Preview: ARM TechCon 2014

Fresh on the heels of World Maker Faire, the Atmel team is headed down the road to the city of Santa Clara for the 10th Annual ARM TechCon 2014. Held October 1-3 inside the Santa Clara Convention Center, the Atmel team will showcase the latest Atmel | SMART ARM-based microcontrollers driving smart, secure and connected devices for the Internet of Things.

At the Atmel booth (#205), visitors will have a chance to explore a number of hands-on demos including:

• Atmel | SMART SAM D20 GPS Tracker
• Atmel | SMART SAM D21
• Narrative Clip powered by Atmel | SMART SAM9G25
• The newly-unveiled Arduino Wi-Fi Shield 101
• Bosch Sensor Hub
• The recently-announced Atmel SmartConnect Wi-Fi modules 
• Crank featuring an Atmel | SMART MCU

…. and, we will also be making announcement around the Atmel | SMART MCU family which you will surely not want to miss. Stay tuned!

Anyone who’s previously attended ARM TechCon — or any event where Atmel was present for that matter– knows one of the highlights is the free giveaways! On Wednesday, we will be distributing several Atmel | SMART SAM4L Evaluation Kits from our booth (#205). Whereas on Thursday, Atmel | SMART SAM D20 Xplained Pro Evaluation Kit will be given away during the ARM Connected Community demo at 1:30pm and 5:00pm PT inside the ARM booth (#300).

Meanwhile, Andreas Eieland, Atmel Senior Product Marketing Manager, will educating attendees on why ARM’s Cortex-M0+ was the ideal architecture to use as a foundation for the highly-flexible and easy-to-use SAM D MCU and its potential use cases in home automation, consumer devices, smart metering and industrial applications. Don’t this this session, aptly entitled “Think Beyond the Core,” which is slated to take place on Wednesday at 2:00pm PT.

Other notable key moments in and around the show include an infrastructure panel with Dell and Oracle moderated by ARM’s Ian Ferguson, discussions around the new Cortex-M7 processor, IoT and wearable tech-focused developer workshops, as well as Thursday’s keynote with ARM CEO Simon Segars.

Be prepared to be blown away by not one, but two keynote speakers: Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics, and Erica Kochi, Chief Innovator for UNICEF. Anderson will be discussing the latest developments in the drone community along with new opportunities in robotics for ARM, while Kochi will explore the ways in which UNICEF and ARM are working together on power and efficiency improvements for mobile devices.

Thinking of visiting the show? Receive a free ARM Expo Pass using the code: ARMExp100. Hurry, this promotion expires on September 30th.

Unable to attend? As a leading member of the ARM Connected Community, rest assured we will be tweeting away and dishing out up-to-the-minute happenings from the show floor. Follow along using the hashtags #ARMTechCon and #AtmelLive throughout the week.

Arietta G25 is an Atmel-powered SBC for the IoT

Acme Systems currently offers the Aria G25, a tiny system-on-module (SoM) built around Atmel’s versatile SAM9G25. As CNX Software reports, the company is prepping a smaller and lower-cost ARM Linux SBC powered by the same processor.

Dubbed the Arietta G25, the new board targets the DIY Maker market and IoT applications.

Key specs include:

• CPU: Atmel’s AT91SAM9G25 (ARM9 clocked @ 400Mhz)
• RAM: 128 MByte DDR2
• MicroSD Socket for up to 32GB bootable Linux microSD (not included)
• USB 2.0 ports: 1 hi-speed host/device, 1 hi-speed host, 1 full-speed
• UART: 1 (RXD,TXD,RTS,CTS)
• I2C bus: 1
• SPI bus: 1 with 2 chip select (5 to 50 MHz)
• PWM: 4 lines
• A/D converters: 4 channels@10 bit
• Size: 25x51mm
• Power supply: single 3.3 Volt DC
• Line levels: TTL 3.3V (NOT 5V tolerant)
• Operative temperature range: -20 +70 °C
• Pinstrip: 20×2 pitch 2,54mm (100mils)
• PCB layers: 8

“Since this is early stage of development, no documentation is available, but we do have some informations about Aria G25 support,” a CNX Software writer explained.

“You can build the latest Linux kernel (3.12.8 release, or 3.13r8) for the board. [Plus], lots of tutorials are provided, including one explaining how to create an Embedded Debian Grip 7.2 image. The board is not open source hardware, but the company provides some hardware documentation. Finally, support is available via Google Groups.”

The Atmel-powered SBC, slated to ship in 2014, will initially be priced at 10 Euros ($13.53) for orders placed before May 2014, increasing to about 20 Euros ($27.06) thereafter.

 Additional information about the upcoming board is available on Roberto Asquini’s blog here.

Atmel’s SAM9G25 powers CoreWind’s SoM

CoreWind has debuted a system-on-module (SoM) powered by Atmel’s ARM-based SAM9G25 embedded MPU (microprocessor). The CORE9G25 – targeted at engineers – helps reduce development time for the design of low-power sipping Linux-based devices.

According to the CORE9G25 product page, the platform integrates the CPU, RAM, Flash, Ethernet, power and EMI components on a single SMD component (40×40 mm,1.57×1.57 inches) using a six-layer PCB.

Aside from Atmel’s SAM9G25 MPU, key product specs include:

• 128-256 MByte DDR2 RAM (system memory)
• 10/100 Mbit LAN
• Three host ports
• 6 serial lines (UART)
• Two I2C buses
• Two SPI buses
• Up to 60 GPIO lines
• OS boot from Nand Flash or SD card
• Supports BuildRoot & Debian

CoreWind is also offering its CORE9G25-CON (expansion) board which can be used to evaluate the CORE9G25 SoM and create end-user products for prototyping.

As CNX Software notes, the CORE9G25 (base) is somewhat similar in specs and appearance to the ARIA G25 manufactured by ACME Systems.

The CORE9G25-128 is currently available for $30; the CORE9G25-256 for $40; the CORE9G25-CON (128) for $50 and the CORE9G25-CON (256) for $60
.

Getting up close with MYIR’s MYD-SAM9X5 dev board

Yesterday, Bits & Pieces took a closer look at at MYIR’s development board series for Atmel’s lineup of SAMA5D3 ARM Cortex-A5 based processors.

Today, we’ll be discussing MYIR’s MYD-SAM9X5 dev board series based on Atmel’s AT91SAM9X5 ARM926 processors which are capable of hitting speeds of up to 400MHz.

“The boards have a commonly-used base board and are using MYC-SAM9X5 series CPU modules as core boards,” a MYIR rep explained.

“There are five CPU Modules for selections respectively based on AT91SAM9G15, SAM9G25, SAM9G35, SAM9X25 and SAM9X35.”

All offer the same circuit design – albeit with minor configuration differences. Meanwhile, the CPU modules integrate all  core components, with I/O signals extended through the standard SO-DIMM 200-pin connector.

MYIR has also ported Linux 2.6.39 and Google Android 2.3.5 for the MYD-SAM9X5 series, offering relevant software packages, documents and cable accessories. In addition, optional 4.3-inch and 7-inch LCD touch screens are available for the 9G15, 9G35 and 9X35 devices.

“With a rich peripheral set, the boards can be used for a variety of applications including industrial controls, medical equipment, automation, portable data terminals, biometric security systems, test and measurement instruments,” the MYIR rep added.

Front and center with Atmel’s ARM-powered SAM9

Atmel’s versatile ARM-powered SAM9 has popped up in a number of recent Bits & Pieces articles lately. So today we will be taking a closer look at the most current SAM9 MCU lineup (SAM9G15, SAM9G25, SAM9G35, SAM9X25, SAM9X35) which is capable of driving a wide range of hardware-based applications, including industrial communications, PLC systems & I/O modules, human machine interfaces and the industrial Matrix-505 by Artila Electronics.

“Essentially, Atmel’s ARM926-based Atmel SAM9 microcontrollers deliver expanded feature sets – including enhanced display and connectivity peripherals – offering engineers the flexibility to design industrial and commercial applications that make a difference,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“High levels of performance and integration coupled with reduced system cost make Atmel SAM9 processors ideal for main-powered, cost-sensitive applications such as industrial and building control, HVAC, POS terminals, smart grid, printers and medical.”

In terms of integration, connectivity peripherals include up to three USB ports, CAN, Ethernet, SDIO/SDCard/MMC and a unique integrated soft modem. Meanwhile, display peripherals boast a graphics LCD controller with 4-layer overlay and 2D acceleration (picture-in-picture, alpha-blending, scaling, rotation, color conversion), camera and touch-screen interfaces.

“For high-performance architecture, Atmel’s SAM9 series features a processor clock running at 400 MHz, along with a high data-bandwidth architecture based on a multi-layer bus matrix with dual 8-channel central Direct Memory Access (DMA) controllers,” the engineering rep continued. “Plus, the lineup offers dedicated DMAs to support the high-speed connectivity peripherals.”

As expected, the above-mentioned devices offer LPDDR, DDR2 and MLC NAND Flash support, in addition to SDRAM and NOR Flash, with boot from NAND Flash, SDCard, DataFlash or serial DataFlash. They also support up to 24-bit error code correction on MLC NAND Flash. As with other Atmel MCUs, full-featured evaluation kits are available with free board support packages (BSP) for Linux, with development tools, OS, middleware products and support from industry-leading partners.

Last, but certainly not least, power consumption is only 300µW/MHz at 400MHz operation and 8µA in backup mode, with 3.3V IOs eliminating the need for external level shifters while 0.8mm ball pitch packages simplify PCB design.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out our breakdown of SAM9-based devices below for specific key specs:

• SAM9G15
• SAM9G25
• SAM9G35
• SAM9X25
• SAM9X35