thrown me to this event not for the first time: my colleagues with STC Metrotek visited the exhibition in 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was here that we first saw Cyclone V SoC (System On Chip with ARM and FPGA on board), which later formed the basis for new devices produced by STC Metrotek (this is Bercut-ET , EthOnd , BlueSoM , ETL-N). It was here that we found manufacturers of EMKO enclosures and established cooperation with them, now all the rack-mount devices (switch Metrotek X10-24 , Bercut-MX ) look uniform. Here we learn about new products and trends.
Under the cat more information about the participants, new products and just things that we liked and remembered.
With photos and links.
Unfortunately, we didn’t work out with our stand this year, so we were in the role of observers: we studied where this Embedded world is heading. Were interested in everything that came to hand, so do not be surprised if you meet a technology or product that is familiar to you. However, we tried to focus on new items.
Here we go!
I'll start with the popular.
At the RRC booth, I found out about the standard of wireless power called Qi (this is exactly the case when technology has been around for many years, and you know about its name just now). It allows you to transmit up to 5 watts (5 volts, 1 ampere) of energy without wires, using electro-magnetic induction. The transmitter and receiver look like this:
At the stand, you could bring the device to the transmitter and see how the light comes on. It is clear that no longer rocket science, but for the "warm-up" - the most it.
I looked at the Olimex stand (the guys from Bulgaria who make the well-known openTD JTAG debugger). The guys switched to IoT, and that's what they offer.
Wi-Fi sockets (~ 30 euros): each outlet can be controlled from a smartphone and using a button (see below).
Wi-Fi switch that can turn on and off anything, because the button via wi-fi transmits a signal, for example, to the same outlet. Unfortunately, the photo did not, but outwardly this is a normal switch, inside which is such a module:
A20-OLinuXino-LIME microcomputer based on dual-core ARM (dual-core Cortex-A7) with all the necessary peripherals, Linux and connectors for connecting their modules. Price - from 35 euros. And completely open iron. Search the site for links to schemes and sorts.
On the way, the olimex SODIMM module is based on the same processor.
At the Matlab / Simulink booth again showed the ability to generate FPGA code from Simulink. This is a long-known feature.
The photo shows how the circuit created in Simulink controls the motor connected to Altera Cyclone V SoC.
What interested me the most is the presence of an API for adding your board to Simulink so that you can use it to create and simulate circuits. That is, if you wish, you can now integrate any board based on the Cyclone V SoC into your Simulink models.
denx showed a working u-boot on an Intel processor, I mean on the x86 architecture! U-boot is a popular bootloader for ARM devices. We use it in almost all of our devices. But now it will work on such processors as Atom and others. I think this is a big step forward.
Output version of the u-boot - in the photo.
And, of course, they could not but boast of loading in 1.5 seconds, from the power up until the application window appears on the screen. They achieved such results without code modifications - there were enough configuration options for u-boot and linux kernel, that is, everything was out of the box.
I moved to the ST microelectronics booth, where developers from Oracle (including our compatriot) suggest using Java ME for programming STM microcontrollers. They claim that there are all Java APIs for accessing peripherals (i2c, SPI, etc ..).
I was interested, because the world is clearly not standing still. It’s customary to think that controllers are programmed in C ... And then - on you - Java.
The first release should appear in April and in the database it supports the processor, which is in the photo. Java ME can be tried on a specific board, but it will be possible to configure the binary to support other boards too.
But on the neighboring booth, developers from AdaCore program ARM controllers on Ada. Here is an example: locomotives travel in two ways and should never collide according to a task. Uninterrupted work is guaranteed by code analysis due to the fact that before developing a program, a program specification is made (written in Ada) and the prover checks the program for compliance with the specification.
All (or almost all) Ada development tools are open source.
Well, you have to try. Not a single, as they say ... But first Java ME.
I must say that this is very characteristic of Embedded World: there are a lot of stands here from year to year devoted to achieving absolute (or almost absolute) software quality and control over it. Static analysis for fabulous money, a declarative project description with automatic generation of tests and code, etc. Not surprising, because Embedded devices are now everywhere and to trust them with your life, you need to be sure that the software is not buggy.
We pass on to another interesting company - Cypress . My close acquaintance with the chips of this company took place 10 years ago, when we made a fingerprint scanner. We then used the FX2 to transfer images from the scanner to the computer via USB 2.0. I remember that I was delighted with how simple and understandable Cypress described the operation of the USB bus, and since then I have been closely following their products.
However, now is the time of USB 3.0 and new chips have appeared. Meet the FX3 . On the host side, USB 3.0, on the board side, a 32-bit bus operating at up to 100 MHz (which gives about 400 MB / s). Well, ARM9 in the same bottle. Everything was the same with FX2: 8-bit bus (I do not remember the frequency anymore), USB 2.0, 51st controller. Only cooler.
But Cypress did not stop there. In the line there is also CX3 , which allows you to connect up to 4 MIPI-cameras via USB 3.0, and GX3 , which allows you to "forward" Gigabit Ethernet over USB3.0.
And Cypress also showed HyperFLASH, which has a read speed of up to 333 (!) Megabytes per second. To connect to this flash memory, a HyperBUS bus is used - 12 pins, 8 of which are for data. Used Dual Data Rate at 166 MHz. Some controller manufacturers have already announced support for HyperBus, see press release . The amount of such memory - from 128 megabits to 512 megabits. Note that HyperFlash is optimized for reading. Writing to it is much slower. It implies such a case, when this flash drive is stitched with something in production, and then the processor is loaded from it instantly.
And, of course, a complete set of solutions for TypeC
I learned that STM32 controllers now have a framework called STM32Cube Software
It includes all the necessary libraries, HAL, middleware collection with support for RTOS, USB, file systems, etc.
Perhaps this is very good news, because I remember what it cost us to master the Cortex-M3, with porting NutOS, a lot of time spent on USB support and fixing bugs in libopencm3 (the library used to be called differently).
At the booth of the signal processing company, Huber came across an interesting program - ASN Filter Designer . This is an application that allows you to design a filter by setting its characteristics in the form of graphs. For this type of filter (its frequency and phase characteristics), the program calculates the order, coefficients, etc. As a result, it issues a matlab code (in the following releases it will also issue VHDL / Verilog), which can be further used in a familiar manner. Truly DSP for Dummies.
At the sigfox stand , we got acquainted with the protocol of the same name for combining IoT devices. More precisely, sigfox is a network for IoT devices. An example of use is parking sensors. It is important that now many manufacturers (Atmel, OnSemi, etc ...) declare support for sigfox. See more: http://makers.sigfox.com/#hardware-solutions . It is also important that work is underway to create an LPWAN-standard based on two standards - sigfox and LoRa . Those. Soon there should be a standard that will allow combining IoT sensors with extremely low power consumption into one wide-area network. I wonder how these networks will be protected from invasion?
LoRa at ST Microelectronix booth
Go ahead. On the Altera website, TES announced a kernel for FPGA, which implements a graphics controller with support for opengl es 2.0 / 3.1. According to the developers, they found a demand for such a solution. As a result, you can use FPGA in Cyclone V SoC for a graphics controller. The controller itself is encrypted as a module for QSYS, and the entire software stack is planned to be made open.
The developers from Altera admitted to us that the transceivers in the Arria 10 GT (those that should support as much as 28.3 GHz according to the specification) are still poorly understood by themselves and they do not guarantee such a frequency, now we are talking only about about 26 GHz. Be careful if you suddenly decide to do something really high-speed on the Arria 10. They said that you need to wait, the exact characteristics will be known in the near future.
If someone is interested in what will be after the tenth family, then here is the roadmap from Altera. Please note that all chips are SoC
At the booth, Tektronix came across a very interesting device manufactured by their sister company Keithley, a battery simulator . It loads the battery model, which describes all the parameters and characteristics of the discharge / charge, chemistry, etc. and the device simulates such processes as discharge, deep discharge, charge. This is a very interesting topic, because you can test the work of the device being developed in any power conditions.
What else impressed is the ASIC Simulation Station from Synopsis. You can collect a monster from six such stations, which are pooled. As a result, you can get 24 chips, and all of them will be used for the simulated ASIC design. Interconnect Synopsis takes over. We did not even ask how much it costs;)
Our compatriots - the fabless company for the production of microelectronics - also "lit up" at the exhibition with a Baikal T1 MIPS processor.
Motherboard with Baikal on board
A monoblock working on this processor was also presented at the stand, but I did not have any photos.
The development of IoT gives a huge boost to the entire embedded-industry. New protocols, new power saving modes, methods of developing sustainable code appear and are tested. New standards are coming out and chips are being released.
It is very interesting to observe all of this, and even more interesting is to participate, to master new technologies. I hope we will be able to apply this knowledge in our new products. But I don’t know yet where to start - with switching to Java ME or supporting wireless charging;)
I hope it was interesting.
Thanks for attention!
See my previous report on the exhibition in 2015: https://geektimes.ru/post/246702/
Long time we did not write. In the meantime ...
In the far kingdom, in the thirtieth state, in the Bavarian demesne, in the medieval city of Nuremberg, an exhibition called Embedded World is held. The goal of the exhibition is to gather manufacturers, developers, students and other interested citizens in one place. It takes three days - from 23 to 25 February.
')
Exhibition website: http://www.embedded-world.de
About 900 participants, about 25 thousand visitors. Two days barely enough to understand what was happening. Therefore, the exhibition lasts three days :)
Fate has thrown me to this event not for the first time: my colleagues with STC Metrotek visited the exhibition in 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was here that we first saw Cyclone V SoC (System On Chip with ARM and FPGA on board), which later formed the basis for new devices produced by STC Metrotek (this is Bercut-ET , EthOnd , BlueSoM , ETL-N). It was here that we found manufacturers of EMKO enclosures and established cooperation with them, now all the rack-mount devices (switch Metrotek X10-24 , Bercut-MX ) look uniform. Here we learn about new products and trends.
Under the cat more information about the participants, new products and just things that we liked and remembered.
With photos and links.
Unfortunately, we didn’t work out with our stand this year, so we were in the role of observers: we studied where this Embedded world is heading. Were interested in everything that came to hand, so do not be surprised if you meet a technology or product that is familiar to you. However, we tried to focus on new items.
Here we go!
We charge without wires
I'll start with the popular.
At the RRC booth, I found out about the standard of wireless power called Qi (this is exactly the case when technology has been around for many years, and you know about its name just now). It allows you to transmit up to 5 watts (5 volts, 1 ampere) of energy without wires, using electro-magnetic induction. The transmitter and receiver look like this:
At the stand, you could bring the device to the transmitter and see how the light comes on. It is clear that no longer rocket science, but for the "warm-up" - the most it.
Olimex
I looked at the Olimex stand (the guys from Bulgaria who make the well-known openTD JTAG debugger). The guys switched to IoT, and that's what they offer.
Wi-Fi sockets (~ 30 euros): each outlet can be controlled from a smartphone and using a button (see below).
Wi-Fi switch that can turn on and off anything, because the button via wi-fi transmits a signal, for example, to the same outlet. Unfortunately, the photo did not, but outwardly this is a normal switch, inside which is such a module:
A20-OLinuXino-LIME microcomputer based on dual-core ARM (dual-core Cortex-A7) with all the necessary peripherals, Linux and connectors for connecting their modules. Price - from 35 euros. And completely open iron. Search the site for links to schemes and sorts.
On the way, the olimex SODIMM module is based on the same processor.
Simulink / Matlab
At the Matlab / Simulink booth again showed the ability to generate FPGA code from Simulink. This is a long-known feature.
The photo shows how the circuit created in Simulink controls the motor connected to Altera Cyclone V SoC.
What interested me the most is the presence of an API for adding your board to Simulink so that you can use it to create and simulate circuits. That is, if you wish, you can now integrate any board based on the Cyclone V SoC into your Simulink models.
denx
denx showed a working u-boot on an Intel processor, I mean on the x86 architecture! U-boot is a popular bootloader for ARM devices. We use it in almost all of our devices. But now it will work on such processors as Atom and others. I think this is a big step forward.
Output version of the u-boot - in the photo.
And, of course, they could not but boast of loading in 1.5 seconds, from the power up until the application window appears on the screen. They achieved such results without code modifications - there were enough configuration options for u-boot and linux kernel, that is, everything was out of the box.
Java ME on ST microcontrollers
I moved to the ST microelectronics booth, where developers from Oracle (including our compatriot) suggest using Java ME for programming STM microcontrollers. They claim that there are all Java APIs for accessing peripherals (i2c, SPI, etc ..).
I was interested, because the world is clearly not standing still. It’s customary to think that controllers are programmed in C ... And then - on you - Java.
The first release should appear in April and in the database it supports the processor, which is in the photo. Java ME can be tried on a specific board, but it will be possible to configure the binary to support other boards too.
AdaCore - more Ada
But on the neighboring booth, developers from AdaCore program ARM controllers on Ada. Here is an example: locomotives travel in two ways and should never collide according to a task. Uninterrupted work is guaranteed by code analysis due to the fact that before developing a program, a program specification is made (written in Ada) and the prover checks the program for compliance with the specification.
All (or almost all) Ada development tools are open source.
Well, you have to try. Not a single, as they say ... But first Java ME.
I must say that this is very characteristic of Embedded World: there are a lot of stands here from year to year devoted to achieving absolute (or almost absolute) software quality and control over it. Static analysis for fabulous money, a declarative project description with automatic generation of tests and code, etc. Not surprising, because Embedded devices are now everywhere and to trust them with your life, you need to be sure that the software is not buggy.
Cypress
We pass on to another interesting company - Cypress . My close acquaintance with the chips of this company took place 10 years ago, when we made a fingerprint scanner. We then used the FX2 to transfer images from the scanner to the computer via USB 2.0. I remember that I was delighted with how simple and understandable Cypress described the operation of the USB bus, and since then I have been closely following their products.
However, now is the time of USB 3.0 and new chips have appeared. Meet the FX3 . On the host side, USB 3.0, on the board side, a 32-bit bus operating at up to 100 MHz (which gives about 400 MB / s). Well, ARM9 in the same bottle. Everything was the same with FX2: 8-bit bus (I do not remember the frequency anymore), USB 2.0, 51st controller. Only cooler.
But Cypress did not stop there. In the line there is also CX3 , which allows you to connect up to 4 MIPI-cameras via USB 3.0, and GX3 , which allows you to "forward" Gigabit Ethernet over USB3.0.
And Cypress also showed HyperFLASH, which has a read speed of up to 333 (!) Megabytes per second. To connect to this flash memory, a HyperBUS bus is used - 12 pins, 8 of which are for data. Used Dual Data Rate at 166 MHz. Some controller manufacturers have already announced support for HyperBus, see press release . The amount of such memory - from 128 megabits to 512 megabits. Note that HyperFlash is optimized for reading. Writing to it is much slower. It implies such a case, when this flash drive is stitched with something in production, and then the processor is loaded from it instantly.
And, of course, a complete set of solutions for TypeC
ST Microelectronics
I learned that STM32 controllers now have a framework called STM32Cube Software
It includes all the necessary libraries, HAL, middleware collection with support for RTOS, USB, file systems, etc.
Perhaps this is very good news, because I remember what it cost us to master the Cortex-M3, with porting NutOS, a lot of time spent on USB support and fixing bugs in libopencm3 (the library used to be called differently).
Intuitive filter design
At the booth of the signal processing company, Huber came across an interesting program - ASN Filter Designer . This is an application that allows you to design a filter by setting its characteristics in the form of graphs. For this type of filter (its frequency and phase characteristics), the program calculates the order, coefficients, etc. As a result, it issues a matlab code (in the following releases it will also issue VHDL / Verilog), which can be further used in a familiar manner. Truly DSP for Dummies.
SIGFOX + LoRa = LPWAN
At the sigfox stand , we got acquainted with the protocol of the same name for combining IoT devices. More precisely, sigfox is a network for IoT devices. An example of use is parking sensors. It is important that now many manufacturers (Atmel, OnSemi, etc ...) declare support for sigfox. See more: http://makers.sigfox.com/#hardware-solutions . It is also important that work is underway to create an LPWAN-standard based on two standards - sigfox and LoRa . Those. Soon there should be a standard that will allow combining IoT sensors with extremely low power consumption into one wide-area network. I wonder how these networks will be protected from invasion?
LoRa at ST Microelectronix booth
Tes
Go ahead. On the Altera website, TES announced a kernel for FPGA, which implements a graphics controller with support for opengl es 2.0 / 3.1. According to the developers, they found a demand for such a solution. As a result, you can use FPGA in Cyclone V SoC for a graphics controller. The controller itself is encrypted as a module for QSYS, and the entire software stack is planned to be made open.
Altera
The developers from Altera admitted to us that the transceivers in the Arria 10 GT (those that should support as much as 28.3 GHz according to the specification) are still poorly understood by themselves and they do not guarantee such a frequency, now we are talking only about about 26 GHz. Be careful if you suddenly decide to do something really high-speed on the Arria 10. They said that you need to wait, the exact characteristics will be known in the near future.
If someone is interested in what will be after the tenth family, then here is the roadmap from Altera. Please note that all chips are SoC
Tektronix and Keithley
At the booth, Tektronix came across a very interesting device manufactured by their sister company Keithley, a battery simulator . It loads the battery model, which describes all the parameters and characteristics of the discharge / charge, chemistry, etc. and the device simulates such processes as discharge, deep discharge, charge. This is a very interesting topic, because you can test the work of the device being developed in any power conditions.
Synopsis
What else impressed is the ASIC Simulation Station from Synopsis. You can collect a monster from six such stations, which are pooled. As a result, you can get 24 chips, and all of them will be used for the simulated ASIC design. Interconnect Synopsis takes over. We did not even ask how much it costs;)
Baikal Electronics
Our compatriots - the fabless company for the production of microelectronics - also "lit up" at the exhibition with a Baikal T1 MIPS processor.
Motherboard with Baikal on board
A monoblock working on this processor was also presented at the stand, but I did not have any photos.
Small summary
The development of IoT gives a huge boost to the entire embedded-industry. New protocols, new power saving modes, methods of developing sustainable code appear and are tested. New standards are coming out and chips are being released.
It is very interesting to observe all of this, and even more interesting is to participate, to master new technologies. I hope we will be able to apply this knowledge in our new products. But I don’t know yet where to start - with switching to Java ME or supporting wireless charging;)
I hope it was interesting.
Thanks for attention!
See my previous report on the exhibition in 2015: https://geektimes.ru/post/246702/
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/277873/
All Articles