Despite built-in safe-guards, Bluetooth Low Energy IoT devices are vulnerable to hacks when they communicate over the air. Here are the basics of the problem. Leland Teschler, Executive Editor If you eyeball internet-of-things items ranging from smart ac plugs to motion sensors you typically find connectivity via the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard. A lot […]
FAQ
Developing connected medical devices for the IoT
Super-small radio SoCs are being paired with innovative battery technologies to bring inexpensive medical electronics online. Adrie Van Meijeren, Low Power Connectivity • Dialog Semiconductor The Internet of Things (IoT) has disrupted many industries in short order. However, when it comes to adopting the IoT, the medical and pharmaceutical space has largely been held back. […]
How to test USB4 designs
Designers must look at and characterize the entire Type-C ecosystem when testing USB4 designs. Jit Lim • Keysight Technologies The USB Type-C connector has received significant adoption with ubiquitous standards like USB, DP, and Thunderbolt. The next-generation variant of USB is USB4. USB4 will transmit and receive on all four lanes of the Type-C connector […]
Selecting the right Bluetooth Low Energy SoC
Tricks of the trade for optimizing the energy consumption of BLE chips affect memory size, clock speed, operating modes, and other factors determined during the initial design. Emmanuel Sambuis, Silicon Labs It can be challenging to optimize Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) applications for minimal energy consumption. An understanding of BLE and the underlying system-on-chip (SoC) […]
AI inference on MCUs? Yes, with development kits
The microcontroller, the most widely deployed computing platform, is ready to welcome the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Really? For a start, MCUs don’t have enough storage space needed to hold the neural network-based trained models, and they don’t have enough RAM to carry out inference operations based on these models. Microcontrollers are known for limited […]
A new technique to maximize scan diagnosis throughput
by Jayant D’Souza, product manager Tessent group at Mentor, a Siemens Business Charged with the task of improving yield, product engineers need to find the location of defects in manufactured ICs quickly and efficiently. Typically, they use failing test cycles to perform scan diagnosis, which is then analyzed to reveal the location and root cause […]
How to make the most of low-cost satellites for remote IoT apps
It’s now cheaper than ever to launch small and nano-satellites into space thanks to NASA’s CubeSat Launch initiative (CSLI) – and this is excellent news for developers of remote Internet of Things (IoT) applications. For the uninitiated, CubeSats are research spacecraft that measure around 4 inches (102mm) long and are taken into space on rocket […]
Cloud connectivity in IoT, Part 2: How to secure data links
If the Internet of Things (IoT) is about connecting objects like a thermostat or a pacemaker to the Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks, then it’s even more about securing links to these objects. And that includes implementing security while connecting IoT devices to a cloud platform. The good news is that securing links to the cloud […]
Cloud connectivity in IoT, Part 1: How communication works
Cloud connectivity, a fundamental part of the majority of the Internet of Things (IoT) projects, is intertwined with expertise in embedded systems and software integration. That’s why MCU suppliers are working closely with cloud service providers to develop integrated hardware and software solutions that enable IoT developers to establish an edge-to-cloud connection using out-of-the-box solutions […]
Embedded basics Part 3: Functional safety documentation and terminology
Functional safety compliance is often a time-consuming and expensive process. That, in turn, underscores the role of documentation in efficiently implementing the functional safety guidelines. So, designers need full documentation to support the development of functional safety-enabled embedded systems. It includes safety manuals that document all the information for integrating functional safety-enabled MCUs into the […]