NEWS INDUSTRY MORE MEMORY FOR IOT WITH ARM-BASED SOC S


ilicon Labs has announced a major expansion to its ARM-


based Ember ZigBee system-on- chip (SoC) portfolio to support advancing IoT requirements. The company’s new EM358x SoC


family now offers additional flash and RAM memory options to meet the increasing needs of larger, more complex smart energy and home automation designs. These SoCs are claimed to provide


an ideal mesh networking platform for feature-rich, next-generation ZigBee applications for the IoT. The additional memory is claimed


to minimise the need for a separate system processor, enabling developers to collapse some or all of their


multi-processor designs into a single ZigBee SoC to reduce BOM cost and the size of the final product. These devices offer an on-chip


USB peripheral to simplify system programming and eliminate the need for an external USB controller, further reducing system cost. Many ZigBee-enabled devices require a USB connection to provide an easy- to-use serial application interface or a service port to the device. The USB port can also be used to download new firmware images onto the device, reducing maintenance cost. The EM358x SoC family features


a local storage bootloader that can ease application development and enable the embedded software to be


field-upgraded after the Ember ZigBee-enabled product leaves the factory. The new bootloader capability eliminates the need for external flash memory to support over-the-air upgrade images by using the SoC’s on-chip flash to store firmware images for bootloading, reducing the component count, cost and size of the product. Products such as smart meters or security sensors based on EM358x SoCs can be easily field- upgraded as new platform features are deployed, avoiding costly and time consuming truck rolls.


Silicon Labs www.silabs.com


SCHURTER’S POWER UPDATE


The KEA series power entry module from Schurter, featuring 1- or 2-pole fuseholder, now mates with V-Lock cord sets. This new feature prevents unintended disconnection of the power from the equipment. Unlike wire bail or clamp accessories,


HIGH MEMORY CAPACITY 1-MBIT FRAM


A new 1-Mbit FRAM product with I²C interface has been released by Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU). The company advises the new MB85RC1MT is the highest memory capacity of its existing line-up of devices for this interface. This device is offered in an SOP-8 package that is pin-compatible with EEPROM and Flash memory. Featuring high endurance and low power consumption, the FRAM product enables frequent logging at low power, which is an ideal fit for factory automation and industrial instrument applications. The company advises, FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) is a type of memory featuring both


non-volatility and random access. While non-volatility permits data to be retained even in the absence of power, random access also allows faster writes without the delay that is usually inevitable with non-volatile memories. FRAM is also extremely durable, capable of offering 10 trillion (10¹³) read/write cycles, which exceeds conventional non-volatile memory technology by a factor of 10 millions. This high endurance enables real-time logging in target applications. This new product operates at voltages between 1.8V and 3.3V, and at temperatures from -40°C to 85°C.


The device’s active power supply is claimed to draw a maximum of 1.2mA (at 3.4MHz). This is an interesting aspect as, taking the extremely short write cycle of FRAM into consideration, the system is much more energy-efficient than EEPROM. This technology also supports "high-speed" mode at its operating frequency, which enables read/write


operations at 3.4MHz in parallel to 1MHz operation – the same speed as conventional EEPROMs. As a result, many logging applications featuring an I2


C interface can now replace their EEPROMs with the new


FRAM product. This enables high-precision data capture via high-frequency logging while reducing the power consumed by data write cycles. Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe emea.fujitsu.com/semiconductor


no additional hardware is necessary to install the cord retaining system. The cordset safely latches into a notch in the plastic housing of this series. Depressing the latch removes the cordset.


Schurter www.schurter.com


Stadium-IGT has developed a range of LED Backlit Capacitive Switch Modules. These switches feature the company’s IGT’s method of combining capacitive switching with multi-colour area- specific backlighting which until now has only been available in custom designed HMI solutions.


These devices are suitable for


mounting into panel thickness of up to 7.0mm and provide high brightness full RGB illumination of touch area with great Illumination.


www.stadium-electronics.com ASPEN’S LATEST RUBIDIUM CLOCK


In a technology collaboration with Spectratime, Aspen Electronics has created a smart Rubidium clock (SRO), that integrates complex timing and synchronisation functionality. The company advises the SRO controls any


Stratum-1 reference such as GPS/GNSS, Cesium, Hydrogen Maser, and T1/E1 at 1ns resolution. It is compatible with the FEI-5680 model and utilises SmarTiming+ technology. Designed with a standard Rb locked crystal


oscillator using a Direct Digital Synthesiser (DDS) in its internal frequency control loop, this model is claimed to allow users, of the SmarTiming+ microcontroller, to adjust and sync the SRO’s


/ ELECTRONICS


centre frequency with a resolution of 5E-13 per step. The SRO is able to measure the relative phase of the PPS Ref, but it can also adjust its frequency to be aligned to it. This device features an advanced analogue


ns-phase comparator, enabling the SRO to track a low-noise PPS Ref signal with a phase error of a few ns. Similarly, a noisy but stable signal can be tracked within a few ns. In this case, since the phase error is higher, the SRO’s frequency is finely adjusted to the frequency of the PPS Ref.


Aspen Electronics www.aspen-electronics.com


ELECTRONICS | MARCH 2014 5


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