Boosting the Power of Non-PC Devices

The Embedded System Conference in San Francisco next week will be host to an eclectic array of hardware and software product announcements for non-PC devices.

Embedded system manufacturers remain for the most part invisible to the general public, but it is their technology in the form of processors and embedded software that helps create the next generation of devices.

At the show, TransDimension will announce the first USB chip that will allow peer-to-peer connections between handheld devices such as PDAs, cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, CD and DVD players, and television set top boxes.

Until now, these smaller devices functioned only as so-called slave adapters connecting to a host adapter such as a desktop PC, but two slave devices could not connect to each other. The TransDimension OTG243 host/peripheral controller will allow these devices to connect and transfer data directly in a peer-to-peer model.

Bypassing Bluetooth

The controller was designed as a single low-power chip with transfer speeds of 12 mbps for use on small devices. Although Bluetooth also connects devices wirelessly, USB requires a cable and there are advantages to the USB solution, says David Murray, vice president of marketing at TransDimension in Irvine, California.

Bluetooth has a slower data transfer rate--700 kbps versus 12 mbps--and USB is found in far more devices. It is estimated there are more than 1 billion USB devices in the market today, far more than Bluetooth devices, says Murray.

The chip is compliant with the USB-on-the-Go, a mobile USB standard and will work with any current USB-enabled device.

Among its potential applications, the chip will allow users to download a digital image from their camera and connect it directly to a cell phone and send it via e-mail.

TransDimension would not divulge customers, but Murray says that there will be devices from major PDA, cell phone, and camera original equipment manufacturers by the end of this year.

Let the Music Play

Cirrus Logic, based in Austin, Texas, will announce an embedded chip and software product for portable MP3 players that for the first time will allow users to listen to music and record simultaneously.

"The MP3 encodes faster than real time," says Jean Anne Booth, director of embedded technologies at Cirrus Logic.

According to Booth, users can burn a CD of their favorite recordings and, while listening for the first time, record it to the player which actually finishes recording before the CD ends.

"Users won't have to carry around a bunch of CDs," Booth says.

The system also allows the OEMs to implement various levels of digital rights technology such as counting down number of plays or putting in an expiration date.

Fullplay Media Systems will use the Cirrus Logic solution in their Darwin Digital Jukebox OEM kit.

For the Farm

Also at the show will be a numerous companies using unique technology to Internet-enable industrial devices for monitoring and control.

One of the most unique products comes from CMX Systems in Jacksonville, Florida, whose CMX-MicroNet TCP/IP stack is being trialed in a robotic milking machine from Windmille Systems, in Nijkerk, Netherlands.

"The robotic milking machines attach to the cow and we put Internet connectivity so that farmers can use a Web browser to monitor milk production from each cow," says J. R. Rodrigues, vice president of sales and marketing at CMX.

Other users include Emerson, which is using the software in its refrigerators for remote maintenance.

The software stack allows companies to connect to the Internet or to any LAN, wired or wirelessly.

By creating a small and lean stack, the CMX product gives connectivity to traditional 8-bit devices that up until now had no just capability, says Rodrigues.

"Most people still to this day have trouble believing an 8-bit device can do this and there are an awful lot of 8-bit [devices] out there," says Rodrigues.

CMX is also announcing a deal with NEC to use its software solution with NEC's micro-controllers, which will further broaden the market for Internet-enabling small devices.

Keeping Connected

Multi-Tech Systems in Minneapolis is also helping to create unique solutions by Internet-enabling previously unconnected devices.

Multi-Tech's ModemModule IP combines a 56 kbps modem with a TCP/IP protocol stack to send and receive data to devices that ordinarily would be connected over a modem over expensive long distance telephone lines.

MacKenzie Labs in Glendora, California, a company that makes an in-store advertising audio system that plays music which is lowered as an ad for an in-store product is broadcast over the loud speaker will be one of the first to deploy the Multi-Tech module. Up until now, MacKenzie used a modem to change and download new audio advertising announcements nationally from a single site. Using the Multi-Tech solution, MacKenzie can change the ads using a local Point of Presence solution rather than long-distance lines.

The Multi-Tech solution already has been approved by most telecommunications carriers worldwide, according to Duane Wald, OEM sales manager.

More New Tools

Zendex in Dublin, California, will announce a ZXE-x86 embedded controller with an unprecedented 1GB of flash memory. The memory can be accessed via the Internet or any Ethernet connection and is designed to run on the Linux OS.

The system will allow manufacturers to monitor and accumulate large amounts of data for analysis as well as to control and change manufacturing processes remotely, according to Forrest Sass, vice president of marketing at Zendex.

Finally, Green Hills Software, in Santa Barbara, California, will announce Version 4.0 of Integrity, its high speed real-time operating system that will be used in everything from Boeing jet engines to laser printers, says John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills.

Goodrich Aerospace selected the RTOS for its digital engine control system, which monitors and regulates fuel and air flow and reduces fuel consumption by about 12 percent. The same RTOS will be used in laser printers for high-speed printing of XML and HTML pages, says Carbone.

The Embedded System Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco opens on Wednesday, March 13.