Front End I News
FTDI unveils EVE as it looks to move into HMI
applications
Long established as a developer and supplier of USB semiconductor and software solutions, FTDI Chip has announced that it has taken its first steps into another vital application sector. With the demand for advanced forms of human-machine interaction growing rapidly, the company has announced the release of the FT800, the first device in the company’s new Embedded Video Engine (EVE) family. Targeted at more cost-effective, intelligent QVGA and WQVGA TFT display panels, the FT800 takes an object oriented approach that renders images in a line by line fashion with 1/16th of a pixel resolution, eliminating the expense of traditional frame buffer memory. The object orientated approach means objects such as images, fonts and audio elements can be implemented and manipulated via a low pin count SPI or I2C interface. To develop the desired GUI the engineer initialises the object memory (up to 256 kBytes) and then controls the specified objects and their attributes
through construction and interaction of a small display list buffer. Eliminating frame buffer memory as well as the need for a high end MCU, together with integrating touch and audio in a 48LD space-saving package, means that the FT800 can provide substantial system cost savings. The FT800Q is capable of providing 24- bit (true colour) support on an 18-bit interface and comes preloaded with a useful set of fonts and sounds on its ROM. Anti-aliasing mechanisms enhance the appearance of the display’s output when rendering lines and complex shapes or when implementing signatures on resistive touch screens and built-in widgets mean that even complex objects can be implemented. “With EVE, FTDI Chip is able to offer intelligent display solutions to a wide variety of applications with far more competitive price points”, explained Fred Dart, CEO and founder of FTDI Chip. “EVE marks a new stage in the evolution of FTDI Chip, taking our ability to generate innovative technology then applying it to
new system areas to provide engineers with easy-to-use solutions of un-matched value.”
FTDI Chips is also offering advanced
software support for EVE through a third party partnership with tool chain vendor MikroElektronika, which is providing it with detailed libraries for accessing the Visual TFT graphic development solution. Visual TFT is a standalone software
environment in which EVE objects can be dragged and dropped onto a palette in order to build more complex applications. It uses this graphic input and generates code that is compatible with MikroElektronika’s range of compilers. This can then be placed onto the system microcontroller.
“Combining FTDI Chip’s EVE family with
our Visual TFT offering will facilitate the rapid construction of GUIs that are highly intuitive in nature,” states Aleksandar Nikolic, Product Manager at MikroElektronika. “This will have a major impact on a broad cross section of TFT implementations.”
Public access small cell market to hit $16bn in 2016
In its latest quarterly small-cell market status report for the Small Cell Forum, Informa Telecoms & Media highlights that public access small cells are gaining clear market traction and look set to dominate small cell revenues for the foreseeable future.
New research in the report predicts that the installed base of small cells is set to grow from almost 11 million units today to 92 million units in 2016, with a total market value of over $22bn. Public access models will dominate revenues in 2016 with a market value of US$16.2 billion - 73% of the overall small cell market total - despite accounting for only 4% of the small cell units deployed. The research found that the 9.6 million femtocells in operation today make up 56% of all base stations globally - outnumbering macrocells for the first time. Femtocells will continue to outnumber all other types of cell with 86% of the total base station market in 2016 and constitute 12% of overall small cell market revenues.
4 March 2013 This public access small cell traction is
also reflected in operator announcements over the past three months. AT&T revealed that its public access small cell trial provided close to perfect coverage and increased capacity in the most challenging metropolitan areas and reiterated plans to rollout 40,000 units by the end of 2015. Vodafone UK announced it is currently testing 1000 public small cells and plans to start rolling out tri-mode models (3G, 4G & Wi-Fi) by March, while Verizon also plans to roll out the technology in the second half of the year. Although operator focus is on urban small cells, BT announced that it is to start a technical trial of rural models aimed at bringing coverage to areas where it has traditionally been uneconomical.
The femtocell market continues to
progress with Orange France launching its first residential offering and Vodafone UK unveiling a new a new plug-size ‘Sure Signal’ femtocell, while Everything
Components in Electronics
Everywhere launched an enterprise femtocell service.
“Public access small cells in busy urban
areas are set to be one of the defining mobile network trends in the coming years. While operators won’t be deploying them in the same numbers as femtocells, they are arguably their best tool for bringing massive extra capacity to their mobile networks. As this research shows, the vendors who succeed in this space are going to win the lion’s share of small cell revenues,” said the report’s author, Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. “The mobile network is undergoing the biggest and most rapid change in its history due to small cells – they now account for 63% of all base stations globally. This revolution may have started in the home with femtocells but in 2013 we’re going to see it spill into the streets, shopping centres and enterprises,” said Gordon Mansfield, the Small Cell Forum’s Chairman.
Low cost multicore: XMOS used Embedded World to unveil the world’s lowest cost multicore microcontroller. The xCORE XS1-L4-64 integrates four 32-bit logical processor cores at a price similar to competing single-core devices. The L4 provides an entry-level platform for designers considering multicore technology for the first time. It is pin- compatible with other members of the xCORE family, opening up the opportunity to cost-down existing designs. “The xCORE L4 offers 400MIPS performance at the price point of other manufacturers’ 40 or 50MIPS products,” said Ali Dixon, Director of Product Marketing and co-founder, XMOS. “Embedded designers working on high-volume applications can now add more features, including those that require real-time determinism, with software that is functionally safe. We believe it’s a real game-changer.”
Prototyping: Arrow is making available the BeMicro SDK Jumpstart Designer, a cloud-based design platform for rapid online prototyping with the BeMicro SDK evaluation system. BeMicro SDK is a popular USB stick format software development kit that enables users to evaluate embedded solutions with Altera’s NIOS II configurable 32bit processor.
Powered by Transim, the Arrow BeMicro SDK Jumpstart Designer enables users new to field- programmable gate array prototyping to evaluate a BeMicro SDK embedded solution within minutes, with ready-to-use demos and preconfigured labs. The cloud-based platform eliminates the need to download large design software files or program in a complex development environment, rapidly decreasing the ramp-up time for a first embedded design.
Design on the move:Wavelength Electronics is making available a new mobile app that will enable engineers to specify extremely rugged, high-performance MegaPhase RF and microwave test cable assemblies from their mobile phones, iPod Touch device or iPad tablet. An essential utility for test & measurement and systems engineers who need to specify RF coaxial cables and connectors in the course of their work, the app is able to offer a number of useful features. The app not only provides quick product identification and selections, but also allows the user to design custom cables on their mobile device. Quick quote requests can be automatically generated and emailed for rapid response, and custom cables can be built and emailed instantly for a quotation. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the MegaPhase app can be downloaded free of charge.
Smartphone barcodes: ams and Mobean have formed an alliance to accelerate the ability of smartphones to transmit barcoded content that can then be read by all point-of-sale laser scanners. Combining ams’ light sensors with Mobeam’s light-based beaming technology handset makers will now be able to fully support mobile commerce applications that use barcodes such as tickets, loyalty cards and gift cards. “The combination of Mobeam’s technology with our sensors will give smartphone manufacturers a powerful, accurate and integrated solution that will enable them to participate in the growing mobile couponing and commerce markets,” explained ams CEO, John Heugle.
www.cieonline.co.uk
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