A sophisticated satellite-based system allows pinpointing a person’s location in a dangerous, isolated situation on land or sea. It thus hopefully speeds their subsequent rescue in many cases. Over one million emergency beacons are in use worldwide, all operating at 406 MHz (with some exceptions, called out below). Cospas-Sarsat does not manufacture or sell beacons. […]
microcontroller
C/C++ development environment works with RISC-V MCUs
SEGGER announces its partnership with HPMicro Semiconductor Inc. The partnership focuses on making SEGGER’s top-rated, multi-platform IDE Embedded Studio available, free of charge, to all HPMicro’s customers using HPM6000 series RISC-V microcontrollers, boosting the RISC-V ecosystem. Embedded Studio includes all the tools and features expected for streamlined, professional embedded development in C and C++. It comes […]
MCU application software meets IEC61508 safety standard
Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the availability of industry-leading functional safety solutions that meet the IEC61508 standard for both its RA and RX Families of microcontrollers. Renesas now offers IEC 61508 SIL3 certified self-test software for both Arm Cortex-M23 and -M33-based MCUs. Renesas also announced the IEC 61508 SIL3 certified PROFIsafe Application Software for RX MCUs. Renesas […]
IoT development tools work on ultra-low power PSoC 6 MCUs
Infineon Technologies AG is collaborating with SensiML for building intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints. Together they offer developers an easy and seamless process to capture data from Infineon XENSIV sensors, train Machine Learning (ML) models, and deploy real-time inferencing models directly on ultra-low-power PSoC 6 microcontrollers (MCUs). This can be completed by using the SensiML […]
AI/ML software runs on PSoC TM 6 MCUs
SensiML Corporation announced that it has teamed with Infineon Technologies to deliver a complete AI/Machine Learning (ML) solution for the Infineon PSoCTM 6 family of microcontrollers (MCUs) and the wide range of sensors they support. The collaboration combines SensiML’s Analytics Toolkit AI development software with the Infineon ModusToolboxTM and ultra-low power dual-core PSoC 6 MCUs, […]
How to extend, boost and repeat Wi-Fi signals
Since the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) limits Wi-Fi transmitter power, it’s often necessary to increase the range of Wi-Fi signals using some signal boosting/extending technology. But transmit power is only half of the equation. Wi-Fi connections are always bidirectional and symmetrical. When working to extend Wi-Fi signals, the bidirectional nature of the connection is […]
Quantifying embedded MCU energy consumption
There are several methods and benchmarks for quantifying the energy consumption of embedded microcontroller units (MCUs) and related energy consumption benchmarks for common peripheral functions such as Bluetooth low energy and Wi-Fi. Over time, MCU designs have changed to support the demand for higher energy efficiency. In addition, there is another world of energy consumption […]
Specifying MCUs for satellites and spacecraft
There is not a single group of standards but a continuum of qualification criteria for the components and systems used in satellites and spacecraft (Figure 1). With the growth of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites where the environment is less demanding and where some satellites are expected to be replaced regularly with upgraded designs, the […]
How does embedded software work?
Embedded software is specialized programming on a chip, such as a microcontroller (MCU), or in firmware in an embedded MCU, to control its functions. Unlike general computer applications, designed to be installed on various computer systems or modified to provide varying levels of functionality, embedded software is generally purpose-built for a single hardware environment and […]
What’s special about embedded microcontrollers?
Embedded MCUs are purpose-built for use in various specific applications and rely on embedded peripherals, various communications protocols, conventional operating systems (OS) or specialized real-time operating systems (RTOS), middleware, application software, and development environments. While MCU stands for microcontroller unit, it could also be interpreted as mission controller unit since these devices are optimized for […]
