Atmel launches Xplained extension board with Bosch intelligent sensor

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Integrating the Bosch intelligent 9-axis sensor, these new extension boards provide IoT and wearable designers the ability to prototype designs using Atmel | SMART MCUs.

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During Embedded World 2015, Atmel launched a new extension board for the highly-popular Xplained platform. Featuring a Bosch Sensortec BNO055 intelligent 9-axis absolute orientation sensor, the next-gen device connects directly to Atmel’s Xplained board making it ideal for prototyping projects for the Internet of Things, wearables and gaming markets, for applications like personal health and fitness, indoor navigation, as well as others requiring context awareness and augmented reality for a more immersive experience.

The low-cost, easy-to-use Xplained prototyping and evaluation platform for Atmel | SMART ARM-based MCUs can be customized with a wide range of extension boards. The platform enables easy development with a rich selection of example projects and software provided in the Atmel Software Framework (ASF), Atmel Studio and third party integrated development environments.

“As a leading provider of secure, smart and connected solutions, we are committed to providing the essential tools and platforms to bring more IoT and wearable designs to market,” explained Steve Pancoast, Atmel Vice President of Development Tools and Software.

The new extension board enables designers to easily allow developers to prototype motion control and smart sensing designs using Atmel’s broad portfolio of MCUs. The extension board is compatible with the Xplained-PRO expansion connector, and software examples are provided through the Atmel Studio integrated development environment.

“We are excited about the opportunity to feature our BNO055 sensor in the Xplained ecosystem,” added Jeanne Forget, Global Director Marketing of Bosch Sensortec GmbH. “Our advanced BNO055 absolute orientation sensor complements the Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-based MCUs and will allow developers to bring their designs quickly to market. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration with Atmel with this product.”

Interested? The Xplained extension board is now available in the Atmel Store for $19.00.

SAMA5D3 Xplained for the IoT in India

element14 has introduced Atmel’s new SAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation kit for Internet of Things (IoT) development in India.

“The Internet of Things is one of the most important trends globally that will boost the electronics industry in India. Within these few years it will impact nearly every segment of the economy and society,” said element14 exec Ravi Pagar. 

”[We are] excited to be bringing such a wide range of ground-breaking IoT-enabling solutions to India geared towards inspiring engineers with the ideas and building blocks to turn the Internet of Things into a reality.”

The board – built around Atmel’s SAMA5D3 ARM Cortex-A5 processor-based MPU – is packed with a rich set of ready-to-use connectivity and storage peripherals, along with Arduino shield-compatible expansion headers for easy customization. 

The platform is also a perfect target for headless Android projects, while a Linux distribution and software package facilitates rapid software development.

Aside from Atmel’s ARM-based SAMA5D36 Cortex-A5 microprocessor (MPU), key specs include:

• 2GBit DDR2 – Micron
• 2GBit Flash – Micron
• 1- Ethernet 10/100/1000 (- Phy + connector)
• 1- Ethernet 10/100 (-Phy + connector)
1- USB Device connector, 2- USB Host connectors
• Active Semi PMIC
• Power measurement straps
• SD/MMCPlus 8-bit card slot
• 1- Micro SDCard 4-bit slot footprint
• 1- 6-lead 3V3-level serial port
• 10-pin J-TAG connector
• 2- push buttons, reset and startup
• 1- general purpose push button
• 2- general purpose LEDs
• Arduino R3-compatible header plus LCD connectors mounted
• Linux distribution
• Bare Metal C code example
• Headless Android support

Simply put, the new board offers features such as mid-range graphical user interfaces, capacitive touch capability, wired and wireless communication, free of charge Linux distribution and a QT developer’s kit.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the ARM-based SAMA5D3 series is ideal for wearable computing and mobile applications where low power and a small footprint are critical.

Atmel’s new SAMA5D3 Xplained eval kit can be snapped up for Rs.6,719.00 here.

A closer look at Atmel’s Xplained kits

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 evaluate and demonstrate product features and capabilities for different Atmel microcontroller families,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “In addition, a rich selection of example projects and code drivers are provided in Atmel Studio, while code functionality is easily added by pulling in additional drivers and libraries from the Atmel Software Framework.

The Atmel Xplained series also includes a range of add-on boards that can be stacked on top of the MCU boards to create platforms for specific application development. This means a wide range of add-on boards is available, including inertial pressure and temperature sensors, ZigBee RF and Cryptographic authentication.

However, it should be noted that due to difference in features such as pin count or memory size, some add-on boards may not work with all MCU boards, so be sure to look at the the table below which summarizes recommended combinations.

On the X/MEGA side, Xplained kits include the XMEGA-E5 (ATxmega32E5) , XMEGA-C3 (ATxmega384C3), XMEGA-A3BU (ATxmega256A3BU), MEGA-1284P (ATmega1284), XMEGA-A1 (ATxmega128A1) and the XMEGA-B1 (ATxmega128B1 and LCD controller).

Additional Xplained kits include the UC3-A3 (AT32UC3A3256), the SAM4S (SAM4S ARM Cortex-M4), CryptoAuthentication add-on (ATSHA204) , UC3-L0 (picoPower AT32UC3L064), Temperature Sensor Xplained (add-on) and the Sensors Xplained (add-on).

Building a GPS tracker with Atmel’s SAM D20 MCU

A GPS tracking unit uses the Global Positioning System to determine and record the precise location of a vehicle, device or individual. Key design requirements for a GPS tracker include a small form factor, low power consumption and flexible connectivity options.

Atmel’s recently launched SAM D20 ARM Cortex-M0+ based MCU can be used to power such a device, taking all of the above-mentioned design requirements into account.

“The SAM D20 MCU – embedded with serial communication modules (SERCOM) and low power consumption – provides the flexibility, connectivity and low power required for GPS tracker applications,” Atmel engineering manager Bob Martin told Bits & Pieces.

“How low is low in terms of power consumption? Well, we are talking about <150µA/MHz in active (CoreMark) and <2µA with RTC and full RAM retention. Meanwhile, the peripheral event system and intelligent peripherals with Atmel SleepWalking technology further reduce CPU activity and power consumption.”

Martin also noted that the SAM D20 MCU offers design engineers 6 highly flexible serial communication modules (SERCOM), each configurable to operate as USART, I2C and SPI – thereby facilitating easy and flexible connection to external sensors, memories, PCs and wireless modules.

As expected, Atmel supports a wide range of dev tools and software, including Atmel Studio 6 (free IDE with GCC compiler), Atmel Software Framework (free SW libraries of production ready source code), Atmel Gallery (open to extensions) and the SAM D20 Xplained Pro Kit which is packaged with programmer and debugger, as well as connectors for expansion wings.

Xplained is the new Butterfly board

I was in a startup in 2001 when I first designed in Atmel products. One of the big enticements of Atmel was the really cheap demo board. Back then they called it a Butterfly board and it cost $49. Now we have things like our Xplained series evaluation kits. They are still low-cost, and they they can give you a big head-start in getting code written for your next project.

The Atmel starter guide gives some great advice on how to become instantly productive with AVR and ARM parts.

1. Download and install Studio 6
2. Check out some examples of similar things
3. Buy an in-circuit debugger– $49 Dragon, or $99 JTAG ICE, or the $599 AVR ONE!
4. Buy an eval kit, a starter kit,  a touch kit, a wireless kit, an evaluation kit, or a reference design.

This is the great thing about Atmel, for a really low cost you can have some hardware up and running. I plan on digging out my old Atmel projects and open-sourcing them for the community. Stay tuned to the Atmel Bits and Pieces.

News from the Gallery

News from the Gallery

By Joerg Bertholdt, Director of Marketing, Tools and Software, Atmel Corporation

We launched Atmel Gallery less than 6 months ago, the first app store of its kind to deliver integrated embedded tools and embedded software straight into a development environment, specifically for Atmel Studio 6.

We were excited to get into uncharted territory, but also anxious about the types of reaction we’d get from our customers. It’s time to see how we did.

With over 25,000 developers – and counting — signed up for a Gallery account, our expectations have by far been exceeded. The servers handled the big demands very well, proving the infrastructure design and scalability.

Keil MDK-ARM Toolchain from Keil enables Atmel Studio to use its highly optimizing ARM compiler

With the February update of the XDK, the Extension Developer’s Kit, partners have been able to easily integrate embedded software and package integrations as projects that install directly into Atmel Studio. For example, developers who are interested in exploring commercial real-time operating systems, now have access to Micrium’s uC/OS and Segger’s embOS. Trial versions of these RTOSes are available as ready-to-run example projects for Atmel’s ARM Cortex-M4 based SAM4S devices.

Two popular extensions are compiler plug-ins. The Keil MDK-ARM Toolchain from Keil enables Atmel Studio to use its highly optimizing ARM compiler. CodeVisionAVR allows the use of HP Infotec’s AVR compiler, which also includes CodeWizardAVR, a graphical peripheral configuration tool for AVR MCUs.

Besides development tools and embedded software extensions, training modules such as Integrating USB In Your Design have also been made available through the Gallery. With the XDK supporting the development of hardware extension boards for Atmel’s Xplained Pro kits, the drivers for the first Xplained Pro partner board will soon be delivered as an Atmel Studio project.

We’re six months in and happy to see the masses have adopted Atmel Gallery.

Are you a Gallery user? Let us know what you like, what you’d like to see improved or if there are additional extensions you would want to see. Just comment on this blog or send me an email to joerg.bertholdt@atmel.com.

Haven’t checked out the Gallery yet, just take a look at gallery.atmel.com. Don’t have Atmel Studio 6? It’s free, you can download it from atmel.com.

Are you an independent software vendor or developer and want to be part of the growing Atmel Studio ecosystem, join the Gallery as a developer; the XDK makes it easy to participate.