RS Components has announced that it is now stocking a range of ARM® Cortex™-M4 processor-based 32-bit Kinetis microcontrollers (MCUs) from Freescale Semiconductor.

Kinetis MCUs are built using Freescale’s 90nm Thin Film Storage (TFS) technology with FlexMemory capability – configurable electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) – and feature the latest low-power innovations and high performance, high precision mixed-signal capability. The devices are supported by market-leading development tools from Freescale and ARM 3rd party ecosystem partners.

The five first-phase Kinetis families include a rich suite of analogue, communication and timing and control peripherals with the level of feature integration increasing with flash memory size and the number of inputs/outputs. Features common to all Kinetis families include:

• High-speed 16-bit analogue-to-digital converters
• 12-bit digital to analogue converters with on-chip analogue voltage reference
• Multiple high speed comparators and programmable gain amplifiers
• Low-power touch sensing with device wake-up on touch from reduced power states
• Multiple serial interfaces including UARTs with ISO7816 support and Inter-IC Sound
• Powerful, flexible timers for a broad range of applications including motor control
• Off-chip system expansion and data storage options via SD host, NAND Flash, and DRAM controllers and Freescale’s FlexBus interconnect scheme

RS is also stocking a range of development tools to support the Kinetis MCU families, including the Freescale Tower System, and the Kinetis KwikStik K40 development board.

The Tower System is a modular, reusable development platform that provides rapid prototyping capabilities. It offers multiple system expansion options and delivers outstanding flexibility and value for designers of industrial and consumer end products. Modules can be purchased individually or as part of a complete Tower System Kit.

The new KwikStik development board is a small, low-cost, all-in-one tool for evaluating, developing and debugging Kinetis MCUs. It features low-power touch sensing, a segment LCD user interface and a suite of development and run-time software, as well as an on-board Segger™ J-Link™ debug probe. It can be used standalone or integrated with the Tower System.

Fred Knowles, Head of Product Management – Electronics at RS Components, said: “By adding Freescale Kinetis MCUs to our rapidly expanding electronics offering, we are bringing even greater choice to engineers who are increasingly seeking lower power and higher performance capabilities for their embedded designs. The supporting range of development tools also available direct-from-stock enable engineers to find and design-in the right MCU for their application, knowing they can buy the quantities they need at a competitive price from RS.”

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RS Components is now stocking more than 10,000 product lines for industrial applications from Panasonic Electronic Components, an industry-leading manufacturer of standard and custom electronic components.

The extensive range of Panasonic products now offered by RS includes the AN30/32xx advanced drivers for LED matrix and LED lighting applications, which have been introduced first to the market by RS, and the new series of ENW8981xx Bluetooth HCI Class 1 modem modules. A comprehensive range of semiconductors and passive components, including capacitors, resistors and inductors, is also available, targeted at the industrial sector.

“The expansion of the Panasonic electronic components range available from RS to more than 10,000 lines is a significant milestone that supports our ongoing strategy to increase our electronics offering,” said Fred Knowles, Head of Product Management – Electronics at RS. “Design engineers are under increasing pressure to bring products to market more quickly, so fast and easy access to the widest possible range of technologies from leading global suppliers such as Panasonic is paramount, enabling our customers to find, design-in and buy the components they need for their application.”

Ian Needham, Key Account Manager – Distribution, at Panasonic added, “RS has many important strengths as a multi-channel distributor, not least in its commitment to the new product introduction process. Its ability to stock a virtually unlimited range of electronics products designed for use in industrial applications from Panasonic, and offer them for same-day despatch, is extremely valuable to our business and means shorter design cycles and faster time-to-market for our customers. Our partnership with RS enables us to deliver exceptional choice, support and service excellence.”

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- RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has triumphed in two categories at the 2011 Elektra European Electronics Industry awards. At an awards dinner held at the Park Plaza, Westminster Bridge in London, RS was named ‘Distributor of the Year’ as well as garnering the prestigious ‘Company of the Year’ award.

An annual highpoint of the electronics industry calendar, the Elektra Awards recognise the achievements of individuals and companies throughout Europe and are designed to promote best practice in innovation, sales growth and employee motivation. RS was selected as ‘Distributor of the Year’ by an independent panel of industry judges and went on to be singled out from the winners as the ‘Company of the Year’.

The judges chose to award RS in both categories for its outstanding achievement in technology innovation and business success. They were particularly impressed with the way the company has not only transformed its approach to the distribution market, increasing its online presence and dramatically growing its new product introductions, but also the impact that RS has made on the design community. Key to this process has been the launch of advanced design tools and resources, all of which have been made available free-of-charge. Its DesignSpark PCB design tool is an award-winning, fully integrated, powerful and easy-to-use PCB-design package that has recorded more than 100,000 downloads since its launch.

Commenting on the double success, Glenn Jarrett, Head of Electronics Marketing at RS Components, said, “We are extremely honoured to receive these two awards at Elektra. Over the past year we have strengthened our position as a truly world-class multi-channel distributor with the addition of tens of thousands of new products to our range, and we have placed strong emphasis on delivery excellence and value-for-money. These initiatives, together with our industry-leading free design tools and eCommerce capabilities, have significantly enriched the customer experience.”

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RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc, the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has announced availability of the new NXP LPC11U24 32-bit ARM® Cortex-M0 based mbed embedded development board for low-risk and rapid professional prototyping of microcontroller-based systems.

The NXP LPC11U24 microcontroller is particularly suitable for prototyping low-cost USB devices, battery-powered applications and 32-bit ARM® Cortex-M0 based designs. It is packaged as a small DIP form-factor convenient for prototyping with through-hole PCBs, stripboards and breadboards, and includes a built-in USB drag ‘n’ drop flash programmer. The mbed microcontrollers are supported with an online tools platform available at both mbed.org and designspark.com that provides experienced embedded developers with a productive environment for building proof-of-concepts.

For developers new to 32-bit, mbed is an accessible way to build projects with the backing of libraries, resources and support shared in the mbed.org developer community, including: a lightweight online compiler for instant access to a working environment on Windows, Linux or Mac OS X; a C/C++ SDK (Software Development Kit) for high-level programming of peripherals; in addition to a wealth of libraries and code examples.

The NXP LPC11U24 MCU runs at 48MHz and device peripherals include 32KB of flash memory, up to 8kB of SRAM data memory, configurable Full-Speed USB 2.0 device controller; one Fast-mode Plus I2C-bus interface, two SPI interfaces, UART, six ADCs (Analogue-to-Digital Converters) and 54 GPIO (General-Purpose I/O) pins.

“Now available at RS, this new NXP MCU based mbed board delivers rapid prototyping for USB devices and battery-based applications”, said Mark Cundle, Technical Marketing Manager for RS Components. “In conjunction with the support available via the mbed community, the package provides beginners and experienced embedded developers alike with everything they need to start a low-cost 32-bit design based around the ARM Cortex-M0 core.”

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RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has received the award for ‘Outstanding Performance in High Service Level Distribution within Europe’ from FCI, a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect systems. Cooperating in strategic partnership with FCI, RS has delivered unmatched service levels during the year, while more than doubling its FCI offering to provide customers with a substantially broader range of products from the connector manufacturer.

RS customers now have access to more than 1,000 parts from FCI’s established core ranges, including the Basics+ range of standard connectors for board-to-board and wire/cable-to-board applications, in addition to the latest FCI product releases such as the APEX family of automotive-class wire-to-wire and wire-to-device connectors and terminal products.

Ronald Velda, Sales Director, EMEA Distribution, FCI, said, “The exceptional level of service provided by RS over the past year has enabled us to accelerate our sales growth worldwide and complements perfectly our key strategic initiative to ensure customer satisfaction at all times and at all levels through a culture of responsiveness, availability and flexibility.”

Receiving the award, Fred Knowles, Head of Product Management, Electronics at RS Components, said, “We are delighted to be recognised for our work with FCI and are continuing to expand the number of lines available to bring the most comprehensive FCI product offering to customers.”

“Our advanced online resources give customers greater flexibility and convenience in the way they find, design and buy-in their products and allow us to offer competitive pricing on our entire range.”

In addition to new product introductions, 3D models for individual product ranges and comprehensive product information is available online.

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RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has expanded its comprehensive online library of free 3D CAD product models.  The latest update includes more than 2000 new models from Molex, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of interconnect products, and Omron, a global leader in the production of electronic components. The 3D CAD models from both suppliers are now available to download free-of-charge from the RS website at www.rs-components.com/3D, offering electronics design engineers a simpler, faster route to complete their designs on time.

With the release of an additional 1000 3D models of Molex connectors, encompassing the latest technologies, the range of Molex 3D models available from RS now covers more than 7000 products. Over 1000 3D models of Omron parts have also been added to the RS library, including tactile, pushbutton and DIP switches, as well as flow sensors, micro switches and relays.

The extensive scope of product models available today from the RS library is unrivalled in the industry, with users now having access to over 30,000 certified 3D CAD models of electronic and mechanical components.  Registered users can download a model from the RS website in up to 23 neutral and native CAD file formats, enabling engineers to select the model in their preferred CAD package for mechanical design.  Each model has part number and ordering information attached, aiding the purchasing process and allowing for quick completion of new designs.

Mark Cundle, Technical Marketing Manager for RS Components said, “Producing 3D CAD models can be a time-consuming effort for engineers involved in electronics design. Extending our 3D CAD model range provides our customers with access to the most comprehensive library of online downloadable models in all major CAD file formats, in one place and at no extra cost.  This is an essential part of our support for engineers with reliable technical information and online resources that enables them to find, design-in and buy from one source.”

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RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has received the 2011 ‘Distributor of the Year’ award from LeCroy, a leading supplier of oscilloscopes and serial data test solutions. The award was presented for outstanding sales performance on the LeCroy range of distribution test equipment, which includes the popular WaveAce, WaveJet and WaveSurfer families of oscilloscopes designed to help view, analyse and document waveforms.

Since the two companies began working together less than two years ago, RS has achieved exceptional sales growth for LeCroy oscilloscopes in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The distributor is now accredited as one of LeCroy’s key strategic distribution partners, and offers a comprehensive range of LeCroy products from its strategic branded portfolio.

“RS’ sales teams across Europe, Middle East and Africa are highly proactive and approachable, and over the past two years they have created and nurtured strong relationships with our sales organisation in order to identify and convert opportunities for LeCroy products in all of the key strategic markets,” commented Nicola Gomiero, Distribution Sales Director for LeCroy. “We congratulate RS on this award, and we are confident that our partnership will continue to strengthen and provide both companies with excellent potential for further growth.”

“We are delighted to receive this award from LeCroy, which offers some of the most technically advanced test equipment to improve productivity and help engineers resolve design issues faster and more effectively,” said Jon Boxall, Global Head of Semiconductors and Electronics Test & Measurement at RS Components. “LeCroy’s approach to market is highly complementary to the RS strategy of supporting customers in the ‘find, design-in and buy’ process, through the provision of online tools and resources. Engineers are recognising our ability, in conjunction with leading suppliers such as LeCroy, to help them bring their products to market more quickly.”

For the full range of LeCroy products available from RS, please visit: www.rs-components.com/lecroy.

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RS Components has won the ‘Wholesalers and distributors’ category of the Internet Business Awards 2011. The award was presented to the company for its success in developing a completely new business model centred on a redesigned presence online while still recovering from the worldwide recession. Other winners of the awards include Accenture, Citicus, Kiddicare.co.uk and RatedPeople.com.

Keith Reville, General Manager eCommerce at Electrocomponents, commented: “We’re delighted to be presented with an industry-recognised award that reflects our leadership position in B2B eCommerce. Our significant growth through the last two years is inextricably linked to the redesign of our online offer. 54 percent of our global revenues are now generated online and our goal is to build a £1bn+ eCommerce business. This is our second award in as many months for our continuing progress in eCommerce.”

The redesign of the company’s online presence, a key element of its eCommerce strategy, included a new more customer-focused website which not only exceeded stakeholder expectations but also ended up radically changing the organisation’s business blueprint. The company’s ultimate vision is to be the world’s distributor of choice and its eCommerce strategy has been developed to improve its offer, secure its growth and increase revenues.

Over the last two years, RS has invested heavily in digital marketing channels, transformed its customers’ online experience, introduced e-procurement systems and electronics design tools, and launched one of the most advanced transactional websites in its industry sector.
The Internet Business Awards are the only UK awards dedicated to the celebration of the websites offering the best B2B experience for customers. The awards are for businesses selling or affecting transactions online to other businesses.

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RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has received the ‘2011 Global Catalogue Distribution Award’ from Molex, a leading global supplier of interconnect products. RS is the first company to be honoured with the award, which Molex introduced this year, in recognition of its outstanding sales performance, technical design support and service excellence.

Commenting on the award, Fred Bell, Vice President of Global Distribution at Molex, said, “The first-rate performance achieved by RS exemplifies the highest service standards we strive to achieve through our global distribution network. Through its exceptional multi-channel service, RS offers excellent flexibility that enables engineers to find, design-in and buy our products, enabling the growth of our business. This award is very well-deserved and we look forward to continuing this strong partnership into the future.”

Chris Page, General Manager Electronics at Electrocomponents, added, “Molex has a reputation for innovation and reliability, with its extensive portfolio of interconnect products for a diversity of applications, and we are delighted to have clinched this award in its inaugural year. These successful results are due in large part to the close relationships our sales, marketing and technical teams have developed with Molex’s product experts. It is extremely rewarding to have this achievement acknowledged in this way.”

Over 4,500 Molex interconnect products are now available to buy direct-from-stock at RS, complete with free, downloadable 3D CAD model formats.

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RS Components has unveiled Version 3 of DesignSpark PCB, the company’s free professional standard PCB design software, used by professional designers, hobbyists and students. Developed by RS, in conjunction with Number One Systems, the latest version of DesignSpark PCB provides extra functionality and enables the PCB design software to be used with Spice simulation tools from several major manufacturers. In addition to the tool’s new simulation interface, Version 3 includes enhancements such as component and circuit element grouping, and design calculators, which model circuit performance characteristics.

“The success of DesignSpark PCB, the world’s most powerful free PCB design tool, is unparalleled in our industry,” said Mark Cundle, Technical Marketing Manager at RS Components. “The release of the third version of this award-winning software clearly demonstrates the commitment from RS to continually improve this highly successful product. We promise to carry on supporting DesignSpark PCB and continue to make it available free-of-charge to users.”

“We’ve gathered feedback from engineers through our fast-growing DesignSpark community to integrate the new features they’ve requested in Version 3,” added Cundle. “Additionally, the tool is fully functional – with no limitations or locked features – and is well suited to commercial use, which is not always the case with some free tools.”

More than 100,000 users have downloaded DesignSpark PCB since its launch in July 2010, with the tool proving to be one of the most popular free PCB design software packages available. Since then, thousands of users have contributed suggestions for development, which has resulted in DesignSpark PCB Version 3 being strengthened in three key areas: simulation interface, groups and design calculators:

The simulation interface means that DesignSpark PCB can be linked to industry-standard Spice simulators that help verify the circuit is operating correctly, before moving to board layout or the next stage of the design. DesignSpark PCB Version 3 currently supports four simulators: LTSpice, LSSpice, TopSpice and TINA.

The ‘groups’ feature allows multiple items in the design to be associated, so they act as one unit. Once defined, ‘groups’ can also assist in the selection of related portions of a circuit. On translation of the schematic circuit into the Autoroute tool, the ‘group’ information is also transferred along with the components, allowing easy placement.

The design calculators allow the selection of a track or via and perform basic electrical calculations, including: track width required for a given current; track impedance; optimum copper density; approximate temperature rise on a track; and the resistance of a via, given its physical characteristics.

DesignSpark PCB remains unique in the industry as a free and fully featured PCB development environment. Existing users will be alerted to the upgrade via release alerts in their existing version of the tool.

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