- Category: Robotics
Morse Code on Mars
"If you look carefully at the treads on the wheels of the rover vehicle, you'll notice the predominant, zigzag pattern, but you'll also see a section of tread on each wheel that's patterned with dots and dashes. The official word is that they serve as "visual odometry markers" that tell the mission controllers how far Curiosity has roved and let them verify that the rover's wheels are indeed turning when the rover's telemetry says it is moving. But I think they're just a really, really cool hack that some ham on the development team at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena couldn't resist. The dots and dashes spell out "JPL" in the surface dust on the Red Planet."
- Category: NFC
Hacking NFC and NDEF: why I go and look at it again
Collin Mulliner's NFC secuirty presentation with good overview of NFC and RFID technologies.
"Now 2010/2011:
- – VISA has NFC-based payment
- iPhone hardware add-on
- – Android phones with NFC: Nexus S
- Soon other (Samsung) Android phones
- – Google Wallet (NFC-based payment)
- Not rolled out yet!"
"Near Field Communication (NFC)
Bidirectional proximity coupling technology
– Based on ISO 14443
NFC device modes
– RFID Reader/Writer
• Proximity Coupling Device (PCD)
– Card Emulation
• Proximity Inductive Coupling Card (PICC)
– NFCIP the Peer-to-Peer mode (ISO 18092)
• Bidirectional communication between NFC devices
RFID in your phone"
- Category: PCB
From the CAD Library: Inch-to-Metric Conversion Tables
"Millimeters allow finer (and greater) granularity in the PCB design grid system to optimize board real-estate, part placement, via fanout and routing trace/space features and snap grids. This will be very important in the future of PCB RF microtechnology. PCB impedance measurements are more accurate in micron units than "ounces of copper" and mil core/prepreg dielectric. Use micron units to achieve the highest level of accuracy for impedance calculations."
- Category: Android
Deciphering phone and embedded security
Part 1: Fundamentals of the Android architecture and terminologies - web page link
Part 2: What really happens during an unlock operation - web page link
Part 3: Unsigned, signed, locked and encrypted bootloaders - web page link
Web page link
- Category: General
Verifying embedded software functionality: Why it's necessary
Part 1
'Embedded software and systems have come to dominate the way we interact with computers and computation in our everyday lives. Computers are no longer isolated entities sitting on our desks. Instead, they are nicely woven and integrated into our everyday lives via the gadgets we directly or indirectly use—mobile phones, washing machines, microwaves, automotive control, and flight control.
Indeed, embedded systems are so pervasive, that they perform the bulk of the computation today— putting forward "embedded computing" as a new paradigm to study. In this series, we focus on validation of embedded software and systems, for developing embedded systems with reliable functionality and timing behavior.
Not all embedded systems are safety-critical. One one hand, there are the safety critical embedded systems such as automobiles, transportation (train) control, flight control, nuclear power plants, and medical devices. On the other hand, there are the more vanilla, or less safety-critical, embedded systems such as mobile phones, HDTV, controllers for household devices (such as washing machines, microwaves, and air conditioners), smart shirts, and so on.
Irrespective of whether an embedded system is safety-critical or not, the need for integrating validation into every stage of the design flow is clearly paramount. Of course, for safety-critical embedded systems, there is need for more stringent validation—so much so that formal analysis methods, which give mathematical guarantees about functionality/timing properties of the system, may be called for at least in certain stages of the design.
Our focus in this series is on what has been learned about software validation methods, and how they can be woven into the embedded system design process. Before proceeding further, let us intuitively explain some common terminologies that arise in validation—testing, simulation, verification, and performance analysis."
- Category: Ethernet
Industrial Ethernet—The basics
"Ethernet's roots
Although Xerox's Bob Metcalfe sketched the original Ethernet concept on a napkin in 1973, its inspiration came even earlier. ALOHAnet, a wireless data network, was created to connect together several widely separated computer systems on Hawaiian college campuses located on different islands. The challenge was to enable several independent data radio nodes to communicate on a peer-to-peer basis without interfering with each other. ALOHAnet's solution was a version of the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) concept. Metcalfe based his Ph.D. work on finding improvements to ALOHAnet, which led to his work on Ethernet.
Ethernet, which later became the basis for the IEEE 802.3 network standard, specifies physical and data link layers of network functionality. The physical layer specifies the types of electrical signals, signaling speeds, media and connector types and network topologies. The data link layer specifies how communications occurs over the media—using the CSMA/CD technique mentioned above—as well as the frame structure of messages transmitted and received."
...
"Ethernet for Control Automation Technology (EtherCAT) is an open real-time Ethernet network developed by Beckhoff. It provides real-time performance, features twisted pair and fiber optic media, and supports various topologies. It is supported by the EtherCAT Technology Group, which has 168 member companies.
Ethernet Powerlink is a real-time Ethernet protocol that combines the CANopen concept with Ethernet technology. The Ethernet Powerlink Standardization Group (EPSG) is an open association of industry vendors, research institutes and end-users in the field of deterministic real-time Ethernet.
EtherNet/IP is an industrial networking standard that takes advantage of commercial off-the-shelf Ethernet communications chips and physical media. The IP stands for 'industrial protocol'. ControlNet International (CI), the Industrial Ethernet Association (IEA) and the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association (ODVA) support it.
Modbus-TCP, supported by Schneider Automation, allows the well-proven Modbus protocol to be carried over standard Ethernet networks on TCP/IP.
PROFINET is Profibus' Ethernet-based communication system, currently under development by Siemens and the Profibus User Organization (PNO)."
- Category: Atmel
Atmel bumps up flash memory to 2 MB on the SAM4S Cortex-M4 line of MCUs
"With 2MB of embedded Flash, the SAM4SD32 is the ideal device for industrial and consumer applications requiring increased program memory, data storage and low power consumption. Such applications include wireless thermostats, GPS sport watches, smart meters and 1D bar code readers. Wired and wireless communication stacks, multi-language and multi-applications support, and data logging requirements are driving the need for higher memory densities in these applications.
Atmel's SAM4SD32 runs at a high-performance 120MHz operating frequency and features cache memory for accelerated code execution out of Flash. In addition, the Cortex-M4 processor-based device integrates code protection features, 160KB of SRAM and dual-bank Flash for safe in-field firmware upgrades. The SAM4SD32 will be available in a new smaller VFBGA100 7x7mm package option."
- Category: NXP
NXP bumps up memory on the Cortex-M0 USB line with the LPC11U30 MCU
"The LPC11U30 supports the latest USB 2.0 specification with Link Power Management (LPM) mode, which allows a device to enter a suspended state when not in use. It also offers on-chip power profiles optimized for specific power levels, including a Low Current mode ideal for battery-powered applications that only connect to USB for occasional charging or data download. With multiple USB drivers integrated into ROM, the LPC11U30 microcontroller maximizes flash memory utilization and provides fully tested APIs that enable easy USB integration, "
- Category: Freescale
Kinetis KL25Z Freedom Board
"The KL25Z Freedom Board is a low-cost evaluation and development board featuring Freescale's newest Cortex-M0+ based Kinetis L Series MCU."
Cortex-M0+ getting a bit moer real as KL2 based board is available for pre-order for $12.95.
