To mark this glorious occasion, we @ Atmel have created a rather nifty infographic. So, check it out above!
And if you like our creation, please feel free to post it, or send your geek love out to the universe with the hashtag #AtmelGeekPride. Because no one <3’s geeks the way we do!
Cyberpunk films and novels are often set in post-industrial dystopias characterized by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its original creators.
As William Gibson noted in Burning Chrome, “the street finds its own uses for things.” Although Gibson wrote those words way back in 1981, they more than aptly describe the cyberpunk build designed by Maker Mel Li, Ph.D that was showcased at Atmel’s 2014 Bay Area Maker Faire booth.
According to Mel, the Costume is an original design inspired by the cyberpunk/fantasy genre work of artists including Masumune Shirow, Eric Canete, Joe Benitez and various modern gaming concept art.
More specifically, the assembly is made from over 60 parts designed in Solidworks and sewn/cut/glued/laser-cut/heat-formed using various techniques.
The rather impressive costume includes color changing LEDs on the spine and front that are controlled by Arduino boards with Atmel AVR and ARM microcontrollers and onboard RGB controllers (respectively) – powered by 16 AA batteries, 1 LiPo rechargeable battery, two 2032 coin cells and one 9-volt battery.
In total, says Mel, there are more than 70 LEDs on the entire costume and over 60 parts.
Atmel’s jam-packed booth (#205) hosted Makers, modders and hackers on day two of Maker Faire Bay Area 2014.
We showcased a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos throughout the day, with various guest appearances by various personalities such as Massimo Banzi and Sir Mix-A-Lot.
Our Day 1 image gallery is available here – and more Day 2 pictures below!
Bay Area Maker Faire 2014 kicked off today, with hackers, modders, makers and veteran DIYs showcasing their creations, many of which are powered by Atmel microcontrollers.
Atmel’s booth – #205 – is drawing large crowds, with entire families clustering around to see a wide range of Atmel-based products, including the MakerBot Replicator 2 desktop 3D printer, Mel Li’s wearable electronics, various Arduino boards, Red Boards, ProtoSnap Pro-Mini, MicroView, FuzzBots, the Phoenar, Touch Board, Hexabugs and uToT Robots.
There are literally thousands of cool creations here at the show so stay tuned for more. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures below! The gallery for Day 2 is available here.
Today, the Zero took center stage at Maker Faire Bay Area, as Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi, along with ARM and Atmel execs, unveiled the long-awaited board for all to see.
As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Zero features 256kb of flash, 32kb SRAM in a TQFP package and compatibility with 3.3V shields that conform to the Arduino R3 layout.
In addition, the Arduino Zero board boasts flexible peripherals along with Atmel’s Embedded Debugger (EDBG) – facilitating a full debug interface on the SAMD21 without the need for supplemental hardware.
Last, but certainly not least, EDBG supports a virtual COM port that can be used for device programming and traditional Arduino bootloader functionality.
Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 will kick off at the San Mateo Event Center in San Mateo, CA, on Saturday, May 17, from 10am to 8pm and Sunday, May 18, from 10am to 6pm.
Tickets can be purchased on-site at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 on May 17 and 18, 2014 ($25.00 – $40.00 for a full day pass).
Can’t make it to the Faire? You can follow @Atmel live on Twitter for event updates, or join the conversation by tweeting #AtmelMakes.
It’s nice working at Atmel Headquarters where stuff like this happens to me. Better yet, one of our brilliant Norwegian marketing engineers walked by and I asked him about the Zero. I said: “OK, it has a SAM D21 ARM Cortex M0+ chip, but what is that other big chip?”
He said: “Its the debugger chip, the same one we use on our Xplained Pro boards.”
Now I happened to have the Arduino IDE running on my screen, and I point to it and say “But the Arduino IDE does not have a debugger interface!”
And he just smiled and walked away.
So there you have it, maybe not right away, but one day soon, you will be able to actually watch the guts of an Atmel chip as it executes your code in an Arduino. You can see registers and memory values, and set breakpoints and all the other things a debugger does. I am a big fan of debuggers, as evidenced by two recent videos I did here and here. You can do it now with our debuggers or our SAM D21 Xplained Pro boards, but only in Studio 6.2. If you prefer the Arduino IDE, you might be able to debug soon using that.
It was 1974 when tech pioneer Ted Nelson first asked a nascent industry to hand over “computer power to the people.” A few years later, Commodore founder Jack Tramiel expressed similar sentiments, proclaiming that “we need to build computers for the masses, not the classes.”
As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, empowering individuals and communities is a core value of the international Maker Movement. Makers, with an open source philosophy, affordable technology and “can do” attitude, are truly helping to make the world a better place.
Unsurprisingly, Makers looking to the future are designing open source home automation platforms to help individuals conserve water and reduce energy consumption by linking various “smart” appliances to the rapidly evolving Internet of Things.
Last, but certainly not least, open source Arduino boards used by Makers across the globe are an important tool for the STEM community (science, technology, education and mathematics), with science and computing teachers in secondary schools and universities choosing the popular platform to teach students the basic principles of programming and computational thinking.
We at Atmel are proud to be at the very heart of the Maker Movement, with microcontrollers that power a wide range of open source platforms and devices, from 3D printers to Arduino boards. For us, Maker Faire is one of the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, resourcefulness and a celebration of DIY culture. Simply put, it’s a place where people of all ages and backgrounds gather together to show what they are making and share what they are learning.
So be sure to drop by the Atmel booth (#205) at Maker Faire Bay Area on May 17th and 18th to meet our star-studded lineup of Makers and presenters, including Mel Li, Trevor Zylstra, Quin Etnyre, Pamungkas Prawisuda Sumasta, Super Awesome Sylvia, Matt Johnson, Bob Martin and Dan Ujvari.
Can’t make it to the Faire? You can follow @Atmel live on Twitter for event updates, or join the conversation by tweeting #AtmelMakes.
ARM will be chairing a symposium on the sidelines of the upcoming Sensors Expo and Conference in Chicago on Jun 24th from 9AM to 5PM. Titled Making the Internet of Things a Reality: A Toolkit for Designing “Smart,” key speakers include Atmel’s Adrian Woolley, ARM’s Zach Shelby and Sensor Platforms CTO Kevin Shaw.
According to ARM’s Will Tu, Kevin Shaw will be kicking off the session with an overview of how IoT devices can evolve to optimize their interaction with humans – ultimately becoming invisible and predictive.
“We can see sensor fusion at work with smartphones, tablets and wearables and today as they apply the concept of contextual awareness of where a user is and what he or she might be doing,” Tu writes in a recent blog post. “From this awareness a device can respond to offer a service, enable features on a device, conserve valuable battery power or delight users in some novel way. Sensor fusion will bring the same type of value to embedded devices and these software algorithms will be the key to unlocking the commercial value proposition of future IoT device.”
Next up is ARM’s very own Zach Shelby, a thought leader in the industry who has been heavily involved in connectivity from his early days as co-founder of Sensinode. Zach is currently a key contributor at the IETF for IoT standards with contributions in 6LoWPAN, routing, web services and security related standards, ETSI and OMA standardization on M2M and in several top international research programs.
Atmel’s Adrian Woolley will then discuss the hardware side of the IoT. A 25-year veteran of the semiconductor market, Woolley is the Director of Strategy and Business Development at Atmel’s microcontroller business unit. He has an extensive background in mobile and communication markets, along with a considerable amount of embedded experience in microcontrollers.
“When you are talking about hardware building blocks, Atmel can offer more than just MCUs; they also provide radio technologies,” says Shaw.
Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, resourcefulness and a celebration of the Maker Movement. It’s a place where people of all ages and backgrounds gather together to show what they are making and share what they are learning. Over 1,000 Makers will be represented at the upcoming Maker Faire Bay Area, with more than 200 registering as first-time exhibitors.
We at Atmel are once again proud to be a Silversmith Sponsor of Maker Faire Bay Area. We’re also hosting the following star-studded lineup of Makers and presenters at the Atmel booth (#205) who will:
Mel Li, PHD – Demonstrate wearable electronics and DIY laboratory automation, both powered by Atmel MCUs and Arduino boards.
Trevor Zylstra, SparkFun COO – Showcase Red Boards, the ProtoSnap Pro-Mini and wildly popular MicroView.
Quin Etnyre, CEO of Qtechknow – Host the “QTechKnow Olympics” robotic challenge with Arduino, XBee and FuzzBots.
Pamungkas Prawisuda Sumasta, AVR Hero contest winner – Discuss “Phoenar,” a new way of learning to program AVR uC and prototyping electronics on a Mobile phone. The demonstration will include an Atmel-based board equipped with a number of add-ons to highlight several applications including breadboard on-the-go, monitoring heart rates, pedometer and controlling a robot.
Super Awesome Sylvia – Demonstrate various Atmel-powered devices and projects.
Matt Johnson, Founder of Bare Conductive – Highlight the Touch Board, a capacitive touch prototyping platform powered by an Arduino Leonardo (Atmel ATmega32u4 MCU).
Bob Martin, Atmel’s Wizard of Make and Warp Drive Propulsion Engineer – Hack Hexabugs and demonstrate uToT Robots.
Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 will kick off at the San Mateo Event Center in San Mateo, CA, on Saturday, May 17, from 10am to 8pm and Sunday, May 18, from 10am to 6pm. Tickets are on sale now at http://makerfairebayarea2014.eventbrite.com at advance pricing. Advance ticket sales ($17.50 – $32.50 for a full day pass) take place between March 17 and May 16. Tickets can also be purchased on-site at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 on May 17 and 18, 2014 ($25.00 – $40.00 for a full day pass). All Makers can be found on the Maker Faire web site at http://makerfaire.com/meet-the-makers.
Can’t make it to the Faire? You can follow @Atmel live on Twitter for event updates, or join the conversation by tweeting #AtmelMakes.
