Embedded Developer features Atmel’s ATPL230A modem

Earlier this year, Atmel introduced the ATPL230A, a Power Line Communications (PLC) modem designed to implement the physical layer of the PRIME standard (Power Line Intelligent Metrology Evolution).

This month, the ATPL230A modem is featured in the June edition of EE Web’s Embedded Developer magazine. According to Atmel exec Kourosh Boutorabi, the ATPL230A offers OEMs a seamless and cost-efficient solution for smart metering platforms.

“Expanding on Atmel’s unique and highly flexible SAM4Cx platform, ATPL230A addresses the fifth pillar of [our] existing platform, the physical communication layer,” Boutorabi explained.

“Atmel’s ATPL230A can be paired with dual 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 RISC processors to deploy an unprecedented level of integration and accuracy for single and multi-chip architecture options for system integrators and OEMs.”

The ATPL230A also boasts a class D line driver for PLC signal amplification, providing optimized signal injection efficiency by up to 62 percent.

Combined with low power sipping, this feature enables improved thermal behavior, extends long-term reliability and reduces overall power consumption. Meanwhile, new transmission modes and frequency band extensions facilitate robust power line communications.

As Boutorabi told the publication, Atmel is currently working with top tier customers worldwide who are developing multiple products for individual markets such as the Spanish, French or U.S. market.

“These customers need a supplier that addresses all their markets’ requirements. Our solution addresses 90 percent of all of these markets,” he said.

“Every utility has different communication requirements, so to be able to address all of these segments with one solution is a significant achievement.”

To help accelerate the design process for engineers, Atmel is currently offering the ATPL230A evaluation kit which can be used to test the ATPL230A’s smart metering capabilities with embedded PLC.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s Smart Energy Platform? You can check out our recent deep dive on the subject here.

BI Intelligence details IoT building blocks

Writing for Business Insider, Marcelo Ballve notes that the Internet of Things (IoT) will make many of the familiar objects in our lives connected, as well as accessible via smartphones and tablets.

“This shift to connectivity in once-inert things — the logical next step in the growing ubiquity of the Internet — will force companies large and small to transform dramatically,” said Ballve. 

”But how are the ‘things’ in the Internet of Things actually put together? What elevates an object or device from normal status to a sensor-laden node in the soon-to-be-massive Internet Of Things?”

As Ballve notes, a recent BI Intelligence report lists the following 6 primary attributes that will help make “things” a part of the rapidly evolving IoT:

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Sensors – IoT devices and systems include sensors that track and measure activity.
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Connectivity – Internet connectivity is either contained in the item itself, or a connected hub, smartphone, or base station.
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Processors – IoT devices will obviously pack some form of computing power.
• Energy-efficiency – Many devices may need to be able to operate for a year or more using a minimal amount of energy, waking only periodically to relay data.
• Cost-effectiveness – Objects that contain sensors will need to be relatively inexpensive to purchase and deploy.
• 
Quality and reliability – Some IoT devices will need to operate in harsh environments (outdoors) and for extended periods of time.
• Security – IoT devices may need to relay sensitive or regulated information such as health-related data, making data security critical.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a future world where all types of electronic devices link to each other via the Internet. In 2009, there were 2.5 billion connected devices; most of these were mobile phones, PCs and tablets. By 2020, there will be over 30 billion connected devices of far greater variety.

According to Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel, the IoT is a combination of multiple market segments, tens of thousands of OEMs and hundreds of thousands of products.

“It 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,” he told EEWeb in February.

“Companies that provide cloud-based services, service providers and semiconductor companies will also benefit from this market. The number of small or new companies that are showcasing connective devices has increased – there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. These nodes will have characteristics such as low-power embedded processing, a human-machine interface and connectivity.”

Reza also pointed out that Atmel views microcontrollers (MCUs) as an essential building block for every PC, consumer device, industrial machine, home connectivity device and automobile. To be sure, MCUs are playing an increasingly critical role in the lucrative space.

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

Interested in learning more about the IoT? You can check out Atmel’s recent IoT SoMa panel on the subject here, Patrick Sullivan’s EELive! 2014 presentation and our extensive Bits & Pieces IoT article archive here.

UK invests big in the IoT

The UK government will reportedly spend an extra £45m on developing Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The pledge, made by British Prime Minister David Cameron, more than doubles the amount of IoT-related funds currently available to UK tech firms.

“I see the internet of things as a huge transformative development,” British Prime Minister David Cameron recently told CeBIT attendees in Germany in a statement quoted by the BBC. “[It is] a way of boosting productivity, of keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs [and] tackling climate change.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the IoT is essentially a combination of multiple market segments, tens of thousands of OEMs and hundreds of thousands of products.

“It 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,” Dr. Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel, recently told EEWeb.

“Companies that provide cloud-based services, service providers and semiconductor companies will also benefit from this market. The number of small or new companies that are showcasing connective devices has increased – there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. These nodes will have characteristics such as low-power embedded processing, a human-machine interface and connectivity.”

Interested in learning more about the IoT? You can check out previous Bits & Pieces articles on the subject here.

Reza Kazerounian talks IoT and MCUs (Part 2)

EEWeb recently conducted an interview with Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel. In part one of our synopsis, we reviewed how Kazerounian defined the Internet of Things, detailed the company’s comprehensive IoT portfolio and discussed Atmel’s relationship with the rapidly growing DIY Maker Movement.

Kazerounian went on to confirm that Atmel is currently working with a number of customers to market various IoT applications.

“These customers range from smart metering, to industrial, consumer applications similar to Nest, [as well as] medical and white goods. Many of these customers have been working with Atmel for years and are in production with our technologies today,” he explained.

“With the dawn of the Internet of Things, these products are being categorized under a broader market—the IoT. An example includes connected thermostats in the home and building automation sector, [which] have [actually] been around for a while.”

However, says Kazerounian, it was not until recently that such devices were considered mainstream.

“It took mass adoption of smart tablets, smartphones and other smart consumer devices to enable more of these ‘connected’ devices to be easily accessible to the Internet and available at a cost-effective price point,” he added.

Indeed, “separate” technologies for IoT have been around for some time, but the requirements to seamlessly run numerous technologies simultaneously took longer to achieve.

“For example, connecting your smartphone at home to control your lighting is becoming a reality today. Another important factor for the IoT is wireless connectivity. These connectivity solutions operate on a number of different standards including Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and others,” Reza continued.

“For IoT applications, it’s important to adopt the right wireless standard based on the application and consumer requirements. For example, if you want a device that is connected to a wireless network at home and can traffic the data with a high data rate, Wi-Fi is the most viable type of technology. For wearable devices, you would need a wireless connection with the lowest power consumption available since many of today’s wearable devices run on batteries.”

Kazerounian also noted that the IoT landscape is populated by applications with embedded processing and connectivity requirements that offer companies such as Atmel an advantage.

“[Indeed, we] made a recent investment in our connectivity portfolio over a year ago [by] acquiring Ozmo Devices, a Wi-Fi connectivity company. Adding to our broad wireless product portfolio, this strategic acquisition helped us enhance our Wi-Fi connectivity solutions, an important part of our strategy for targeting the IoT market,” he said.

“Atmel also has a broad portfolio of touch technologies, from capacitive touch buttons, sliders and wheels to touchscreens. As sensors and sensing nodes become an important part of the IoT ecosystem, our embedded processing solutions can combine input from multiple sensors to provide real-time direction, orientation and inclination data to bring visibly superior performance to gaming, navigation, augmented reality and more.”

Reza concluded his interview with EE Web by emphasizing that Atmel views microcontrollers (MCUs) as an essential building block for every PC, consumer device, industrial machine, home connectivity device and automobile. To be sure, MCUs are playing an increasingly critical role in the lucrative space.

“As the semiconductor industry has transitioned from PCs to mobile, IoT will now rise to become the predominant market,” Kazerounian explained. 

”This transition will favor ultra-low power and integration of microcontrollers, wireless connectivity, security, touch technologies and sensor management products. Atmel is uniquely positioned and fully committed to maintaining our leadership position in the microcontroller industry – and to do so requires winning in the IoT.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out Atmel’s AVR MCU portfolio here and our ARM lineup here.

Note: This is part two of a two-part series. Part one can be read here.

Reza Kazerounian talks IoT and Makers (Part 1)

Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel, recently sat down with the folks at EEWeb to discuss a wide range of topics including the Maker Movement, the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT) and the future of Atmel’s MCU business.

As Kazerounian notes, the IoT is a combination of multiple market segments, tens of thousands of OEMs and hundreds of thousands of products.

“It 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,” he explained.

“Companies that provide cloud-based services, service providers and semiconductor companies will also benefit from this market. The number of small or new companies that are showcasing connective devices has increased – there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. These nodes will have characteristics such as low-power embedded processing, a human-machine interface and connectivity.”

That is precisely why Atmel has consolidated the most complete portfolio of IoT technologies: ultra-low power microcontrollers, wireless connectivity, touch controllers, touch materials (XSense), sensor management and security.

“These key IoT ingredients combined with Atmel’s development environment, culture and global support infrastructure will enable us to offer the broadest and most comprehensive IoT solutions in the industry,” he said.

“Atmel is a leading supplier in embedded processing. We compete in the low-power technology market segment because many of the near-home devices have been around for many years and have the ability to be connected wirelessly. These devices include gateways such as routers, access points and more.”

Kazerounian also discussed Atmel’s relationship with the burgeoning DIY Maker Movement which espouses an open hardware philosophy.

“More designers are initially starting with [Atmel-based] Arduino boards for their prototypes, and these designers will eventually become our customers. The Maker community is continuing to grow and is influencing how designers jump-start their first design to accelerate their prototype development,” Kazerounian continued.

“This trend will potentially increase ROI. Atmel is seeing an increase in professional engineers relying on [Atmel-based] Arduino boards to create initial models for their prototypes. The net impact of the Maker movement is the accelerated development of products which contribute to the overall IoT market growth and will ultimately benefit Atmel.”



Note: This is part one of a two-part series. The second installment can be read here.

Atmel’s XSense hits EEWeb

Atmel’s XSense is a high-performance, highly flexible touch sensor which allows engineers to design devices with curved surfaces and even add functionality along product edges. Essentially, this means manufacturers now have the capability to build light-weight, sleek, edgeless smartphones, tablets and other touch-enabled devices.

Recently, Atmel’s XSense was featured in an EEWeb article, with the publication describing the technology as the “next step” in touchscreen product evolution.

“XSense is a roll-to-roll metal mesh technology that can achieve high performance touch sensing capabilities on a seemingly endless variety of curved or flexible surface,” the article explained. 

“With XSense already in production, OEMs have already started implementing it in the next generation of disruptive, touch-enabled devices.”



EEWeb also noted that XSense’s extremely light, thin and power features can be implemented in thinner mobile devices, curved and and contoured screens as well as edgeless designs for consumer touch-enabled devices.

“The overall thinness of this touchscreen film allows for superior clarity on the device display, low sheet resistance and low power consumption, allowing for numerous benefits for implementation,” the publication concluded.

“XSense also allows for thinner sensor stacks within the device, meaning that not only is the display twice as thin as average touchscreen sense film, but that the device itself can be reduced in size.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Jennifer Colegrove, who owns Touch Display Research in Santa Clara, Calif., estimates the potential market for XSense and similar technologies will increase from $200 million this year to $4 billion by 2020, primarily for tablet computers and other larger mobile devices. Similarly, Hans Mosesmann, a technology analyst for Raymond James & Associates, says the market for touchscreen sensors will grow at an annual rate of 44 percent during the next three years to about $10 billion due to its lower cost, size and performance.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s XSense technology? You can check out the official XSense page here and read about Atmel’s recently launched XSense contest here.