Embedded Computing: November 2004 Archives
AES is a processing-intensive algorithm that requires tons of MIPS on processor architectures.
Bruce Schulman at Commsdesign reviews how general-purpose processors, vector processors, and DSPs stack up at handling this encryption algorithm.
CommsDesign - Finding the Right Processing Architecture for AES Encryption
Kensingston have a WIFI Finder which I know my colleague Bernie Goldbach would love to get his hands on.
As the blurb from the kensington site points out
* No more booting up notebook to find a WiFi signal
* Detects most available WiFi networks with the press of a button
* Three lights indicate signal strength
* Compact and lightweight design fits in pocket
* Detects 802.11b and 802.11b/g signals up to 200 feet away
* Filters out other wireless signals
* No software or computer required
Jim Turley has an interesting article on embedded.com. Where he points out thatd despite the hype over RISC, CISC processors live on. In fact, they dominate. Sometimes slow and steady really does win the race.
I would agree with his sentiments as I am currently facing some of the issues that a RISC system throws at you.
O'Reilly has published a book about using gadgets such as X10 devices to build automated home security, convenience, and entertainment systems.
Smart Home Hacks, by Gordon Meyer, looks at relatively inexpensive ways to make your home the envy of the Jetsons.
The book covers how to:
Turn on lights automatically upon entering a room, or when the sun sets, or only when needed
Send reminders of important events to cell phones, email accounts, or pagers
Alert everyone in the house with chimes or voice announcements
Monitor the driveway, mailbox, refrigerator door, or litter box for activity
Monitor the home when nobody is there
Control the entire house from a web browser
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) recently announced the adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). Increased data rates – up to three times current levels – and lower power consumption will improve the Bluetooth user experience when running multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously and transferring large data files, as well as enabling longer battery life in mobile devices.
The main features of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.0 + EDR are:
• 3 times faster transmission speed (up to 10 times in certain cases)
• Lower power consumption through reduced duty cycle
• Simplification of multi-link scenarios due to more available bandwidth
• Backwards compatible to earlier versions
• Further improved BER (Bit Error Rate) performance
Japanese company Oji Paper announced November 8 that it has jointly developed technology to embed semiconductor chips in paper during papermaking processes. This invention was co-developed with two other companies FEC Group and Toppan Forms.
According to the JCN network, the embedded chip is 0.5x0.5mm and comes with a built-in antenna for wireless transmission at frequencies of between 13.56MHz to 2.45GHz. This breakthrough technology enables mass production of chip-embedded paper.
This will allow chips to be embedded into cheques, gift tokens etc.
IP Fabrics is a relatively new company that claim to offer a radical new approach to designing s/w for network processors. The following is taken from their website
"The radically different approach, which is targeted to Intel’s IXP2xxx NPU family, consists of a very-high-level packet processing language (called PPL, or Packet Processing Language) and a virtual machine environment for it on Intel NPUs. The language and environment are well suited for any application based on IP technology, including firewalls, VPNs, security gateways, intrusion detection, content switching, application-layer firewalling, SPAM filtering, traffic monitoring, and many more. The product fits seamlessly with the NPF (Network Processing Forum) APIs and with Intel’s IXP Portability Framework and development tools. "
They also have a paper describing PPL, it can be found here.
This text book has joined my research book shelf after being recommended by several lecturers. The book is written by Steve Furber and is highly recommended by Amazon readers
The book covers:
-presents and discusses the major issues of system-on-chip design, including memory hierarchy, caches, memory management, on-chip buses, on-chip debug and production test
- provides an overview of the ARM processor family, enabling the reader to decide which ARM is best for the job in hand
- describes the ARM and Thumb programming models, enabling the designer to begin to develop applications
- covers all the latest ARM products and developments, including StrongARM, the ARM9 and ARM10 series of cores, and the ARM-based SoC components at the heart of Ericsson's Bluetooth technology, the Psion Series 5 PDA and Samsung's SGH2400 GSM handset
- includes details on the AMULET asynchronous ARM cores and the AMULET3H asynchronous SoC subsystem
LinuxDevices.com has published proceedings from the Sixth Real-Time Linux Workshop held in Asia, at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
The papers span a broad range of topics ranging from fundamental real-time technologies, to applications, to hardware, to tools. As usual, the conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation.
Linuxdevices.com reports on an open source project that could be of benefit for my PhD research.
Scratchboxis an open source project to simplify cross-platform software compilation. They have recently made several advances that may interest embedded device developers. The project is helping Debian ARM strive for parity with Debian x86 by enabling package maintainers to build native ARM applications on fast x86 PCs, without modifying package build scripts
