IoT Expo 2014: A ThingTank worth attending

“I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, I’ve got whozits and whatzits galore! You want thingamabobs? I’ve got twenty! But who cares? No big deal. I want more!” – Arielle, aka The Little Mermaid, discussing the Internet of Things back in 1989.

Who doesn’t love connected things? Right? I mean, it’s one thing to have lots of things, but having lots of connected things that can interact and actually do, um, connected things…well, it’s an awesome thing! Really, it is.

And to celebrate the awesomeness of connected things, web communication company, Kaazing, is holding a conference (or ThingTank, if you will…) on May 5–6, at San Francisco’s Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf.

IoT Expo™ 2014 will be the first in a series of conferences being hosted by the firm, with a stellar list of guest speakers coming to tout all things IoT from the connected home, to smart meters, the connected car, smart grids, personal wellness and connected health. Lots to thing about.

For instance, did you know that by 2020, boffins reckon 5 billion people will be using the Web. By then, there will be 10x that number of connected ”things” – probably more.

For those of you not too sharp on the old mental arithmetic, that’s some 50 billion things with trillions of connections between them, always-on, always-connected, and always trying to communicate. Like a hyperactive two-year-old, but with trillions of dollars worth of money making potential.

“[IoT] is seen by many as the next wave of dramatic market growth for semiconductors. If you look at the different estimates made by market analysts, the IoT market will be worth trillions of dollars to a variety of industries from the consumer to financial, industrial, white goods and other market segments,” Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel recently told EEWeb.

“As the semiconductor industry has transitioned from PCs to mobile, IoT will now rise to become the predominant market,” he explained, adding, “this transition will favor ultra-low power and integration of microcontrollers, wireless connectivity, security, touch technologies and sensor management products.”

So, as you can see, Atmel too has a thing about the Internet of Things!

That said, there’s still time to sign up for IoT Expo, and we hear there may even be some special discounts available to the early birds among you Johnny-come-latelys!

Contact Chelsea.Montgomery@Kaazing.com to see if you’re eligible for special pricing, or just sign up directly via this link: http://iotexpo2014.com/register/

Interested in more content on the IoT? Check out Atmel’s extensive archives on the subject here.

Hydrogen fuel cell tech to power the IoT

Earlier this week, The Register’s Bob Dormon attended Twickenham’s Future World Symposium.

Since many of the UK-based vendors displayed handheld devices and sensor nodes supporting the Internet of Things (IoT), keeping power consumption down, or at the very least making it practical, was understandably a clear priority for many of the exhibitors.

“[That is why] London-based outfit Arcola Energy strives to deliver the best of both worlds with its adaptations of hydrogen fuel cell tech,” Dormon writes.

Image Credit: Bob Dormon, The Register

“As an integrator, the company covers a broad scale of fuel cell applications from transportation to providing remote power sources. It also caters for developers with its kits, complete with an [Atmel-based] Arduino Uno board (ATmega328 MCU) starting at £350 ($591) … There’s mbed compatibility too.”

According to Dormin, the dev kits allow engineers to precisely determine what type of energy lifespan they can can expect from a design.

“Besides the boards and fuel cell shield electronic controller, you get a refillable 12 litre HydroStik hydride that feeds a shiny metal box complete with fan that is the actual fuel cell,” he explained. “The fuel cell determines the overall output of the system. With the Arduino One kit it’s 1.5W.”

Interested in learning more about Arcola Energy’s fuel cell kits? Developers can find Arcola’s software for the fuel cell inventor kit on Github here, while the full text of Bob Dormon’s “Inventors: Feast your eyes on fuel cell tech that’ll power up Internet of Thingies” can be read on The Register here.

Why Shenzhen is the factory of the world for Makers

Writing for the UK-based Guardian, Georgina Voss notes that hosting a Maker Faire in Shenzhen, which some describe as the “factory of the world,” makes quite a lot of sense.

Indeed, Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE Magazine and creator of Maker Faire, recently confirmed that the first official Maker Faire held in Shenzhen earlier this month successfully celebrated the emergence of the Maker Movement in China, while recognizing the significance of the city as a global capital for DIY culture.

“The city’s history rippled into Maker Faire Shenzhen, which sat in the shadow of high-rises. As expected, many of the classic Maker Faire features were in place: soldering workshops, talks by ‘Makers’, people looking awkward in Google Glass,” Voss explains.

“Yet Maker Faires are often characterized by lots of DIY projects and arts-tech mash-ups and these were conspicuously lacking. Instead, most stalls were occupied by fully realized electronics products – brainwave-controlled drones, robots, lots and lots of 3D printers – either ready for market, or in their beta stage and shipping later in the year.”

According to Voss, the region’s strengths in consumer electronics may also be particularly well-suited to the potential outputs of ‘Maker to Market’ outputs, starting with simplified prototypes built on open hardware technologies such as Arduino boards.

“Several hardware start-up accelerators have also set up shop in the city, including Haxlr8r and PCH’s Highway 1, and they acknowledge that […] regional innovation systems exist: participants spend time in Shenzhen to learn about the manufacturing and supply chain networks in the city, before being returned to the Bay Area to pitch for funding,” says Voss.

“The easy-to-use, flexible and low-cost technologies which underpin [accelerators] – open hardware microcontrollers and 3D printers, for example – have their own materiality and their own geography.”

Voss also points out that all of the factors which define Shenzhen as a competitive industry hub make it particularly attractive to Makers, including cheap and available raw materials, manufacturing skills and facilities, as well as clear entry points into supply chains.

“The ‘Maker’ identity can be framed by flattened shared qualities and values, working with technologies whose provenance is not always transparent. But nothing in technology is so simple or so isolated,” she concluded.

“Maker Faire Shenzhen shines a light on the externalities and ecosystems of making itself: the political regimes which regulate; the infrastructures which support it; the forms of work that drive it; and the culture and history that shape it.”

The full text of “Making in China: Maker Faire Shenzhen Highlights the Global Politics of the Maker Movement,” written by Georgina Voss is available on The Guardian here. Readers may also want to check out “Atmel looks back at Maker Faire Shenzhen” which can be read here.

Building a city of the future with Arduino

Writing for Wired UK, Liat Clark describes the recently held Playable Cities competition between British and Brazilian digital artists.

“The scheme was launched in January, when a Brazilian cohort came to Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol to explore the concept of a future city that is not just smart and efficient, but fun to live in,” writes Clark.

“While driverless vehicles and smart meters remain the focus of those future metropolises, Watershed wanted to explore how a smart city could be interactive, playful and most importantly, how it could bring communities together. With help from the British Council’s Creative Economy program, this [initiative] was taken to Recife.”

One of the featured exhibits was Fortune Fictions, a futuristic bus stop that cheerfully delivers witty one liners to waiting passengers. 

According to Fábio Florencio, a sound and game designer, Fortune’s goal is is to “deliver enjoyable moments” for people who are bored waiting for their buses.

“[The project] also deals with complicated elements in Recife such as lost times in traffic jams, the heat in summer and rain in winter,” he says.

More specifically, the futuristic bus stop is furnished with an Atmel-based Arduino board that receives commands from a physical button pressed by citizens – with an MP3 shield triggering sounds and phrases. In the future, Florencio and his team envision equipping the stop with pressure sensors (for the benches) and RFID readers.

“It rewards the curious Recife bus traveller with fantastical words of wisdom, gauging the mood of the city and breaking the monotony of waiting times,” Florencio explains. “Drawing on data such as weather, traffic, pollution and football information, enigmatic advice, broadcast from the bus stop itself, sends the passenger on their way with a thought… and a smile.”

Press Play – another Arduino-based exhibit displayed at the Playable Cities competition – engages the public via music. Indeed, pedestrians can touch hands, fitted with sensors, to play part or all of a tune.

So, how does it work? Well, Press Play is fitted with a conductive matting for durable touch switches connected to an Arduino and wav-Trigger board. This configuration supports up to eight tracks running simultaneously from a micro SD card.

“[Press Play] became a gathering spot for different people that haven’t met before but, for a short period, felt intensely connected with each other,” Filipe Calegario, a doctorate student for UFPE’s Informatics Centre, told Wired UK. “Last Friday was the first day of public testing and, for a moment, the systems stopped working because the battery ran low. The people’s reaction was impressive, they felt so involved that the absence of sound made them shout ask us to make the system work again. It was such a spontaneous reaction.”

The full text of Liat Clark’s “Urban Legends Brought to Life in Playable Cities Competition” can be read here on Wired UK.

Atmel looks back at Maker Faire Shenzhen

Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE Magazine and creator of Maker Faire, notes that Maker Faire Shenzhen, held the first weekend of April 2014, celebrated the emergence of the Maker Movement in China and recognized the significance of Shenzhen as a global capital for DIY culture.

“Maker Faire Shenzhen was the first full-scale Maker Faire in China. An estimated 30,000 people walked the tree-lined streets to interact with makers, participate in workshops and listen to presentations,” Dougherty explained in a recent Makezine article.

“[The event] was a showcase for 300 makers who manned 120 exhibits. Organized by Eric Pan and his team at Seeed Studio, Maker Faire Shenzhen was a public demonstration of the robust productivity of China’s makers. The Maker Movement could play a major role in China in transforming both China’s view of itself and the world’s view of China as a center of innovation.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel attended the Faire from April 6-7. Our booth – #4 – was located right next to Center Stage.

In addition, Sander Arts (@Sander1Arts), VP of Corporate Marketing at Atmel, gave a detailed presentation about Atmel microcontrollers, the IoT and Makers.

Sander’s well-attended presentation garnered a significant amount of attention in the local press from a number of journalists, including those writing for CNET, Ifanr, LeiPhone, PowerSystemsDesign (China) and 01EA.

“Various Maker teams demonstrated their projects, ranging from 3D printers to open-source vehicles, VR and wearable devices at Maker Faire 2014 in Shenzhen, highlighting the extensive possibilities of the Internet of Things,” wrote Cui Qiwen, Ifanr.com.

“As the robust brain behind all these maker projects, Atmel was also present at the convention.”

Xia Hang of LeiPhone, expressed similar sentiments.

“… Atmel accounts [for a] significant role that drives and inspires various projects in different categories such as LED, 3D printing and Arduino. Atmel’s MCU-based Arduino development platform enables more entry-level [projects],” Hang explained.

“Through Maker communities, Atmel has constructed close relationships with Makers in mainland China, not only by providing technology support, but also offering opportunities to present their maker projects through holding AVR Hero Contests. [As Sander says], ‘we are the Makers’ enablers, but the power is with you.'”

Meanwhile, CNET’s Tao Jingjie confirmed that Atmel maintains a close relationship with Makers via its AVR-based 8-bit MCUs and ARM-based 32-bit MCUs/MPUs.

“Atmel powers Makers to convert innovative ideas into actually commercialization-possible products, including LED projects, 3D printing projects, Arduino projects, and so on,” said Jingjie.

“It also held the global AVR Hero design contest, in which the products [that won] the award will achieve funding from Atmel [along with help] to enter the market in the future.”

Interested in learning more about the Maker Movement in China? You can check out our article archive on the subject here.

Meet the Makers Festival hits NYC

Writing for DNAInfo, Emily Frost reports that the upcoming Meet the Makers Festival at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan will invoke a DIY spirit by celebrating the use of handmade objects over mass-produced items.

“We hope that kids come away with a different understanding of careers they could have in the world and what they can do in the world,” Leslie Bushara, the museum’s deputy director of education, told DNAInfo. “Makers work with old materials and recycled materials and [are] coming up with these innovative and sometimes crazy ideas.”

Indeed, Ricardo Cid, a Mexican engineer and artist living in Brooklyn, says he routinely incorporates the Maker philosophy in his work.

“I can explain how electronics work through telling a story,” he said.

“[And] if you ever wonder why mathematics is important, it’s to create robots like this.”

Cid wants to create an atmosphere where kids can ask “weird” questions – while disabusing themselves of the notion that artists and engineers work in separate spheres.

 As such, the artists will be showcasing a wooden robot he made during the festival and offer participants a chance to tinker with their own creations.

Bushara predicts Cid’s sessions will likely be a big hit.

“When kids can make things and they have movement, it’s very exciting for [them],” she added.

“And when Maker sessions aren’t in progress, kids of all ages can hang out in the lab, finding inspiration and running with it.”

The festival, which runs from April 12-22, will be hosted inside the museum’s new lab which is specifically devoted to science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

According to Bushara, the new ground-floor lab was inspired by various MakerSpaces and features a wide-open space with chalkboard walls, along with blocks for tinkering.

Interested in learning more? The festival schedule can be accessed here. Tickets are priced at $11 each, with children under 1 invited to attend for free. The museum is open Tuesday-Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m on Saturdays.

EELive! Conference a big splash in Silicon Valley

I went to the EELive! Conference in San Jose last week and it was a blast. This is the new incarnation of the old Embedded Systems Conference (ESC). Last year it was branded Design West, but I suspect that was too generic, since it is not aimed at mechanical engineers that might read Design News. Another problem with the word “design” is that in the semiconductor industry, only IC engineers are considered “designers.”

I was delighted to hear that UBM, the folks that run the show are considering moving it to Santa Clara convention center next year. I like Santa Clara better since the parking is free, it’s easier to get to, and its right near my house.

So following are some snaps I took on the show floor. Bear in mind that another big part of the EELive! is the conference part, where you can learn about the latest secrets and tips and tricks from technical experts. You have to pay for the conference, but they were nice enough to give a single-class pass to regular shmucks like me that were just attending the free show on the exhibit hall.

As you entered the show floor there was this great theater (or should I say theatre) set up. Here we see show runner Karen Field and EETimes editor Max Maxfield doing a fun give-away. I ran into Max later that evening and he gave me his business card, which lists his title as “Editor of all things fun and interesting.”

There was always a healthy crowd at the theatre, and they were always having a good time. It’s really great to see this combination of social and technology at technical conferences.

If you work with RF, you know that Rohde & Schwarz makes some of the best test equipment on the planet. They are best known for their spectrum analyzers, but now they are making oscilloscopes and hand-held instruments.

Where Rohde & Schwarz really stands out in my mind is network analyzers like this baby. They have some of the lowest-noise units in existence. A network analyzer is like a spectrum analyzer that also measures the phase change of a signal. So rather than just read the spectrum, the unit sends out a signal you connect to your circuit, and then you can get a gain-phase plot, or in this case, you can see a Smith Chart displayed right on the screen. Note the frequency range for this instrument—9 kHz to 6 GHz. That is 9,000 to 6,000,000,000, or nearly 6 decades of range. That is quite an accomplishment. Those N-type connectors on the front belie what a fast beast this is. BNC connectors are not suitable for multi GHz frequencies.

Here is Rhode & Schwarz account manager Steve McMoyler in front of a display of a bunch of cool test equipment he sells. I complained that Rohde & Schwarz stuff is so good we can never find a cheap deal on eBay. He laughed, and pointed out a lot of their new stuff is really cost competitive. I put this to outfits like Rigol selling 400-dollar scopes that, while not the greatest, will actually trigger and show you a waveform. These cheap scopes have put pressure on all the test equipment manufacturers. Then again, the Maker movement has increased the market for these inexpensive products, so the manufacturers can archive high-volume cost efficiencies.

National Instruments had a great booth at EELive! this year. This pic was as the show opened on Thursday, but before long, the booth was swamped with engineers interested in everything from Labview visual programming to the MultiSim Spice simulation program so loved by colleges around the world.

Element14 was at the show, the folks previously know as Newark Electronics. Everything from game controllers to motor control was on display.

One nice feature of EELive! are these little classes put on in glass booths throughout the show floor. You can see this one was packed, standing room only. There is a real hunger to learn the expertise to design and program embedded systems.

The Segger folks were there. Atmel uses Segger debugging technology in a lot of their eval boards. Here we see James Murphy and Shane Titus ready to answer any questions.

Here is the Atmel SAMA5D3 evaluation board with Seggar technology running their emWin graphics library.

The PCB fab companies were there, including the PCB-POOL folks my buddy Wayne Yamaguichi liked so much.

Here we see Tony Shoot from PCB-POOL showing some of their capabilities, as they segue into a full prototype shop.

The LeCroy folks were at the show. I can’t get over how beautiful the display is on these modern scopes. I bought one of their $60k units when I was at National Semiconductor. The engineers used to Tek or Agilent would complain the user interface was weird, but once they bothered to learn it, you could not tear the LeCroy scope out of their hands. I myself have a LeCroy 9360 digital scope at my home lab.

Here is a LeCroy serial data analyzer on the left and a HDO4000 scope on the right. Its got a 4k screen and 12-bit resolution. Those big 12-inch screens sure can spoil you. Note they have a web-cam perched on top of the scope with a real-time video displayed on the top right of the screen. They are piping the scope screen to the TV, talk about reducing eye strain when you debug. Sweet.

The Screaming Circuits folks had a booth. These are the people that will assemble small quantities of your circuit boards. They have special machinery so they don’t need 3 feet of tape and real parts for any build. You can send them your Digi-Key cut-tape parts and they can feed them into their tape and reel machines. That way you can check out your insert file and assembly drawing and have circuit boards made in a real IR reflow oven. Here Scott Pohlmann was ready to answer any questions about protying and their partnering with Sunstone and other fab houses, as well as Digi-Key. They can even have your designed kitted up, get the boards fabbed at Sunstone and delivery you assembled boards.

Atmel had their giant Tech on Tour trailer at right on the show floor. Michelle would buzz you in to checkout all the demos and give access to Atmel applications people that could answer your questions or help with your next project.

One demo that people loved was the MakerBot, which would make items like this while you watched.

Here is a little movie of the Makerbot in action. It is hypnotizing to watch.

Atmel’s SAM4L at the Colorado School of Mines

Analog aficionado and Linear Systems marketing maven Tim McCune saw some of our cool ARM Cortex M4-based SAM4L-EK demo kits at the last Analog Aficionados party. Turns out his son Clark just entered the Colorado School of Mines and Tim thought his son could learn a lot from the kit. This is the same kit that Atmel is featuring in its 2014 Tech on Tour training, where we drive a giant 18-wheeler truck onto your campus or company and then do training or product demos.

The Atmel Tech on Tour mobile trailer is available to drive to your location and conduct training for employees or students.

So I wangle a couple kits from Atmel events director Donna Castillo and sent them off to Clark. In addition to the ARM Cortex M4-based SAM4-EK, the training bundle had an AT86RF233 Xplained Pro wireless board and an 10-pin XPRO adapter PCB. This allows the SAM4 Xplained pro to take the RF board.

Tim reported the kits were a big hit:

“The kits arrived last Friday, before the three-day weekend, which was a great morale-booster for Clark. He was stuck there with not much to do, most of his friends were at home or skiing. Figuring out how to fire up the kits and start working in C was pretty fun. And when his classmates started drifting back he had the coolest new toys on the hall.”

Clark McCune and pal fires up the Atmel SAM4-EK at the Colorado School of Mines.

 

Here Clark McCune has both SAM4-EK kits at the ready, with the one hooked to the computer also sporting the AT86RF233 wireless board that comes with the Tech on Tour training.

Here are the kits I sent Clark McCune. The Tech on Tour training will get you up to speed on ARM Cortex M4 programming as well as wireless connectivity.

The SAM4L-EK has a board and a ton of cables including the micro-USB ones you will need to power the board.

Both displays have a protective film over them, so be sure to peel them off to get the best appearance.

Right out of the box the board is programmed to read the slider on the bottom right side. The number “104” changes in proportion to your finger posing. Note the smaller power consumption display above the main one. The L in SAM4L stands for low power, so Atmel includes a power monitor right on the board.

We also include the jumpers, just set off to the side, so you don’t have to hunt any down from your old Windows 95 add-in cards.

Here is the SAM4L set up with the AT86RF233 Xplained Pro wireless board and an 10-pin XPRO adapter PCB. I hope Clark had them in the right way because I just copied what he had in his picture.

Here is a close-up of the power monitor display. With the programs running full-bore, you can see the board is using 1.92 mA, but the firmware is nice enough to tell you it is using 159μA/MHz.

Press pushbutton PB0 and the board kicks into standby, where the PCB only draws 66μA. Sorry for the shaky camera, the display is sharp as a tack.

Speaking of shaky camera work, I tried to press the PB0 pushbutton and snap a pic at the same time, so you can see the little display on the SAM4L-EL work like a tiny oscilloscope, showing the power consumption dropping from 2mA to 69μA.

And finally, another shaky camera shot of the SAM4L-EK returning to full power mode.

What is really cool about the little power monitor is that it does show transient events, like when the code services an interrupt and returns to low-power mode. Oh, I forgot to show the back of the PCB, here is a shot:

The back of the SAM4L-EK has more chips, I assume to run the debugger and such. Note the nice clear rubber feet to keep the pins from scratching your desk.

This is such a well-done kit, and if you want to get on the ARM bandwagon, it is a perfect way to learn. Better yet, with the RF board it gets you familiar with the Internet of Things (IoT) applications the whole world is hungering for. So check out the Tech on Tour training and feel free to badger you local Atmel rep or FAE to bring the ToT mobile trailer to your school or company.

From Shanzhai to OSHW: The Maker Movement in China

Although the Maker and open source hardware movements are a global phenomenon, the DIY culture in China can actually be traced back to the ancient concept of Shanzhai. As Gabrielle Levine, the newly appointed president of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) notes, China is going to be a huge driving force in the open source hardware landscape.

“There are many similarities between [the local concept of] Shanzhai and the open source hardware community,” Gabriella Levine told OpenElectronics in February. “Both Shanzhai and open source hardware projects borrow information, tools, source code, CAD files and techniques; both improve upon other’s work to accelerate development.”

SeeedStudio founder Eric Pan expressed similar sentiments during a recent interview with Atmel’s official blog, Bits & Pieces.

“MakerSpaces will likely enable a new wave of tech startups in China as in the US,” he confirmed.

“Clearly, hardware development is becoming a more agile process with the aid of [open source] prototyping tools like RepRap and Arduino boards – both of which are helping to facilitate innovation across the world and particularly in China.”

Similarly, David Li, co-founder of Shanghai’s first Maker Space, told The Economist that the DIY movement has inspired the creation of legitimate and innovative products, with socially progressive Makers teaming up with more traditional manufacturers in China.

We at Atmel are at the strategic heart of the international Maker Movement, with a comprehensive portfolio of versatile microcontrollers (MCUs) that power a wide range of Maker platforms and devices, including 3D printers (MakerBot Replicator 2 and RepRap), the vast majority of Arduino boards, as well as Adafruit’s Gemma, Trinket and Flora platforms.

Indeed, Arduino boards are currently used by millions of Makers, engineers, schools and corporations all over the world. At least 1.2 million Atmel-powered Arduino boards have been sold to date, with the ATmega328-based Uno being a particular Maker and prototyping favorite. Of course, stand-alone AVR microcontrollers like the tinyAVR lineup are also popular amongst the DIY crowd.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, an increasing number of Makers are kicking off project prototyping with Atmel-based Arduino boards. Concurrently, we are also seeing a jump in professional engineers relying on Atmel-powered Arduino boards to create initial models for their devices, platforms and solutions.

Atmel-powered uArm

According to Gartner, 50% of companies expected to help build the rapidly evolving Internet of Things have yet to coalesce. This is precisely why Atmel views China’s Maker Movement as one of the primary tech incubators for future IoT companies and devices, many of which will undoubtedly use Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs) to power their respective platforms.

Atmel will proudly be attending Maker Faire Shenzhen this year on April 6-7. Our booth – #4 – is located right next to Center Stage. We’ll be showcasing a number of Atmel-powered products including a Zigebee-based lighting demo, robotic model car, various Seeeduino boards, the Rainbow Cube (LED light controlled by Atmel MCUs) and an e-ink badge.

I’ll also be giving a presentation about Atmel microcontrollers, the IoT and Makers at 2PM on April 7th at the Center Stage. Hope to see you there!

ARM @ Atmel’s EELive! ToT booth

ARM’s Andy Frame stopped by Atmel’s EELive! 2014 ToT booth to chat with our very own Andreas Eieland (@AndreasMCUguy), who looks after Atmel’s SAM D Cortex-M0+ based family of devices.

As you can see, Frame snapped a great picture of Andreas standing next to Atmel’s tricked-out Tech on Tour Truck which travels around the US showcasing a wide range of Atmel-powered products, including those based on ARM’s Cortex-M and Cortex-A5.

ARM’s Ronan Synnott was also at Atmel’s EELive! booth giving a presentation about ARM’s DS-5 support for Atmel SAMA5D3 devices. Ronan described how, with DS-5 Professional Edition, ARM provides a leading-edge software development tool chain for bare-metal, RTOS and Linux based projects. 

For the SAMA5D3 devices, ARM offers full debug support out of the box when used in conjunction with DSTREAM or ULINKproD JTAG debug units, the Streamline System Performance Analysis tool and the highly optimizing ARM C compiler.

We hope to hear more from Ronan over the next few weeks, so be sure to check Bits & Pieces for additional embedded news and reports.

Meanwhile, Atmel’s Tech on Tour trailer will be headed to Austin, Texas on April 8th. We’ll be talking about low-power system design using Atmel’s ARM-based SAM4L MCU, touch and wireless solutions, as well as offering an introduction to Atmel’s versatile SAM D20 microcontroller.

Interested in learning more? You can register here and check out future ToT stops here.