Editor’s choice of 10 semiconductor reference designs and starter kits which could offer engineers an out-of-the-box route to their next embedded system development.
Actel has starter kits for its Igloo nano FPGAs. The kits can be used for prototyping designs targeted to Igloo nano FPGAs or lower cost ProASIC3 nano FPGAs in all logic densities.
The starter kit includes a development board featuring an Igloo AGLN250V2-ZVQG100 device, a programming stick, user’s guide, tutorial and design examples.
Intended for use with Actel’s Libero development tools, the kit offers simple connections to LEDs and switches to implement a sample design with all I/Os available for connection to external systems or applications.
Arrow’s has teamed with Everex for its development platform for ARM processor-based multimedia embedded systems.
The platform is a complete hardware and software development kit that is available with options of a Samsung S3C2440 (ARM920T), Samsung S3C6400 (ARM1176) or Freescale i.MX31/32 (ARM1136JF-S) host processor.
Features include a credit card-sized CPU board and a touchscreen-enabled TFT display and an embedded operating system. There is support for both Linux and Microsoft Windows Embedded CE operating systems.
Congatec has collaborated with Intel, Xilinx and Wind River on its starter kit for the development of PC-based in-vehicle applications.
At the heart of the conga-IVI starter kit is the COM Express-compatible conga-CA PC module. It is based on an Intel Atom Z530 processor with a clock speed of 1.6GHz and the corresponding Intel system controller hub US15W.
PC interfaces include two PCI Express lanes, eight USB 2.0 hubs, two serial ATA ports, LPC, SDIO, Intel High Definition Audio as well as a high-performance integrated graphics card.
Interestingly, the board is approximately the size of a car radio and is designed for use in a DIN slot shell and comes equipped with plug-in connectors. All standard vehicle interfaces such as CAN bus and MOST bus are available.
EBV Elektronik has tuned the Beagle development board to run an OMAP3530 processor, from Texas Instruments, which contains a superscalar ARM Cortex A8, running up to 600MHz and providing more than 1,200 Dhrystone Mips.
There is also an integrated 2D/3D graphics accelerator, the PowerVR SGX supporting OpenGL ES 2.0. This means the fanless board will render up to 12 million polygons per second.
The chip also contains a dedicated multimedia unit, incorporating a TMS320C64x+ DSP core (up to 430 MHz), capable of processing HD video content.
The Beagle board, which can be USB-powered, communicates with the outside world via its various interfaces. Therefore, an SD/MMC+ card, stereo-out, stereo-in, RS-232 and USB 2.0 high-speed OTGs are placed above the plug connectors typically used in the sector for DVI-D and S-Video.
The interfaces are routed out via separate JTAG, I²C, I²S, SPI and SD/MMC ports.
Future Electronics’ Crossbow development board now supports Freescale’s Flexis MCUs, the MC9S08QE128 8-bit part and MCF51QE128 the 32-bit Coldfire microcontroller.
The point of the Flexis range is that the 8- and 32-bit devices are not only software- and peripheral-compatible, but pin-for-pin compatible to permit a direct upgrade.
Crossbow is part of the distributor’s Future-Blox reference design format. It has a common mechanical and electrical design which includes a number of products it supplies from different manufacturers.
Crossbow extends the concept in that it provides a development environment for the new Freescale parts – and other MCUs yet to be announced that will not be part of the Flexis range – in an interchangeable format. The MCU itself is mounted on a small “mezzanine” board that plugs onto the main PCB.
As with other Future-Blox boards, Crossbow will be available free of charge to qualifying developers.
Lattice Semiconductor is offering an FPGA reference design for LCD video imaging and control systems.
Developed by Exor International, the LCD-Pro evaluation platform is based on LatticeECP2 and LatticeXP2 FPGAs, and incorporates the UltiLogic family of graphics intellectual property cores from Exor.
The design addresses active matrix TFT displays ranging in size from 2 to 23 inches. It also includes touch-screen controller IP aimed at LCD video display and HMI (Human-Machine Interface) applications in automotive and industrial control markets.
There is also a 2D graphics accelerator for handling picture scaling and the cropping of real-time video.
The devices also support 128-bit AES design encryption and dual-boot technologies. The family includes five devices ranging between 5K and 40K LUTs in a variety of packages.
MIPS Technologies has stepped up its plan to widen the market applications for Android platform beyond mobiles.
Following its port of the Android platform to the MIPS architecture, the microprocessor firm is making the source code publicly available.
MIPS is also making hardware and code optimisations available to certain customers.
MIPS is working with chip vendors and working groups of the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), an organization focused on driving Android beyond mobile handsets, to define standardised Android-based platforms for consumer devices such as set-top boxes, digital TVs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), home media players and VoIP systems.
MPC Data and Renesas Technology offer the Little Blue Linux range of professional embedded Linux software development kits (SDK’s).
The first Little Blue Linux Professional SDK targets the RSK+7203 development kit from Renesas Technology Europe. Featuring a high performance 200MHz SH7203 from Renesas’ SH-2A microcontroller family and running the latest stable and royalty free Linux BSP and cross-development tools from MPC Data.
Comprising a suite of professional software development kits and focused training courses, Little Blue Linux is targeted towards embedded Linux based OEM products and supports a range of silicon platforms.
Little Blue Linux is based on a host Debian distribution with an Eclipse based Igloo Integrated Development Environment (IDE) specifically tailored for embedded Linux development.
A free evaluation version of the RSK+7203 is available for download.
MSC is offering the MachXO control development kit along with six reference designs for system control demos.
The kit integrates several Lattice reference designs including the LatticeMico8 microcontroller, PWM fan controller, LCD controller, SRAM controller, I2C controller, SPI Flash memory controller, and a UART peripheral.
Helpfully, it comes with a pre-loaded control system-on-chip design that demonstrates board diagnostic functions including fan speed control based on temperature monitoring, LCD control, complete power supply monitoring and reset distribution in conjunction with the Power Manager II POWR1014A and 8-bit LatticeMico8 microcontroller.
Zuken has a simulation design kit for Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGAs. The kit is free to customers who have a maintenance agreement.
The download service delivers design kits for the latest version of Zuken’s high-speed design environment CR-5000 Lightning, including simulation models, net topology templates and associated documentation.
The aim is to speed up analysis and verification of PCB design that include Spartan-3 FPGAs.