Archive : 2 March 2015 год

In a move which it says demonstrates it commitment to the industrial market, Microchip has licensed EtherCAT technology for use in next generation Ethernet controllers.

"EtherCAT standard is a proven and robust industrial communication protocol that is expanding its market presence in drive and I/O applications," said Mitch Obolsky, vice president of Microchip's USB and Networking Group. "By adding this technology to our Ethernet controllers, we plan to provide engineers with compelling new connectivity options for their designs."

EtherCAT offers 'on the fly' processing and allows the use of standard Ethernet cabling. EtherCAT has also been shown to have the highest throughput of any industrial Ethernet standard.

"Microchip's decision to implement EtherCAT technology will further accelerate the adoption of our communication standard within the industrial control segment and beyond," said Martin Rostan, executive director of the EtherCAT Technology Group. "We welcome this move, which expands the choice of EtherCAT Slave Controller chips for our members. Microchip is making a clear statement by adding EtherCAT technology to its silicon, as a real-time Ethernet option for its customers."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

In a move to provide more communications bandwidth, Ireland based Tyndall National Institute will lead a consortium of European researchers in an EU funded project to develop intelligent circuits which can make photonic devices up to five times more efficient. The result, says the institute, will be faster data transmission at a lower cost.

The three year €5.2million Thermally Integrated Smart Photonics Systems (TIPS) project, funded under Horizon 2020's call for Smart Integration Systems, will involve industry and research partners from Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and France.

Dr Kafil Razeeb, senior research scientist at Tyndall National Institute and project coordinator, noted: "We will seek to develop an intelligent circuit that can control its own operations thermally, making it up to five times more efficient. By self tuning its own temperature precisely, the device can produce a more precise wavelength, meaning faster data transmission at a lower cost."

Tyndall National Institute will work with partners from III-V Lab, University of Hamburg, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, CNRS, University of Limerick, LioniX BV, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and Communicraft.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

As part of the Stadium Group's strategy to become a leading design led technology business, Stadium Power has opened a standalone power product R&D centre in Norwich.

The facility, on the Norwich Research Park, features a 1000sq ft laboratory and will be home to the company's engineering team, which is relocating from Diss.

Steve Applegate, Stadium Power's commercial director, said: "This is a very exciting move for Stadium Power. We are already an established provider of customised power solutions, working with our customers to design, develop and innovate. However the RDC reflects the next stage in the execution of our strategy boosting our technology roadmap providing the power technologies of today and tomorrow, whilst ensuring that our development focus is tightly aligned to our customer's needs."

Pictured celebrating the deal are, left, Kenny Lang, business director of the Norwich Research Park, and Applegate.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

NXP and Freescale have signed a definitive agreement under which NXP will merge with Freescale in a transaction which values the combined enterprise at $40billion. The deal values Freescale at $16.7billion, including its net debt.

The merged entity will become the market leader in automotive semiconductor solutions and the market leader in general purpose microcontrollers. The combined company will, according to the partners, capitalise on the growing opportunities created by the accelerating demand for security, connectivity and processing.

"Today's announcement is a transformative step in our objective to become the industry leader in high performance mixed signal solutions. The combination of NXP and Freescale creates an industry powerhouse focused on the high growth opportunities in the Smarter World. We fully expect to continue to significantly out-grow the overall market, drive world-class profitability and generate even more cash, which taken together will maximise value for both Freescale and NXP shareholders," said Rick Clemmer, pictured, who will be president and chief executive officer of the merged company.

"We believe this merger, which combines two highly successful and complementary companies, will create significant value for Freescale's and NXP's shareholders, customers and employees. Both companies have built leadership positions and have a sharp focus on delivering superior value to customers. Our combined scale, size and global reach will position our new company to deliver sustainable above market growth. It will also serve to accelerate the strategic plans both companies have invested in, enabling us to deliver more complete solutions to customers," said Gregg Lowe, Freescale's president and CEO.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Networking specialist Cavium has launched the OCTEON Fusion-M family that spans from a single chip macrocell baseband device to a part which can be used in smart radio heads.

OCTEON Fusion-M processors are single chip solutions that target next generation radio. Key features are said to include optimised full custom processor cores, an efficient caching subsystem, high memory bandwidth and a flexible, high performance PHY.

The CNF75xx is said to be a macrocell on a chip, offering a full L1 to L7 implementation and support for up to 3600 users. Featuring up to 16 custom MIPS cores running at up to 2GHz and multiple VLIW DSP engines, the CNF75xx integrates hardware accelerators for the wireless modem pipeline, network processing and traffic shaping. This family is designed to allow system OEMs and operators to build next generation networks in both macrocell and Cloud RAN deployments while retaining the flexibility to evolve into the new 5G standard.

Meanwhile, the CNF74xx smart remote radio head has eight 64bit MIPS cores and a flexible, high throughput L1 wireless modem subsystem. SAid to be the first commercial device designed specifically for smart radio head Cloud RAN deployments, the CNF74xx allows the implementation of any of the popular CRAN splits.

Syed Ali, president and CEO of Cavium, said: "Operators require a portfolio of base stations that address their different needs: enterprise, urban, metro-cell, macrocell and CRAN. With Fusion-M and ThunderX, Cavium addresses all of those segments through a portfolio of optimised solutions. Our new chips extend the eco-system in two radical directions: up to macrocell class and out to the radio node required in CRANs."

The Fusion-M family will sample in Q3 2015.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk