8 trends shaping the future of making

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Our friends at Autodesk explore the significant design and technology trends for 2015. 

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Mass personalization will march toward the mainstream

Normal allows its customers to take a few pictures of their ears and uses that to create personalized 3D-printed headphones that fit perfectly in your ear. Normal CEO Nikki Kaufman describes it best as “Personalized, customized products built for you and your body.” In the last few years, we’ve seen companies that offer customers the ability to customize their products, by allowing customers to select from pre-defined options. Diego Tamburini, Manufacturing Industry Strategist at Autodesk predicts that customers will demand products that are uniquely tailored to their needs, tastes and bodies.

(Source: Normal)

Big data will inform our urban landscapes

The design and construction of buildings, infrastructure and the cities they reside in are far too complex to rely on the wooden scale models of old. Architects, engineers and city planners are able to do things that were not possible in the past. As Phil Bernstein, V.P. Strategic Industry Relations at Autodesk put it, “Scale models, however beautifully made, are hardly up to the job of understanding how a building operates in the context of a city.

Thanks to advances in laser scanning, sensors and cloud-based software, cities are now being digitized into 3D models that can be viewed from every angle, changed and analyzed at a moment’s notice.

Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Singapore, Tokyo and Boston are working to digitize not just the shapes and locations of the buildings but create a data-rich, living model of the city itself — complete with simulated pedestrian traffic, energy use, carbon footprint, water distribution, transportation, even the movement of infectious diseases.

(Source: Autodesk)

Our relationship with robots will be redefined

In the future, humans and robots will collaborate and learn from each other. Today, robots are receiving data and use machine learning techniques to make sense of the world and provide actionable analytics for themselves and humans. Nevertheless, robots are not artists and they will need inspiration and guidance from us for the foreseeable future. In the words of Autodesk Technology Futurist Jordan Brandt, “A robot is no more a craftsman than an algorithm is a designer.”

(Source: Autodesk Gallery France Pop-Up)

Designs will “grow”

When Lightning Motorcycles wanted to develop a next generation swing arm for their electric motorcycle, they adopted a new Autodesk approach for the project: A computer-aided (CAD) system called Project Dreamcatcher that automatically generates tens, hundreds, or even thousands of designs that all meet your specific design criteria.

Software like Autodesk’s Project Dreamcatcher is ushering a new era of design best described by Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski, “We’ll start to see more intensely complex forms, that could appear very organic, or very mathematic.”

(Source: Lightning Motorcycles)

Manufacturing in space

Made In Space is focused on one thing: making and manufacturing in space. With over 30,000+ hours of 3D printing technology testing, Made In Space has led to the first 3D printers designed and built for use on the International Space Station. As Made in Space CTO Jason Dunn explains, “2015 will be the year of space manufacturing. No longer do engineers need to design around the burdens of launch — instead, in 2015 we will begin designing space systems that are actually built in the space environment. This opens an entirely new book on space system design, a book where complex 3D printed structures that could only exist in zero-gravity become possible.”

(Source: Made in Space)

Live materials will be integrated into our buildings

Today, buildings are dead, but new materials and technology are enabling living structures. For example, David Benjamin, founding principal of the design and research studio The Living, is collaborating with plant biologists at the University of Cambridge in England to grow new composite materials from bacteria, a process that uses renewable sugars as a raw material rather than non-renewable petroleum used for plastics. In 2014, The Living delivered Hy-Fi, a “living” installation for the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program competition. The temporary installation involved a 40-foot-tall tower with 10,000 bricks grown entirely from compostable materials — corn stalks and mushrooms — and developed in collaboration with innovative materials company Ecovative. That building was disassembled at the end of the summer and all of the bricks have been composted, returning to grade A soil.

(Source: The Living)

Virtual and augmented reality will be integrated into everyday apps

New virtual devices like the Oculus Rift and augmented reality applications will require an innovative generation of spatial designers. According to Autodesk Technology Futurist Jordan Brandt, current touchscreen interaction will give way to ‘Immersion Design’ that leverages the spatial dimensions offered through emerging augmented and virtual reality platforms.

There’s a bright future for architecture students, game designers and multi-dimensional talent to join app development teams.

(Source: Autodesk and Neoscape)

The amount of 3D data will rapidly increase

“With the ability to create 3D models on mobile devices through apps like 123D Catch or the Structure sensor, virtually anyone can begin to capture the spatial world around them. Coupled with the broader adoption of WebGL technology and 3D printing, we can expect an explosion in the amount of 3D data available in 2015. Responding to user demand, social platforms will enable direct sharing of 3D data and start to provide immersive, collaborative experiences.” — Autodesk Technology Futurist, Jordan Brandt

(Source: 123D Catch)

This article written by the Autodesk team originally appeared on Medium.

 

Chip Design talks smart Bluetooth, sensors and more

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CES 2015 saw countless Internet of Things (IoT) devices, ranging from Bluetooth gateways and smart sensors to intensive cloud-based data processors and hackathons – all powered by Atmel | SMART ARM-based microcontrollers.

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Writing for Chip Design Magazine, Editorial Director John Blyler recounted the world’s largest electronics show by elaborating upon the underlying the show, which was indeed, connectivity.

“The only difference each year is the way in which the connectivity is express in products. For example, this year’s event showcased an increase in gateway networking devices that permitted Bluetooth Low Energy-equipped gadgets to connect to a Wi-Fi router or other interfaces with the outside world,” Blyler shares.

According to a new IHS report, the global market for low-power, Bluetooth Smart integrated circuits (IC) will see shipments rise nearly tenfold over the next five years. Not only will the worldwide Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market be valued at $3.9 billion by 2020, Bluetooth-enabled device shipments will approach the four billion unit mark by next year as well.

This is good news for very low power wireless semiconductor intellectual property (IP) and device manufacturers in the wearable and connected markets, Blyler adds. “One example out of many is Atmel’s BTLC1000 chip, which the company claims will help improve battery life by over 30% of current devices. The chip architecture is based on a ARM Cortex-M0 processor.”

Expanding upon the Atmel SmartConnect wireless portfolio, the BTLC1000 is a Bluetooth Smart link controller integrated circuit that connects as a companion to any Atmel AVR or Atmel | SMART MCU through a UART or SPI API requiring minimal resource on the host side. The ultra-low power solution is capable of achieving sub-1µA in standby mode, while delivering the industry’s best dynamic power consumption and increasing battery life by as much as one year for certain applications.

Giving its unprecedented 2.1mm X 2.1mm Wafer Level Chipscale Package (WLCSP), the Bluetooth Smart controller is ideal for the rapidly growing wearables and IoT realms, not limited to portable medical, activity trackers, human Interface devices, gaming controllers, and beacons and much more.

For those unfamiliar with the technology, Bluetooth Smart is the intelligent, low-power version of traditional Bluetooth wireless technology that works with existing smartphone and tablet applications, and brings connectivity to everyday devices ranging from toothbrushes to heartrate monitors.

“Bluetooth Smart and tiny ultra-low power devices are vital for the wearables market and Atmel have a triple play with their BTLC1000 chip… which has a Cortex-M0 processor on-board and battery life improved 30% over current devices. So here is a perfect example of my point, this device is smaller, uses less power and combines more functionality so after it samples in March it will make its way into new products that simply couldn’t exist before.  What kind of predictions can we make from this you may ask? Things like smart bandages that take your temperature and remind you to take your antibiotics or food packaging that warns of spoilage, the possibilities expand every year. Expect to see more Bluetooth connected ‘things’ at CES 2016. This is an important step in the Internet of Things becoming a reality and that could be an inflection point,” David Blaza recently shared in the ARM Connected Community.

Blyler goes on to note that in order for the IoT to be useful, sensor data at the edge of the connectivity node must be communicated to the cloud for high-performance processing of all the data.

“Next to connectivity, sensors are the defining component of any IoT technology. Maybe that is why sensor companies have been a growing presence on the CES show floor. This year, sensor-related vendors accounted for over 10% of total exhibitors. Many new IoT sensor technology is implemented using tiny MEMS physical structures.”

Want to read more? You can find the entire write-up here. To explore Atmel’s latest Bluetooth ultra-low power solution for the IoT, you can also do so here.

 

 

Symmetric or asymmetric encryption, that is the question!

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With the emergence of breaches and vulnerabilities, the need for hardware security has never been so paramount.

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Confidentiality — one of the three foundational pillars of security, along with data integrity and authenticity — is created in a digital system via encryption and decryption. Encryption, of course, is scrambling a message in a certain way that only the intended party can descramble (i.e. decrypt) it and read it.

Throughout time, there have been a number of ways to encrypt and decrypt messages. Encryption was, in fact, used extensively by Julius Caesar, which led to the classic type of encryption aptly named, Caesar Cipher. The ancient Greeks beat Caesar to the punch, however. They used a device called a “Scytale,” which was a ribbon of leather or parchment that was wrapped around a rod of a diameter, of which only the sender and receiver were aware. The message was written on the wrapping and unfurled, then sent to the receiver who wrapped on on the rod of the same diameter in order to read it.

 

Modern Encryption

Modern encryption is based on published and vetted digital algorithms, such as Advanced Encryption System (AES), Secure Hashing Algorithms (SHA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), among many others. Given that these algorithms are public and known to everyone, the security must come from something else — that thing is a secret cryptographic “key.” This fundamental principal was articulated in the 19th century by  Auguste Kerckhoffs, a Dutch linguist, cryptographer and professor.

Kerckhoffs’ principle states that a cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge. In other words: “The key to encryption is the key.” Note that Kirchoffs advocated what is now commonly referred to as “open-source” for the algorithm. Point being, this open-source method is more secure than trying to keep an algorithm itself obscured (sometimes called security by obscurity). Because the algorithms are known, managing the secret keys becomes the most important task of a cryptographer. Now, let’s look at that.

Symmetric and Asymmetric

Managing the key during the encryption-decryption process can be done in two basic ways: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption uses the identical key to both encrypt and decrypt the data. Symmetric key algorithms are much faster computationally than asymmetric algorithms because the encryption process is less complicated. That’s because there is less processing involved.

The length of the key size directly determines the strength of the security. The longer the key, the more computation it will take to crack the code given a particular algorithm. The table below highlights the NIST guidelines for key length for different algorithms with equivalent security levels.  You can see that Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a very compact algorithm. It has a small software footprint, low hardware implementation costs, low bandwidth requirements, and high device performance. That is one of the main reasons that ECC-based asymmetric cryptographic processes, such as ECDSA and  ECDH, are now being widely adopted. The strength of the sophisticated mathematics of ECC are a great ally of all three pillars of security, especially encryption.

Not only is symmetric faster and simpler; furthermore, a shorter key length can be used since the keys are never made public as is the case with asymmetric (i.e. Public Key Infrastructure) encryption. The challenge, of course, with symmetric is that the keys must be kept secret on both the sender and receiver sides. So, distributing a shared key to both sides is a major security risk. Mechanisms that maintain the secrecy of the shared key are paramount. One method for doing this is called Symmetric Session Key Exchange.

Asymmetric encryption is different in that it uses two mathematically related keys (a public and private key pair) for data encryption and decryption.  That takes away the security risk of key sharing. However, asymmetric requires much more processing power. Unlike the public key, the private key is never exposed. A message that is encrypted by using a public key can only be decrypted by applying the same algorithm and using the matching private key.

A message that is encrypted by using the private key can only be decrypted by using the matching public key. This is sort of like mathematical magic. Some of the  trade offs of symmetric and asymmetric are summarized below.

Symmetric

• Keys must be distributed in secret
• If a key is compromised the attacker can decrypt any message and/or impersonate one of the parties
• A network requires a large number of keys

Asymmetric

• Around 1000 times slower than symmetric
• Vulnerability to a “man-in-the-middle” attack, where the public key is intercepted and altered

Due to the time length associated with asymmetric, many real-world systems utilize combination of the two, where the secret key used in the symmetric encryption is itself encrypted with asymmetric encryption, and sent over an insecure channel.Then, the rest of the data is encrypted using symmetric encryption and sent over the insecure channel in the encrypted format. The receiver gets the asymmetrically encrypted key and decrypts it with his private key. Once the receiver has the symmetric key, it can be used to decrypt the symmetrically encrypted message. This is a type of key exchange.

Note that the man in the middle vulnerability can be easily addressed by employing the other pillar of security; namely authentication. Crypto engine devices with hardware key storage, most notably Atmel’s CrypotoAuthentication, have been designed specifically to address all three pillars of security in an easy to design and cost-effective manner. Ready to secure your next design? Get started here.

Playing Tetris in SPARK on a SAM4S ARM Cortex-M4 MCU

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Just when we thought we’d seen the ‘80s game played on nearly everything, a group of Makers have built it onto an MCU. 

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For many, Tetris is simply a tile-matching video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. However, for others, it inspires endless possibilities of Maker projects. Most recently, AdaCore’s Tristan Gingold and Yannick Moy have devised the highly-popular puzzle on an Atmel | SMART SAM4S ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller.

“There are even versions of Tetris written in Ada. But there was no version of Tetris written in SPARK, so we’ve repaired that injustice. Also, there was no version of Tetris for the Atmel SAM4S ARM processor, another injustice we’ve repaired,” the duo writes.

The concept first stemmed from their colleague Quentin Ochem, who had been searching for a flashy demo for GNAT using SPARK on ARM, to run on the SAM4S Xplained Pro Evaluation Kit. Luckily, this kit features an OLED1 extension with a small rectangular display, which surely enough, immediately ‘SPARKed’ the idea of Tetris. Now, throw in the five buttons overall between the main card and the extension, and the team had all the necessary hardware to bring the project to life.

In total, the entire build took approximately five days to complete. Both Gingold and Moy advise, “Count two days for designing, coding and proving the logic of the game in SPARK, another two days for developing the BSP for the board, and a half day for putting it all together.”

For those unfamiliar with SPARK, it is a subset of Ada that can be analyzed very precisely for checking global data usage, data initialization, program integrity and functional correctness. Mostly, it excludes pointers and tasking, which proved not to be a problem for Tetris.

While we’ve seen the retro game played on everything from t-shirts to bracelets, we’ve never experienced the game literally on an MCU. As the team notes, all of the necessary sources can be downloaded in the tetris.tgz archive, while those interested in designing one of their own can find a detailed breakdown of the entire build here.

Atmel unveils a cloud-ready Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo platform for IoT apps

Atmel has expanded its SmartConnect wireless portfolio with a wireless combo system-on-chip (SoC) for the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) market.

The new fully-integrated WILC3000 wireless link controller combines Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth Smart-ready technologies in an ultra-small 4.1mm x 4.1mm Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (WLCSP) with lower power consumption, along with Atmel’s patented adaptive co-existence engine, making it the ideal solution for IoT and wearable applications. Atmel’s WILC3000 Wi-Fi solution offers multiple peripheral interfaces including UART, SPI, I2C, and SDIO, along with the associated cloud-ready connectivity software, making it the perfect wireless connectivity companion to any microprocessor (MPU) running Android or Linux MPUs.

Atmel is also introducing the WINC3400 network controller featuring embedded flash memory which allows the device to host network services stack, Wi-Fi stack, and Bluetooth Smart profiles for rapid design development with no wireless expertise required from the designer. The WINC3400 can be paired with any Atmel AVR® or Atmel | SMART MCUs.

“IoT requires a diverse portfolio of wireless MPUs and MCUs with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities that will enable cloud access,” said Kaivan Karimi, Atmel Vice President and General Manager of Wireless MCUs. “Adding cloud connectivity to devices in the industrial, medical, wearable, fitness and other consumer markets will require a combination of embedded Wi-Fi with Bluetooth optimized for low battery consumption, and support for out-of-the-box, cloud ready software. Atmel’s SmartConnect WILC3000 and WINC3400 address these requirements by delivering a compact cloud-ready Wi-Fi/Bluetooth-certified platform that helps bring customer products faster to market.”

The latest cloudy-ready Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo platform is optimized for low-power applications, supporting single-stream 802.11n mode providing up to 72 Mbps throughput, enabling a broad range of use cases. Both devices integrate a power amplifier, LNA, switch and power management unit providing developers with the highest level of integration together with the best link budget for maximum range. The WILC3000 and WINC3400 provide the highest integration for a lower bill of material. The only external clock sources required is a high-speed crystal or oscillator with a wide range of reference clock frequencies supported (14-40 MHz) and a 32.768 kHz clock for sleep operation.

The WINC 3400 network controller offers an On-Chip Network Stack to minimize host CPU requirements. The Network features include TCP, UDP, DHCP, ARP, HTTP, SSL, and DNS. Additionally, the WINC3400 SiP includes Bluetooth Smart profiles allowing connection to advanced low energy application such as smart energy, consumer wellness, home automation, security, proximity detection, entertainment, sports and fitness and automotive. This solution also supports Atmel’s cloud-ready software for simple cloud connectivity.

Ready to add some connectivity to your next design? Explore the entire SmartConnect wireless family here.

Atmel launches next-generation maXStylus active pen platform

With CES 2015 in full swing, we’re excited to announce that we are sampling our next-generation maXStylus mXTS220 to multiple global customers. OEMs have been looking to expand the user adoption of active stylus solutions on mobile devices by providing precise handwriting, lower system and stylus cost, and easy-to-use styli that do not require frequent battery changes.

The next-generation maXStylus mXTS220 capacitive active stylus controller elevates the user experience with superior responsiveness after every stroke which is a key requirement for a ‘pen-to-paper’ writing experience. Higher precision writing and pressure sensing, with palms resting on the touchscreen, enable an artistic writing experience with fluid strokes. The maXStylus mXTS220 solution utilizes the capacitive touchscreen controller and does not require an additional sensor layer, such as EMR (electro-magnetic resonance) technology, for optimized solution cost.

Atmel’s maXStylus mXTS220 bidirectional architecture is the best positioned in the industry to allow OEMs to build next-generation styli with flexibility to interoperate with multiple digitizers. The unique two-way architecture enables the stylus to detect various noise sources so they can be avoided – a differentiation of maXStylus that no other solution on the market offers today. Enhanced noise immunity over existing capacitive solutions allows flawless pen strokes without any line breaks or missing strokes while further extending battery life.

“The ability to create content on your mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, notebooks and Ultrabooks, is quickly becoming a key differentiating factor in OEM designs,” said Shar Narasimhan, Atmel Senior Product Manager of Touch Marketing. “As a leader in the touch market, we are excited to bring one of the most precise active stylus solutions to the market, enabling a pen-to-paper experience on a touchscreen while meeting future OEM requirements with the flexibility of an interoperable platform.”

Interested in learning more? You can explore the entire maXStylus lineup here.

Atmel launches new series of Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-M7 based MCUs

Atmel has expanded upon its Atmel | SMART ARM-based microcontroller family with the launch of four new series of Cortex-M7 based devices.

The new series deliver the highest performing Cortex-M7 based MCUs to the market with exceptional memory and connectivity options for design flexibility making them ideal for the automotive, Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial connectivity markets.

“As one of the first ARM licensees, we are excited to be among the first suppliers to introduce a portfolio of ARM Cortex-M7 based MCUs,” said Jacko Wilbrink, Atmel Senior Marketing Director. “Our family of Cortex-M7 based devices broaden the Atmel | SMART Cortex-M based MCUs and provide a robust feature set tailored for the automotive, industrial, consumer and IoT markets giving designers the next level of performance, along with advanced high-speed connectivity, high density on-chip memory and a solid ecosystem to meet every designers needs. We look forward to seeing more applications in the market adopt our Cortex-M7 based devices.”

All devices enable customers to scale-up performance and deliver SRAM and system functionality, while keeping the Cortex-M processor family ease-of-use and maximizing software reuse. The devices contain advanced memory architectures with up to 384KB of multi-port SRAM memory out of which 256KB can be configured as tightly coupled memory delivering zero wait state access at 300MHz. With over four times the performance of current Atmel ARM Cortex-M based MCUs running up to 300MHz, larger configurable SRAM up to 384kB and higher bandwidth peripherals, the new devices give designers the right connectivity, SRAM and performance mix for their industrial, connectivity and automotive designs. All devices come with high-speed USB On-the-Go (OTG) and on-chip high-speed USB PHY and Flash memory densities of 512kB, 1MB and 2MB.

Broadening the Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-M based MCU portfolio, the new SAM E70 and the SAM S70 are ideal for connectivity and general purpose industrial applications, while the auto-grade SAM V70 and SAM V71 are perfectly suited for in-vehicle infotainment, audio amplifiers, telematics and head unit control.

Atmel | SMART SAM E and SAM S Series

Atmel’s SAM S70 series is based on the ARM Cortex-M7 core plus a floating point unit (FPU) extending the general purpose product portfolio with maximum operating speeds up to 300MHz, up to 2MB of Flash, dual 16KB of cache memory and up to 384KB of SRAM with an extensive peripheral set including high-speed USB host and device plus high-speed PHY, up to 8 UARTs, I2S, SD/MMC interface, a CMOS camera interface, system control and analog interfaces.

In addition to the SAM S70 series features, Atmel’s SAM E70 series include a 10/100 Ethernet MAC and Dual Bosch CAN-FD interfaces with advanced analog features making them ideal for connectivity applications. The SAM E70 is upwards compatible with Atmel’s SAM4E series.

Atmel | SMART SAM V Series

The automotive-qualified SAM V70 and V71 series offer unique Ethernet AVB support, high-speed USB with integrated PHY and Media LB, which, when combined with the Cortex-M7 DSP extensions, make the series ideal for infotainment connectivity and audio applications. The series also offers the latest CAN 2.0 and CAN flexible data rate controller for higher bandwidth requirements.

“Atmel was a lead partner for the ARM Cortex-M7 processor launch in October 2014 and the milestone of shipping automotive-qualified SoCs demonstrates significant progress,” shared Richard York, ARM Vice President of Embedded Marketing. “Atmel’s broad family of Cortex-M7 based MPUs provide high performance, advanced connectivity, flexible memory options and a solid ecosystem tailored for the automotive, industrial and general connectivity markets.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out the entire Atmel | SMART family here.

Atmel expands SAM G lineup for wearables and sensor hub management

A year after its debut, we’re excited to share that we’ve expanded our award-winning SAM G series of ARM Cortex-M4-based MCUs with the new SAM G54 and SAM G55.

Targeting the rapidly emerging Internet of Things (IoT) market for battery-operated devices including wearables, such as fitness bands and smart watches, sensor hub management, healthcare, gateways, bridges, audio devices and much more, the new pair of MCUs deliver the right feature mix including higher performance, ultra-low power, smaller form factors and more SRAM. These two series also pack all the features of the current SAM G family like an Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-M4 MCU + FPU (floating point unit), integrated sensor fusion algorithms, down to 2.84 x 2.84mm package, high-performance frequency of up to 120MHz, ultra-low power down to 102µA/MHz in active mode, and down to 5µs wake-up.

Among the other key features for the new SAM G series:

• High-performance throughput and efficiency with a Cortex M4-based MCU and FPU
• Up to 512KB of Flash and up to 160KB of SRAM
• SRAM power banking
• Down to 2.84 X 2.84mm 49-ball WLCSP with 0.4mm pitch
• Flexible serial peripherals and ultra-low power ADC
• USB host and device
• Peripheral Event System and SleepWalking
• Atmel ultra-low power picoPower® technology
• 64-pin QFP and QFN package options.

In order to maintain energy efficiency, many smart, connected devices use a sensor hub to aggregate and manage the sensors in the device, converting the information into usable data to improve power efficiency and performance. The new SAM G55 series gives designers the option to determine how much SRAM they will require to retain in sleep mode in order to achieve lower and better power efficiency for their designs by utilizing SRAM power banking.

“Designers are looking for simple-to-use solutions with an edge to help bring their differentiated products faster to market for both wearables and sensor hub management,” said Vince Murdica, Atmel Senior Director of Sensor Centric Systems. “Atmel’s new SAM G series delivers differentiation for these markets by offering ultra-low power, higher performance, more memory and smaller form factor, along with connectivity options on a single chip to fuel the innovation. Atmel’s expanded SAM G series builds on our portfolio of touch, security, connectivity and software solutions for this rapidly growing market.”

To accelerate the design, a SAM G55 Xplained Pro evaluation kit is currently available for the SAM G55 series. The ATSAMG55-XPRO evaluation board includes an embedded debugger, Atmel Studio integrated development platform and the Atmel Software Framework. The kit is also fully supported by third party partners IAR and Keil.

Interested in learning more? You can check out Atmel’s entire SAM G lineup here.

Atmel stays ahead of the curve with its next-generation car center console

Connected cars are expected to be among several of the key trends at this year’s International CES. With up to a hundred million lines of code, at least 30 MCU-controlled devices — and some with as many as 100 — the vehicle is the ideal application to bring smart, connected devices in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). Not only will these vehicles be packed with next-gen functionality ranging from navigation and parking assistance to diagnosis and road conditions, they will become much more intuitive and integrated with smartphone-like interfaces. In order to provide this, the automobile of tomorrow will feature a curved center console display offering a large amount of real estate for information to drivers. And, the newly-announced AvantCar™ 2.0 will make this possible.

The successor to the concept introduced a year ago, the AvantCar 2.0 is equipped with an array of Atmel technologies including a 2.5D model of a car connected to a fully-functional central display demonstrating car access, car networking, MCUs, audio streaming over-Ethernet-AVB and CryptoAuthentication™ products. The futuristic AvantCar 2.0 sports active touchscreens, curved form factors, personalized color schemes and navigation menus via touch buttons and sliders in a cutting-edge sleek center console.

Focusing on user requirements for future generation automobiles, AvantCar 2.0 delivers an advanced human machine interface (HMI). The new concept boasts curved touchscreens highlighting HMI in upcoming automobiles using Atmel technologies like maXTouch touchscreen controllers and XSense flexible touch sensors, as well as Atmel’s QTouch™ with proximity sensing, LIN networking for ambient lighting controls, and automotive-qualified AVR MCUs.

“As a leading provider of smart, connected devices with sophisticated, easy-to-use HMI, Atmel is committed to delivering a state-of-the-art connected experience in the automobile,” Rob Valiton, Atmel SVP and GM of Automotive, Aerospace and Memory Business Units. “Atmel’s AvantCar 2.0 showcases the connected car and delivers a futuristic center console showcasing our latest technologies in a sleek, slim center console with increased performance and fully connected throughout the car. We are excited to bring this next-generation concept to the public demonstrating the future of HMI in the connected car.”

Upon quick glance, one thing you will notice is that the AvantCar 2.0 is a bit different than your typical console — no more mechanical buttons or clunky knobs. 

Instead, the touchscreens integrated capacitive touch buttons and sliders enable users to navigate general applications typically found within an automotive center displays. The second generation demo is slimmer than its predecessor, offering a more appealing aesthetic with improved performance including Silicon Image’s MHL® (Mobile High-Definition Link) solution — a technology that allows users to easily transmit content from a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device to larger displays such as in-dash automotive displays, while charging the mobile device.

“The last one wasn’t as tailored to automotive standards for display quality,” Paul Kopp, Atmel Director of Automotive, told Venture Beat in a recent interview. “It also has curved liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that weren’t available before. It will look more like a curved surface. The designers really want that in automotive now. The lines will blend more with the vehicle itself.”

While carmakers have been using haptic feedback, it’s apparent that the trend has shifted towards much larger screens and easier touch technology. Tomorrow’s displays will likely be pretty big. While the average is currently about 8 inches diagonal now, it could, in fact, head closer to 10 inches or 12 inches in future models.

“When Tesla came out with a 17-inch main screen, that woke up a lot of the American manufacturers to the idea of bigger displays in the car,” Kopp told Venture Beat. “The right size for the user? The jury is still out.”

Those heading to Vegas for the world’s largest electronics show can experience the newly-unveiled AvantCar 2.0 concept by speeding on over to the Atmel booth (#MP25760) in the LVCC South Hall.

Is the Internet of Things just a toy?

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While some sort of IoT is possible without security, without security it would really just be a toy.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is arguably the most hyped concept since the pre-crash dot-com euphoria. You may recall some of the phrases from back then such as “the new economy,” “new paradigm,” “get large or get lost,” “consumer-driven navigation,” “tailored web experience,” “it’s different now,” among countless other media fabrications.

The IoT is the new media darling. In fact, it has been dubbed everything from the fifth wave of computing, to the third wave of the Internet, to the next big thing, to the next mega-trend, to the largest device market in the world, to the biggest efficiency booster/cost reduction technology. You get the picture.

Now, the question is whether or not the IoT will indeed be more real than just hype, as is the case with any media powered feeding frenzy. Let’s start by looking at the numbers.

Respected market researchers and giant networking companies are predicting gigantic numbers of connected devices to the tune of 20 to 50 billion units of installed base by 2020 or 2025, with some estimates even going higher. With numbers like that coming from the world’s most-followed, reputable sources, it won’t be long before high roller investors start placing enormous bets on who will be the winners of the IoT game; a game that will be make Vegas action look like a game of marbles. The IoT casino is now open.

There is really big money at stake because IoT represents a perfect storm of opportunity for venture capitalists and bold corporate acquirers — that is because many believe that half the successful IoT companies don’t even exist yet. Conditions don’t get much more attractive than that when it comes to risk capital.

Here’s a hot tip: Only bet on the companies offering systems that articulate a clear strategy that put strong security (especially authentication) as a top priority. This tip is derived from the observations of Dr. Vint Cerf (the acknowledged creator of the Internet) who declared that the IoT will require strong authentication. And, he’s right. Note well that the strongest authentication comes from hardware-based cryptographic key storage because hardware key storage beats software-based key storage every time. Inexpensive and easy-to-use integrated circuit devices already exist to do just that. The media should grasp that but don’t seem to get it yet.

The dirty little secret of the constantly-connected era is that without security, the IoT will just be a toy that consumers, governments, and corporations cannot take seriously. What good is a system of billions of interconnected things sensing and sending data (often through the cloud)  that can be  intercepted, corrupted, and spoofed? Not very much. IoT growth is dependent upon security. 

Charting the Growth

The graphs below show estimated unit shipments and the resulting installed base of IoT devices. What has also been called out in each chart are devices with on-board security, mainly hardware-based security, and those that do not have built in hardware security. Most market estimates out there tend to show the growth of the IoT in terms of installed bases, growing to many billions by 2020. Typically speaking, you will see a chart like the one below, but without the divisions between secure and insecure nodes.This is a case of the devil being in the details, because installed base charts can be very misleading. Data jockeys such as market researchers and statisticians know very well that installed base is a tricky way to present data. Fair warning: Beware of drawing conclusions from installed base charts only.

The IoT case is a perfect example of how to hide the important information, because even if you remove the secure nodes, the chart still looks like there will be enormous growth. However, that masks the fact that growth will plateau without the secure nodes being a part of the picture. It is a an illusion caused by the fact that the early days of the IoT will build a base of significant numbers, but the volume shipments will fall off quickly as users reject insecure solutions precisely because they are insecure.

The installed base IoT chart is analogous to chart of automobiles in the time of Henry Ford showing the installed base of black cars (remember Model Ts came in any color as long as it was black).  That would show that black cars were the overwhelming color and it would be impossible from that chart to conclude anything other than they always would be. Obviously, such a chart would mask the market changes that in fact happened and the inflection points as to when the changes happened. Masking is exactly what the IoT installed base chart does.

It fails to show that the inflection point towards secure nodes that is starting right now, which is a shift that will happen quickly. Reason being, the need for security is becoming clear (just ask Sony, Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan, and Iranian nuclear scientists about that). As aforementioned, inexpensive hardware-based devices are available now that can provide strong security to IoT nodes.

The unit shipment slide is what tells the real story. And, that is that security is becoming a requirement of IoT if growth is to be sustainable.  Simply stated: Without real security, the IoT will falter.

Security Maters

Security matters because users must trust that the nodes are who they say they are (i.e. are authentic). Additionally, confidentiality of the data is important to keep unauthorized third parties from getting the data and misusing it. Also, without data integrity mechanisms there is no way to ensure that the data have not been tampered with or corrupted. All three of these matter. A lot.

However, with all the press that the IoT receives and all the tremendous predictions of giga-volumes, you just don’t hear much other than passing comments about security. Security should, in fact, be the prerequisite of any article, discussion, or plan for IoT-based anything. Talking about the Internet of Things without addressing the security question (with specifics) is like talking about scuba diving without mentioning water.

Security gets short shrift even though it is pivotal to the IoT’s existence (and important to literally everyone in the digital universe, including the readers of this article). One main reason is that the meaning of security is not really well understood. As a result, engineers, executives, investors, and researchers alike have been mainly whistling past the graveyard hoping that their digital interests will not be attacked too badly. However, with the increasing frequency, variety, and creativity of security breaches and especially with the advent of breach-based litigation, the danger is increasing and finally more attention is getting paid. It is not hard to envision ambulance-chaser legal firms moving from class action suits regarding asbestos, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals to seeking data-breach damage rewards. In actuality, this has already started. You can almost hear the cloying ads already.

Security Defined

There are two important and fundamental questions about security and the IoT:

1. What is IoT security?

2. How do you implement it now?

To address the first item, the best way to understand it is to break it down into the three pillars of security, which are confidentiality, data integrity, and authentication (ironically referred to as “CIA”). The second inquiry is related directly to the first because implementing security is a function of how well you address the three pillars.

It is critical to address security right now because putting insecure systems into the world is just asking for trouble. There is no time to wait. Assembling a network or product dependent on a network that is filled with vulnerabilities is bad practice. The good news is that thanks to cryptographic engine integrated circuits with hardware-based secure key storage powerful solutions are clear and present.

Crypto Elements

Crypto element refers to a dedicated integrated circuit devices with crypto engines that handle crypto functions such as hashing, sign-verify (e.g.  ECDSA), key agreement (e.g.  ECDH),  authentication (symmetric or asymmetric), encryption/decryption, message authentication coding (MAC), run crypto algorithms (e.g. elliptic curve cryptography, AES, SHA), and perform many other functions. The other critical part of the equation that makes crypto elements so valuable is their ability to store cryptographic keys in ultra-secure hardware.  (The CTO of a major home networking company recently described storing cryptographic keys in software being like storing a key in a wet paper bag.)

Providing the exact type of security needed for the IoT to grow is what crypto engines like CryptoAuthentication solutions are all about. They make security both easy and cost effective. The amazing thing is that crypto engine devices were invented before the IoT even existed. Now they are arguably the ideal catalyst to drive IoT growth when they are added to the other fundamental elements of the IoT.  So, it should be clear that there are now four elements to a serious IoT node:

1. Intelligence (Microprocessors)

2. Communications (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.)

3. Sensors

4. Security

These four items will be the recurring theme of IoT nodes.   The story from here will be which  communications standards are supported, the level of integration, how security is handled (standards and methods), performance, speed, power, size, etc., not if security is there or not.

Long story short: While some sort of IoT is possible without security, without security it would really just be a toy.