Microprocessors

Microchip is aiming at closed-loop control with a part of microcontroller families: PIC18 Q10 and ATtiny1607

In a blow to Arm’s multi-decade effort to get its cores into servers, Qualcomm is reported by Bloomberg to be giving up on its Arm-based server chip programme. Qualcomm will either close its server chip operation or sell it. Cavium, which announced its latest Arm-based server chip ThunderX2 on Monday, could be interested, as could Ampere Computing, the former server ...

For those wanting to try Linux on a RISC-V CPU, Microsemi and SiFive have created an evaluation board with a 1GHz 64bit RISC-V CPU – called HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board. “Plugged into HiFive Unleashed, developers can implement a full-fledged RISC-V personal computer by enabling standard PCI Express (PCIe) devices, USB and secure digital cards to connect to SiFive’s Freedom U540 RISC-V ...

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has completed automotive AEC Q101 qualification for two GaN devices. Two of the company’s eGaN FETs, the EPC2202 and EPC2203, underwent environmental and bias-stress testing, including humidity testing with bias (H3TRB), high temperature reverse bias (HTRB), high temperature gate bias (HTGB) and temperature cycling. The company reports that the wafer level chip scale (WLCS) package has ...

Arm has added the highest level of physical security to a Cortex-Mx processor yet, to create the Cortex-M35P. Protection is included against invasive attacks (based on chip de-packaging), and non-invasive attacks like power and electromagnetic side-channel monitoring. The aim is to bring “smartcard levels of security to emerging applications such as smart metering, door locks and automotive”, said Arm v-p of ...

Embedded voice and audio semiconductor supplier, XMOS, has signed a distribution deal with Weikeng, serving China and Taiwan. The distributor specialises in consumer electronics including smart speakers, TV and TV accessories. According to XMOS, the partnership underlines the increase in demand for voice-activated control of electronic devices, and brings together the former’s far-field voice interfaces with Weikeng’s distribution reach for ...

Aimed at use with sensors, the Microchip PIC16F18446 is a microcontroller that includes a 12bit ADC which can autonomously implement post-processing functions like averaging, low-pass filtering, oversampling and threshold comparison. Intended for use with sensors, to save power the ADC can run with the processing core shut-down, waking the core when required. Operation voltage is 1.8 to 5V. Also on-board ...

Renesas has launched a blood pressure monitor evaluation kit including a circuit board, pressure sensor, arm cuff, pump, electronically-controlled valve, LCD panel and software. The PCB is based around a dedicated RL78 core-based chip (RL78/H1D) that includes the analogue functions needed for blood pressure measurement. Reference software is included, as is graphical user interface (GUI) development tool. The kit is ...

A programmable hardware security core built with a custom RISC-V CPU called the CryptoManager Root of Trust.

EnSilica, the Wokingham mixed signal SoC designer has become an ARM Approved Design Partner. “Becoming an Arm Approved Design Partner is an important recognition of our design skills and commitment to quality,” said Ian Lankshear, EnSilica’s MD, “existing customers know that they can trust us with their designs and this third party validation of our abilities will bring in new customers.” ...