In-home display (IHD) units play a critical role in helping customers reduce their energy usage by providing relevant stats in real-time. Indeed, IHD units are typically designed to acquire and display information via a sensor with built-in RF and/or PLC. A more effective method? Transmitting information from a smart meter using a home area network. […]
Earlier this summer, Bits & Pieces took readers on a brief virtual tour of Atmel’s Xplained Pro kits. Today, we want to familiarize our readers with Atmel’s Xplained evaluation kits for our extensive lineup of 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs). “Essentially, Atmel’s Xplained lineup consists of a series of low-cost MCU boards to help devs […]
Last week, Bits & Pieces embarked on a deep dive of the ATECC108 solution, an elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) product. Today, we will be taking a closer look at Atmel’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which provides a strong hardware-based public key (RSA) for both personal computers and embedded processors on a single chip. Essentially, the […]
The AVR tour continues! Our first stop? Atmel’s AVR UC3, an MCU built around high-performance 32-bit AVR architecture and optimized for highly integrated applications. Next up? The AVR XMEGA, an MCU designed for real-time performance, high integration and ultra-low power. Our third stop was Atmel’s stalwart megaAVR, which neatly balances both capacity and performance. And […]
Yesterday we took our first ATECC108 deep dive, exploring various features and capabilities of the device, including firmware protection, anti-counterfeiting and secure data storage. Today, we will take a closer look at the ATECC108’s advanced cryptographic operation. As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s ATECC108 implements a complete asymmetric (public/private) key cryptographic signature solution […]
Earlier this summer, Atmel expanded its already formidable CryptoAuthentication portfolio with the ATECC108 solution, an elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) product. Today, we at Bits & Pieces will be taking you through our first ATECC108 deep dive. As discussed in previous blog posts, the ATECC108 is the latest addition to Atmel’s CryptoAuthentication lineup of high-security hardware […]
Earlier this week, Bits & Pieces took a close look at Atmel’s AVR UC3 which is built around high-performance 32-bit AVR architecture and optimized for highly integrated applications. Today, we are getting up close and personal with Atmel’s AVR XMEGA, an MCU designed for real-time performance, high integration and ultra-low power. Powered by an Atmel […]
Atmel’s versatile MCUs power a number of fire and security applications – allowing vendors to design advanced systems that effectively safeguard people, property and business resources. “Atmel offers a wide range of ARM-based AT91SAM and AVR 32-bit microcontrollers for such applications,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “More specifically, the SAM3 family and […]
Data concentrators are typically used in AMR (automatic meter reading) and AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) architecture to collect information and data, often from multiple meters, before forwarding the data to a utility company. Understandably, they are heavily used in densely populated areas. Some AMI architectures might utilize a multi-utility communications unit or communications gateway at […]
Atmel recently expanded its CryptoAuthentication portfolio with the ATECC108 solution, an elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) product. As Atmel Product Marketing Manager Alex Dean notes, there are two basic encryption methods available on the security market today: symmetric and asymmetric key based algorithms. “In the context of using cryptography for authentication, symmetric key encryption uses an identical key on […]
