Windows 10 gets Arduino-certified with new open-source libraries

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Microsoft and Arduino announced partnership at Build 2015.

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If you’ve been following along with Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference, or have attended one of Hackster.IO’s recent Hardware Weekend events, then you know that the Seattle-based company has joined the list of major brands embracing the Maker crowd. Testament to that, the tech giant has announced a partnership with Arduino, making Windows 10 the world’s first Arduino-certified operating system.

The story was revealed amidst plenty of other exciting things from the week, which included a demonstration of the HoloLens augmented-reality headset, the introduction of the Azure Data Lake big data repository, Microsoft Edge being named Internet Explorer’s successor, in addition to Windows 10 becoming the OS that consumers will use across their PCs, smartphones, tablets and Xbox One game consoles.

Speaking of the new OS that will be able to run iOS and Android apps on both desktop and mobile devices, the company also shared some remarkable news for the DIY community. Windows 10 IoT Core is a new Windows 10 edition for low-cost, small-footprint devices that will be available for Makers and commercial device builders — at no cost.

Alongside the much anticipated Insider Preview of Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 devices, Microsoft has released a range of tools in the Arduino-certified Windows 10 that serve as a bridge between the Universal Windows Platform and the incredibly-popular Atmel based hardware: the availability of Windows Remote Arduino and Windows Virtual Shield for Arduino open-source libraries. The Arduino-certified Windows 10 will enable developers to make smart devices that combine the hardware-driving capability of Arduino with the software capabilities of Windows.

“An example might be a security camera. One could build a camera using Arduino to power the motor controls to tilt/turn the camera and using Universal Windows Platform one can create great UI, connect the camera to the cloud, process the image for motion detection and add facial/voice recognition,” Microsoft’s Steve Teixeira writes. “The work we have done on Windows 10 is the bridge between the Universal Windows Platform and Arduino hardware.”

With Windows Virtual Shield for Arduino, developers will have the ability to tap into the incredible power of Windows 10 devices through wireless protocols. For instance, a Lumia 530 contains well over $200-worth of shield sensors and capabilities, and now Makers can tap into all of those sensors and capabilities from an Arduino as if they were standard hardware shields.

“Imagine being able to create an Arduino project that includes GPS, Web connectivity/parsing, touch display, speech technologies and more. We’re particularly fond of the picture the weather project we’ve created that lets you bring your children’s drawings to life.”

Secondly, Windows Remote Arduino gives users the opportunity to extend their Universal Windows Application with Arduino commands that execute on a wirelessly-connected hardware device. This combines the power of Windows 10 device features, like image processing, speech recognition, website parsing, cameras and advanced audio pipelines, with the power of physical world interactivity through Arduino.

Adding a little more icing to the cake, Microsoft has unveiled their ongoing relationship with our pals at Hackster.IO, which includes collaboration on hackathons using Windows and Azure. The company has even tapped Hackster.IO’s project gallery to showcase a number of sample Maker projects and more.

“Our goal is to give Makers the opportunity to play with the software bits early and to listen to the feedback on what’s working well and what we can do better. You may notice some missing drivers or rough edges; we look forward to receiving your feedback to help us prioritize development work,” Teixeira explains. “We’ll be incorporating the feedback we receive into regular software updates along with additional drivers, bug fixes and new features. Those looking for a commercial-quality release should wait for general availability this summer.”

Undoubtedly, this is an exciting time for the DIY community, especially in the days leading up to Maker Faire Bay Area! If you want to learn more, head over to Microsoft’s official page here.

4 reasons why Atmel is ready to ride the IoT wave

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The IoT recipe comprises of three key technology components: Sensing, computing and communications.

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In 2014, a Goldman Sachs’ report took many people by surprise when it picked Atmel Corporation as the company best positioned to take advantage of the rising Internet of Things (IoT) tsunami. At the same time, the report omitted tech industry giants like Apple and Google from the list of companies that could make a significant impact on the rapidly expanding IoT business. So what makes Atmel so special in the IoT arena?

The San Jose, California–based chipmaker has been proactively building its ‘SMART’ brand of 32-bit ARM-based microcontrollers that boasts an end-to-end design platform for connected devices in the IoT realm. The company with two decades of experience in the MCU business was among the first to license ARM’s low-power processors for IoT chips that target smart home, industrial automation, wearable electronics and more.

Goldman Sachs named Atmel a leader in the Internet of Things (IoT) market.

Goldman Sachs named Atmel a leader in the Internet of Things (IoT) market

A closer look at the IoT ingredients and Atmel’s product portfolio shows why Goldman Sachs called Atmel a leader in the IoT space. For starters, Atmel is among the handful of chipmakers that cover all the bases in IoT hardware value chain: MCUs, sensors and wireless connectivity.

1. A Complete IoT Recipe

The IoT recipe comprises of three key technology components: Sensing, computing and communications. Atmel offers sensor products and is a market leader in MCU-centric sensor fusion solutions than encompass context awareness, embedded vision, biometric recognition, etc.

For computation—handling tasks related to signal processing, bit manipulation, encryption, etc.—the chipmaker from Silicon Valley has been offering a diverse array of ARM-based microcontrollers for connected devices in the IoT space.

Atmel has reaffirmed its IoT commitment through a number of acquisitions.

Finally, for wireless connectivity, Atmel has cobbled a broad portfolio made up of low-power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee radio technologies. Atmel’s $140 million acquisition of Newport Media in 2014 was a bid to accelerate the development of low-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips for IoT applications. Moreover, Atmel could use Newport’s product expertise in Wi-Fi communications for TV tuners to make TV an integral part of the smart home solutions.

Furthermore, communications across the Internet depends on the TCP/IP stack, which is a 32-bit protocol for transmitting packets on the Internet. Atmel’s microcontrollers are based on 32-bit ARM cores and are well suited for TCP/IP-centric Internet communications fabric.

2. Low Power Leadership

In February 2014, Atmel announced the entry-level ARM Cortex M0+-based microcontrollers for the IoT market. The SAM D series of low-power MCUs—comprising of D21, D10 and D11 versions—featured Atmel’s signature high-end features like peripheral touch controller, USB interface and SERCOM module. The connected peripherals work flawlessly with Cortex M0+ CPU through the Event System that allows system developers to chain events in software and use an event to trigger a peripheral without CPU involvement.

According to Andreas Eieland, Director of Product Marketing for Atmel’s MCU Business Unit, the IoT design is largely about three things: Battery life, cost and ease-of-use. The SAM D microcontrollers aim to bring the ease-of-use and price-to-performance ratio to the IoT products like smartwatches where energy efficiency is crucial. Atmel’s SAM D family of microcontrollers was steadily building a case for IoT market when the company’s SAM L21 microcontroller rocked the semiconductor industry in March 2015 by claiming the leadership in low-power Cortex-M IoT design.

Atmel’s SAM L21 became the lowest power ARM Cortex-M microcontroller when it topped the EEMBC benchmark measurements. It’s plausible that another MCU maker takes over the EEMBC benchmarks in the coming months. However, according to Atmel’s Eieland, what’s important is the range of power-saving options that an MCU can bring to product developers.

“There are many avenues to go down on the low path, but they are getting complex,” Eieland added. He quoted features like multiple clock domains, event management system and sleepwalking that provide additional levels of configurability for IoT product developers. Such a set of low-power technologies that evolves in successive MCU families can provide product developers with a common platform and a control on their initiatives to lower power consumption.

3. Coping with Digital Insecurity

In the IoT environment, multiple device types communicate with each other over a multitude of wireless interfaces like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy. And IoT product developers are largely on their own when it comes to securing the system. The IoT security is a new domain with few standards and IoT product developers heavily rely on the security expertise of chip suppliers.

Atmel offers embedded security solutions for IoT designs.

Atmel, with many years of experience in crypto hardware and Trusted Platform Modules, is among the first to offer specialized security hardware for the IoT market. It has recently shipped a crypto authentication device that has integrated the Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) security protocol. Atmel’s ATECC508A chip provides confidentiality, data integrity and authentication in systems with MCUs or MPUs running encryption/decryption algorithms like AES in software.

4. Power of the Platform

The popularity of 8-bit AVR microcontrollers is a testament to the power of the platform; once you learn to work on one MCU, you can work on any of the AVR family microcontrollers. And same goes for Atmel’s Smart family of microcontrollers aimed for the IoT market. While ARM shows a similarity among its processors, Atmel exhibits the same trait in the use of its peripherals.

Low-power SAM L21 builds on features of SAM D MCUs.

A design engineer can conveniently work on Cortex-M3 and Cortex -M0+ processor after having learned the instruction set for Cortex-M4. Likewise, Atmel’s set of peripherals for low-power IoT applications complements the ARM core benefits. Atmel’s standard features like sleep modes, sleepwalking and event system are optimized for ultra-low-power use, and they can extend IoT battery lifetime from years to decades.

Atmel, a semiconductor outfit once focused on memory and standard products, began its transformation toward becoming an MCU company about eight years ago. That’s when it also started to build a broad portfolio of wireless connectivity solutions. In retrospect, those were all the right moves. Fast forward to 2015, Atmel seems ready to ride on the market wave created by the IoT technology juggernaut.

Interested? You may also want to read:

Atmel’s L21 MCU for IoT Tops Low Power Benchmark

Atmel’s New Car MCU Tips Imminent SoC Journey

Atmel’s Sensor Hub Ready to Wear

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Majeed Ahmad is author of books Smartphone: Mobile Revolution at the Crossroads of Communications, Computing and Consumer Electronics and The Next Web of 50 Billion Devices: Mobile Internet’s Past, Present and Future.

These sensors can monitor breathing and detect presence through walls

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Novelda introduces a pair of new sensor modules for detecting human presence and monitoring respiration.

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Norwegian sensor developer Novelda has launched a pair of adaptive smart sensor modules that are capable of monitoring human presence, respiration and other vital information. Based on the company’s proprietary XeThru technology, the unobtrusive sensors can detect presence from chest movement, as well as rate and depth of breathing, allowing patterns to be tracked in real-time.

This is because XeThru technology uses radio waves rather than infrared, ultrasound or light, which enables the Atmel | SMART ATSAM4E16E based modules to ‘see through’ an assortment of objects, like lightweight building materials, duvets and blankets, to provide non-contact sensing at a range of up to nearly five meters. Impressively, each module consumes less than 400mW power and remains unaffected by dust, smoke, moisture, darkness or any other airborne debris it may encounter.

“A vast number of sensors and sensor technologies exist today, the most common being IR, capacitive, ultrasonic, and microwaves. Due to the strengths and weaknesses of different technologies, sensors are typically designed for only one task, such as detecting presence, motion, speed or distance. This is typically at one defined range or at very short range, or only on moving or static objects, and so forth,” the team explains. “In applications where you want to combine features from several sensor technologies and/or hide your sensor due to security or other design constraints, your options are limited. This is why we set out to develop our XeThru technology and gave it the abilities it has today.”

First, the XeThru X2M300 module is intended for smart home automation where its capability for detecting human presence while being integrated into a building’s structure enables hidden, tamper-proof sensing. Aside from security and comfort applications, such as the convenient actuation of lighting and environmental controls, this SoC can enhance safety throughout the house — especially for the elderly or those living alone, using the absence of normal activity to raise an alarm. To get started, users simply affix the sensor with its main sensitivity direction pointing toward the area to monitor.

Meanwhile, the X2M200 sensor module is designed for respiration monitoring of people of all ages for health and well-being purposes, especially for sleep improvement systems and spotting nighttime abnomralities. XeThru’s non-contact technology offers a reliable yet non-intrusive way to observe respiration and movement, capturing breathing patterns and frequency without being blocked by blankets or other obstacles during a slumber.

Novelda has also launched a XeThru Inspiration Kit — an easy-to-use, hardware and software platform that includes the pair of sensor modules and interface boards for PC connection. This provides developers with a simple way to devise working proof-of-concepts and carry out the prototyping process. The XTIK1 gives users all the necessary tools to evaluate the performance of the sensors using the supplied software that supports module configuration, visualization of sensor data and the ability to record data for further analysis.

Beyond that, the kit comes with XeThru’s Explorer software and a programmer unit should the firmware need to be updated. In which case, a JTAG programming interface available on the USB communication board is used to upgrade the program running in the module along with an Atmel-ICE programming probe. The probe connects to the PC via USB, while a ribbon cable connects from the Atmel ICE SAM port to the 10-pin connector on the USB communication board. As Novelda notes, the procedure requires the download and installation of Atmel Studio.

Intrigued? You can head over to its official page to make more ‘sense’ of the topic.

The CryptoShield is a dedicated security peripheral for the Arduino

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This shield adds specialized ICs that will allow you to implement a hardware security layer to your Arduino project.

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With the insecurity of connected devices called into question time and time again, wouldn’t it be nice to take comfort in knowing that your latest IoT gadget was secure? A facet in which many Makers may overlook, Josh Datko has made it his mission to find a better way to safeguard those designs — all without hindering the contagious and uplifting DIY spirit. You may recall his recent collaboration with SparkFun, the CrytpoCape, which debuted last year. This cape was a dedicated security daughterboard for the BeagleBone that easily added encryption and authentication options to a project.

Well now, Datko has returned with his latest and greatest innovation — the CryptoShield. Just like its cousin, the shield is a dedicated security peripheral, but for the highly-popualar Arduino platform instead. It adds specialized ICs that perform various cryptographic operations that will allow users to implement a hardware security layer to their Arduino project.

“It also is a nice device for those performing embedded security research. Needless to say this is a great product for those of you who are interested in computer security,” SparkFun notes.

Each CryptoShield is packed with a slew of hardware on-board, including a real-time clock (RTC) module to keep accurate time, a Trusted Platform Module (AT97SC3204) for RSA encryption/decryption and signing in the hardware, an AES-128 encrypted EEPROM (ATAES132), an ATSHA204 authentication chip that performs SHA-256 and HMAC-256, and an ATECC108 that handles the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). Unlike its older cousin, though, the prototyping portion of this unit has been reduced. However, for what it may have lost, it has surely gained in other areas. For one, the CryptoShield now features an RFID socket that works best with a ID-12LA module.

“Each shield will need to have headers soldered on once you receive it. We prefer to give you the choice of soldering on stackable or non-stackable headers, whatever fits best for you project. The only other items you will need to get the CryptoCape fully functional are a dev board that supports the Arduino R3 form-factor and a CR1225 coin cell battery,” SparkFun adds.

We should also point out that, at the moment, the CryptoShield can only be shipped within the United States. And just like with the CryptoCape, a portion of every sale is given back to SparkFun’s hacker-in-residence Josh Datko for continued development of new and exciting cryptographic tools, such as this one.

Intrigued? Hurry over to SparkFun’s official page here. We’ll have more insight from Datko himself in the coming days!

Percepio Tracealyzer: The mysterious random watchdog reset

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Learn how a developer used Tracealyzer to solve an issue with a randomly occurring reset.

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With time-to-market pressures constantly on the rise, advanced visualization support is a necessity nowadays. For those who may be unfamiliar with Percepio, the company has sought out to accelerate embedded software development through world-leading RTOS tracing tools. Tracealyzer provides Makers, engineers and developers alike a new level of insight into the run-time world, allowing for improved designs, faster troubleshooting and higher performance. What has made it such a popular choice among the community is that it works with a wide-range of operating systems and is available for Linux and FreeRTOS, among several others.

When developing advanced multi-threaded software systems, a traditional debugger is often insufficient for understanding the behavior of the integrated system, especially regarding timing issues. Tracealyzer is able to visualize the run-time behavior through more than 20 innovative views that complement the debugger perspective. These views are interconnected in intuitive ways which makes the visualization system powerful and easy to navigate. Beyond that, it seamlessly integrates with Atmel Studio 6.2, providing optimized insight into the run-time of embedded software with advanced trace visualization.

Over the next couple of months, we will be sharing step-by-step tutorials from the Percepio team, collected directly from actual user experiences with Tracealyzer. Last week, we explored how to use the tools to solve an unexpected timing issue; today, we’re delving deeper into the mysterious random watchdog reset.

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In this scenario, a developer had an issue with a randomly occurring reset. By placing a breakpoint in the reset exception handler, he had discovered that the watchdog timer had expired. The watchdog timer was supposed to be reset in a high priority task that executed periodically, however that was not the case.

The ability to insert custom User Events comes in handy here. They are similar to a classic “printf()” call and events that were added when the watchdog timer was reset and when it expired. User events also support data arguments, and this has been used to log the timer value (just before resetting it) to see the watchdog “margin,” i.e. remaining time. The result can be seen below, in the yellow text labels.

From this, we can see that the SamplerTask is running, but it does not clear the watchdog timer in the last execution of the task, which resets the system after a while (“Watchdog reset!”). So why didn’t SamplerTask reset the watchdog timer, you ask? Let’s enable kernel service calls to see what the task was doing.

The last event of SamplerTask is a call to xQueueSend, a kernel function that puts a message in a message queue. Note that the label is red, meaning that the xQueueSend call blocked the task, which caused a context-switch to ServerTask before the watchdog timer had been reset. This, of course, caused it to expire and reset the system.

Why was xQueueSend blocking the task? By double-clicking on this event label, we open the Object History View, showing all operations on this particular queue, “ControlQueue” — as illustrated below.

The rightmost column shows a visualization of the buffered messages. There, we can see that the message queue already contains five messages and is probably full, hence the blocking. But the ControlTask is supposed to read the queue and make room, so why hasn’t this worked as expected?

To investigate this bit further, it would be interesting to see how the watchdog margin varies over time. This information can be found in the user event logging, and by employing the User Event Signal Plot, we can plot the watchdog margin over time. Aside from that, by adding a CPU Load Graph on the same timeline, we can observe how the task execution affects the watchdog margin — as shown below.

In the CPU Load Graph, we can note that the ServerTask is executing a lot in the second half of the trace, and subsequently, this seems to impact the watchdog margin. ServerTask (bright green) has higher priority than ControlTask (dark green), so when it is executing a lot in the end of the trace, we see that ControlTask is getting less CPU time. This is an inherit effect of Fixed Priority Scheduling, which is used by most RTOS. Most likely, this could cause the full message queue, since ControlTask might not be able to read messages quick enough when the higher priority ServerTask is utilizing most of the CPU time. This is an example of a Priority Inversion problem, as the SamplerTask is blocked by an unrelated task of lower priority. A solution could be to change the scheduling priorities, meaning that the ControlTask gets higher priority than ServerTask. Let’s try that and visualize how it would look.

The screenshot above reveals the result of switching the task scheduling priorities between ServerTask and ControlTask. The system now shows a much more stable behavior. The CPU load of SamplerTask (highlighted in red) is quite steady around 20%, indicating a stable periodic behavior, while the watchdog margin is a perfect “line” — always at 10 ms. It does not expire anymore… problem solved! (Note that the task colors have changed due to the change in relative priority levels.)

Tracealyzer provides over 20 interactive views of the run-time world, connected in clever ways. It is available for several leading real-time operating systems as well as for Linux. This can be found on the company’s website here.

The CryptoCape is the BeagleBone’s first dedicated security daughterboard

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The CryptoCape extends the hardware cryptographic abilities of the BeagleBone Black.

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With the insecurity of connected devices called into question time and time again, wouldn’t it be nice to take comfort in knowing that your latest IoT gadget was secure? A facet in which many Makers may overlook, Josh Datko recently sought out to find a better way to safeguard those designs, all without hindering the DIY spirit. The result? The CrytpoCape — which initially debuted on SparkFun last year — is a dedicated security daughterboard for the BeagleBone that easily adds encryption and authentication options to a project.

Generally speaking, cryptography offers a solution to a wide-range of problems such as authentication, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation, according to Datko. SparkFun notes that the $60 Atmel powered cape adds specialized ICs that perform various cryptographic operations, amplifying a critical hardware security layer to various BeagleBone projects.

The CyrptoCape is packed with hardware, including 256k EEPROM with a defaulted I2C address (plus write protection), a real-time clock (RTC) module, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for RSA encryption/decryption, an AES-128 encrypted EEPROM, an ATSHA204 CrypoAuthentication chip that performs SHA-256 and HMAC-25 and an Atmel ATECC108 tasked with the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).

“You will also find an Atmel ATmega328P microcontroller and a large prototyping area available on the board. The ATmega is loaded with the Arduino Pro Mini 3.3V bootloader and has broken out most of the signals to surrounding pads,” its SparkFun page reveals.

Beyond that, each easy-to-use CryptoCape comes with pre-soldered headers making this board ready to be attached to your BeagleBone right out of the box. The only additional item a Maker will need to get the CryptoCape fully-functional is a CR1225 coin-cell battery.

Interested? You can check out the product’s official SparkFun page here. Meanwhile, those looking to learn more should also pick up a copy of Datko’s book entitled “BeagleBone for Secret Agents.” The third chapter of the resource is devoted to the CryptoCape where Makers will learn how to combine a fingerprint sensor, the on-board ATmega328P, and the crypto chips to make a biometric authentication system.

Atmel achieves certification for PRIME v1.4 solutions

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The Atmel | SMART portfolio of metering solutions now support the latest advanced connectivity standards.

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Atmel has become the first company to receive the PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) v1.4 Profile 2 certification for the Atmel | SMART SAM4CP16B and ATPL230A smart metering solutions. The certification extends Atmel’s leadership and commitment to delivering state-of-the-art connectivity solutions and ensures that the company’s customers are able to develop high performance solutions, incorporating new features of the PRIME v1.4 standard. The latest standard supports some of the most demanding requirements of smart metering systems by offering increased robustness, throughput, band expansion, band-plan flexibility and IPv6.

“We are pleased to be the first semiconductor supplier to help develop and validate the technology, and to achieve this significant milestone with deep cooperation and partnership with our customers and the PRIME Alliance over a period of nearly five years,” said Kourosh Boutorabi, Senior Director of Smart Energy Solutions at Atmel. “We see increased interest in the PRIME standard by utilities in EMEA, Latin America and Asia and believe that as its adoption and proliferation continues, it is essential that its technical evolution continue to be fully standard compliant and certifiable by our customers as well as the utilities.”

PRIME is a mature, consolidated and worldwide PLC standard for advanced metering. There are currently millions of smart meters based on the PRIME standard that have been deployed supporting the PRIME v1.3. The Atmel | SMART portfolio of solutions now fully comply with both v1.3 and v1.4 standards ensuring total flexibility and scalability for original equipment manufacturers developing next-generation smart metering systems worldwide.

Interested in learning more? The Atmel PRIME v1.4 Profile 2 Certification is available on the PRIME Alliance website. Meanwhile, you can delve deeper into the wide range of PRIME-based PLC solutions here.

How Big Bang Theory and IoT relate to Tech on Tour

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Hands-on ‘IoT Secure Hello World’ training introduces Atmel Wi-Fi and CrytoAuthentication technologies.

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How The Big Bang Theory Relates to the Internet of Things

How many of you out there are fans of the CBS hit sitcom series Big Bang Theory? If you recall an episode from the show’s first season, entitled “The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization,” the team of Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali successfully triggered a lamp over the Internet using an X-10 system.

In order to accomplish this feat, the gang sent signals across the web and around the world from their apartment to connect not only their lights, but other electronics like their stereo and remote control cars as well.

“Gentlemen, I am now about to send a signal from this laptop through our local ISP racing down fiber optic cable at the of light to San Francisco bouncing off a satellite in geosynchronous orbit to Lisbon, Portugal, where the data packets will be handed off to submerged transatlantic cables terminating in Halifax, Nova Scotia and transferred across the continent via microwave relays back to our ISP and the external receiver attached to this…lamp,”  Wolowitz excitedly prefaced.

The funny thing is, the technology that the group of sitcom scientists was simulating could have just as easily been done using a Wi-Fi network controller like the WINC1500. However, at the time of airing back in March of 2008, open access for Internet users looking to control “things” around the house was seemingly something only engineers and super geeks thought possible.

We can imagine this is probably how it would’ve gone down…

Bringing Next-Generation Technology to You

In order to make the scene above possible, an Atmel | SMART SAM D21 was hooked up to the WINC1500 and connected to a solid-state relay, thereby enabling the team to control the lamp.

If this captivated your attention, then you’re in for a treat. That’s because Atmel is taking its “IoT Secure Hello World” Tech on Tour seminar on the road — starting with Europe!

As an application space, IoT sensor nodes are enabled by a number of fundamental technologies, namely a low-power MCU, some form of wireless communication and strong security. With this in mind, the Atmel IoT Secure Hello World series will offer attendees hands-on training, introducing them to some of the core technologies making the Internet of Things possible, including Wi-Fi and CryptoAuthentication.

These training sessions will showcase Atmel’s Wi-Fi capability and CryptoAuthentication hardware key storage in the context of the simplest possible use-case in order to focus attention on the practical aspects of combining the associated supporting devices and software. This includes learning how to send temperature information to any mobile device via a wireless network and how to enable the remote control of LEDs on a SAM D21 Xplained Pro board over a Wi-Fi network using a WINC1500. In addition, attendees will explore authentication of IoT nodes, as well as how to implement a secure communications link.

Take the very fundamental use-case of switching on an LED, for instance, which will represent our ‘Hello World!’ For this IoT application, the LED will be controlled using a smartphone app via the Internet, while a sensor node will be enabled to read an analog temperature sensor. The first part of the training will introduce Atmel Wi-Fi technology, which connects our embedded development kit of choice, an Atmel | SMART SAMD21 Xplained Pro, via the Atmel SmartConnect WINC1500 Wi-Fi module to a local access point. The result will be the ability to easily and securely send temperature information to any mobile device on the network, while also having remote control of the LED.

From the moment a ‘thing’ is connected, it becomes susceptible to a slew of potential security risks from hackers. That’s why the second part of the training will delve deeper into how CryptoAuthentication can be used to authenticate the temperature sensor node and host application before it can read the temperature information to avoid fake nodes. A secure communications link will be implemented using a session key to and from the remote node.

When all is said and done, building for the IoT demands innovative and secure solutions while architecting a balance between performance, scalability, compatibility, security, flexibility and energy efficiency — all of which Atmel covers extremely well.

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Atmel | Tech on Tour Agenda At-a-Glance

The Atmel team will be coming through a number of major cities, from Manchester and Milan to Munich and Moscow. Ready to join us? Be sure to register for one of the Atmel | Tech on Tour European, Asia, or North America locations today! Upon registering, you will even receive a WINC1500 Xplained Pro Starter Kit to take home.

8:30 – 9:00     Check-In and Preparation

• Assistance with installing software will be provided

9:00 – 10:15     Introduction to Atmel Wi-Fi Solution

• WINC1500/WILC1000 Hardware and Performance Overview
• Software and IoT Solution Overview
• Wi-Fi Network Controller IoT Sensor Application

10:15 – 10:30    Hands-on Introduction

10:30 – 10:45    BREAK

10:45 – 12:30    Hands-on: WINC1500 Wi-Fi Network Controller IoT Sensor Application

• Sending temperature information to any phone or tablet on the network
• Enabling remote control of LED0 on the SAM D21 Xplained Pro board

12:30 – 1:30    LUNCH

1:30 – 2:15      Introduction to Atmel CryptoAuthentication IoT Security and Technology

2:15 – 3:00      Hands-on Introduction: Authenticating IoT Nodes

• Authenticate the temp sensor node and host application before being able to read the temperature information to avoid fake nodes
• How to implement a secure communications link using a session key to and from the remote node to any phone or tablet on the network

3:00 – 3:15    BREAK

3:45 – 4:30    Hands-on: Authenticating IoT Nodes (continued…)

4:30 – 5:00    Wrap-up, Questions and Answers

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Prerequisites

Software Requirements

• Download Atmel Studio 6.2 software.
• Wireshark Packet Sniffer will be provided.

Hardware Requirements

• Attendees are required to bring a laptop. Atmel will NOT supply computers at the training.
• Please make sure to have administrator rights on your laptop.
• Laptop must have at least one Internet port and one free USB host connector.

Evaluation Kit Requirements

• Atmel | SMART SAMD21 – XPRO host MCU board
• Atmel WINC1500 module mounted ATWINC 1500 Xplained Pro Extension (Product Code: ATWINC1500-XSTK)
• Atmel Digital I/O WING extension board for sensor and SD-card input target USB

Percepio Tracealyzer: Periodic task not running as expected

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Learn how a developer used Tracealyzer to solve an unexpected timing issue. 

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With time-to-market pressures constantly on the rise, advanced visualization support is a necessity nowadays. For those who may be unfamiliar with Percepio, the company has sought out to accelerate embedded software development through world-leading RTOS tracing tools. Tracealyzer provides Makers, engineers and developers alike a new level of insight into the run-time world, allowing for improved designs, faster troubleshooting and higher performance. What has made it such a popular choice among the community is that it works with a wide-range of operating systems and is available for Linux and FreeRTOS, among several others.

When developing advanced multi-threaded software systems, a traditional debugger is often insufficient for understanding the behavior of the integrated system, especially regarding timing issues. Tracealyzer is able to visualize the run-time behavior through more than 20 innovative views that complement the debugger perspective. These views are interconnected in intuitive ways which makes the visualization system powerful and easy to navigate. Beyond that, it seamlessly integrates with Atmel Studio 6.2, providing optimized insight into the run-time of embedded software with advanced trace visualization.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be sharing step-by-step tutorials from the Percepio team, collected directly from actual user experiences with the Tracealyzer tools.

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In the first case, a user had an issue with a periodic task not running as expected, here called SamplerTask. This was the highest priority task in the system and should execute every 5 ms to read a sensor. However, they found significant timing variations in the data sampling. Why, you ask?

With Tracealyzer, they soon found the Actor Instance Graph, revealing run-time metrics of individual task executions, as shown below. There are several such graphs, one for each supported metric, where each data point represents one execution of the task. The X-axis notes the start time of the instance and the Y-axis shows the specific metric, which in this case is “Periodicity – from Ready” (i.e., the time in between task activations).

As you can see in the above screenshot, the SamplerTask is not executing strictly every 5 ms as intended. While it usually does, there are cases with unusually long intervals in between activations — over 6.5 ms.

So, what exactly is going on during these instances? If we add a horizontal trace view, synchronized and with the other tasks enabled, we see that the ControlTask (dark green) is running in this interval. Is this causing the problem? But SamplerTask (orange) has higher priority, so it should preempt ControlTask.

Perhaps the ControlTask is disabling interrupts for a few milliseconds and thereby also the kernel tick interrupt? We can find out in the main trace view, which allows us to inspect the tick events. Let’s have a look…

By double-clicking on the data point, the corresponding interval is shown in the main trace view. This view provides a vertical timeline, with events presented as horizontal text labels. The OS tick events should occur every 1 ms in this system, but there is a gap of about 2.5 ms, starting at 2.018.000.

That being said, it seems plausible that ControlTask is disabling interrupts, probably to protect access to a shared resource like a file system. But SamplerTask is not using that resource, so is it really necessary to block it by disabling interrupts? Let’s check how the other task, ServerTask, is handling this.

In the lower right corner, you find the View Filter, where we have now enabled “Mutex” type kernel calls, and also User Events – generated by logging calls added to the application code. Here, we can see that the ServerTask (bright green) is using a Mutex for protecting access to the file system, but ControlTask makes no such calls, even though the logging indicates a similar operation in both tasks (“Updating File”). This can probably be solved by changing ControlTask to use the mutex (FS_Mutex) instead of disabling interrupts.

Let’s see what happens if we change this. In the screenshot below, it’s apparent that SamplerTask is now running periodically every 5 ms, as intended.

When looking at the detailed trace (below), we verify that ControlTask is now using FS_Mutex and the OS ticks are running periodically, even in the critical section, and lets SamplerTask preempt as intended.

Stay tuned for the next use case – the mysterious random watchdog reset.

National Maker Faire is coming to Washington, D.C. in June

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The White House has announced that this year’s ‘Week of Making’ will be June 12-18. 

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After last year’s inaugural White House Maker Faire proved to be a roaring success, the Obama Administration has announced that they will once again be celebrating a ‘Week of Making’ this summer, from June 12th through the 18th. The week will kick off with the National Maker Faire, which will be held at the University of the District of Columbia and feature a number of Makers from across the country.

Last year, on June 18th, President Obama issued a call to action that “every company, every college, every community, every citizen joins us as we lift up Makers and builders and doers across the country.” During the one-day event, the President proclaimed that “today’s D.I.Y is tomorrow’s Made in America” as he welcomed people of all ages who were funelling their ingenuity into amazing projects, developing creative solutions to important problems and bringing their innovations to market. Among those in attendance were Atmel friends and teenage whiz kids Super Awesome Sylvia and Quin Etnyre. Impressively, Etnyre would go on to launch a successfully-funded Kickstarter campaign a few months later, which further validates the tremendous possibilities of going from Makerspace to Market Place.

Meanwhile, the President also met a 17-foot-tall, 2,200-pound robotic giraffe named Russell. He spoke to a once-homeless entrepreneur who was able to acquire the necessary skills in design and prototyping at a local digital fabrication studio and Makerspace to launch his own business. He even sat down on a solar-powered bench that allows people to charge their phones while stopping for a quick rest. Heck, will.i.am and Bill Nye the Science Guy made an appearance as well!

This year, participants will be joined from various federal agencies including the Department of Education, National Science Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Small Business Administration, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NASA, Corporation for National and Community Service, Department of Homeland Security and the Smithsonian.

“The Maker Movement is the next great revolution of industry and embodies the American Spirit,” adds Sander Arts, VP of Marketing at Atmel.

Hoping to once again to be well-represented in the nation’s capital is Atmel, whose 8 and 32-bit microcontrollers can be found right at the heart of the burgeoning Maker Movement powering just about everything including 3D printers, robots, and of course, Arduino boards that enable everyone to exercise their imagination and create projects.

“By working together, we can provide every child and adult in America with the tools, technologies and resources they need to be part of the creative process and invent, create, and make a better, stronger, and more innovative future,” Dale Dougherty writes.

Over the course of the ‘Week of Making,’ the President is hoping to create more opportunities for hands-on learning and to inspire young DIYers to engage in STEM-related activities in and out of the classroom, broaden participation in making for young women and underrepresented minorities, support the development of low-cost tools for prototyping, strengthen capabilities that enable Maker entrepreneurs to produce their products domestically and scale volume, and engage Makers in developing solutions to pressing local and global challenges.

While details are still being finalized, you can head over to the National Maker Faire’s official site to stay up-to-date and follow along with our pals at MAKE.