Embedded World 2015 Final Day Round-Up

With nearly 900 exhibiting companies, the Embedded World show in Nuremberg provides technology insights that suit every visitor’s needs. This event has always been perceived as an engineer’s show, and as such, companies are keen to launch new products and systems at the event. Here’s a look at ten of the hot products from day three of the show.

Sensor helps navigation without a GPS signal

Embedded World saw Infineon Technologies launch its ultra-high ±5cm resolution, miniature MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) pressure sensor. Designed for use in mobile and wearable gadgets and IoT devices, the DPS310 is a low-power digital barometric pressure sensor that enables the development of new and enhanced navigation, location, well-being, gesture recognition and weather monitoring applications.

The company says the sensor is suitable for both indoor navigation and outdoor navigation and can help to improve navigation accuracy or support dead reckoning when a GPS signal is not available.

Smart card meets US Government standards

Storage systems specialists Swissbit AG debuted a new member of its PS-100u Security Series of secure microSD storage cards. The PS-100u FE comes with an integrated smart card fulfilling FIPS 140-2 level 3, which is suitable for protecting US governmental and enterprise mobile communication.

FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) is a US government computer security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules.

Processor for those athletic apps

Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has launched two new application processors for wearable devices. The TZ1031MBG and TZ1011MBG are the latest additions to the ApP Lite family’s TZ1000 series and provide single package solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Toshiba is expanding its line-up of systematic solutions for the TZ1000 series by developing software algorithms that can be applied to measuring weak biomedical signals, such as pulse and ECG. In doing so, Toshiba provides an evaluation environment for developers to shorten the time to market for products integrating its application processors.

MRAM copes with random read writes

Visitors to the show had the chance to learn about Everspin’s MR10Q010, a memory solution for applications that must store and retrieve data and programs quickly. It features a small number of pins, low power and is housed in a compact 16pin SOIC package. Everspin claims it is an attractive alternative to conventional parallel data bus interfaces in next-generation RAID controllers, server system logs, storage device buffers, and embedded system data and program memory.

Using Everspin’s patented MRAM technology, both reads and writes can occur randomly in memory with no delay between writes.

Display response times cut to 200ms

Varitronix has added to its passive display product lines by launching the new fast-response ISTN displays. With the new displays, the response time can be reduced to 200ms, allowing it to display images more smoothly within short time. It is designed as an automotive and industrial grade product.

Smaller Pi copes with more functions

RS Components is now stocking the upgraded Raspberry Pi Model A, which combines enhanced features and lower power consumption for applications such as industrial controls, remote monitors and multimedia devices.

It has the 40-pin GPIO connector introduced on the Model B+, with the same pin-out and mounting holes for standard Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) accessories allowing users to easily add extra functions.

Tablet-based troubleshooting traffic detective

The Traffic Detective from Fraunhofer IIS enables the analysis of radio communication in the 868MHz frequency band and is designed for planning and troubleshooting wireless networks.

Analytical tools for wireless networks can prove expensive and often unsuitable for mobile use. The researchers at Fraunhofer IIS have developed a user-friendly solution in an app for Android platforms that allows analysis in the public domain 868 MHz band. The Traffic Detective can be installed on a tablet and uses a commercial DVB-T receiver as an analog front-end.

Interface detects four probes in parallel

The Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscope accessories portfolio now includes the new R&S RT-ZC20B current probe with the Rohde & Schwarz probe interface. Via this interface, R&S RTO, R&S RTE and R&S RTM oscilloscopes automatically detect up to four current probes connected in parallel.

The instruments also automatically adjust the vertical scaling and zeroing settings. The degaussing function is activated directly on the instrument. The current probe receives power over the Rohde & Schwarz probe interface, eliminating the need for an external power supply.

At 100 MHz bandwidth, the R&S RT-ZC20B can measure AC and DC of a maximum 30 A (RMS)/50 A (peak) current with 10 mA and low noise resolution. Combined with the R&S RTO/R&S RTE 16 bit high definition option, currents less than 1 mA can also be measured.

Industry’s smallest concurrent multi-GNSS module

The EVA-M8M GNSS modules feature the u-Blox M8 positioning engine and deliver high sensitivity and minimal acquisition times in the compact EVA form factor. It is easy to design-in and only needs an external GNSS antenna in most applications. The layout of the EVA-M8M is specially designed to ease design limitations near field interferences since RF and digital domains are segregated.

Safety-critical control systems dev tool

Software development tools provider AdaCore launched two new products at the Embedded World event.

QGen is a model-based development tool for safety-critical control systems. The company says that this qualifiable and customisable code generator and model verifier will make the process of developing and verifying high-integrity real-time control applications from Simulink and Stateflow models simpler and faster.

The company’s second launch was the GNAT Pro 7.3, the latest version of its flagship Ada Development Environment. Designed for those building mission-critical, safety-critical and security-critical systems, GNAT Pro includes a full Ada compiler.