Kontron and Avnet Embedded expand franchise agreement to the UK

Posted in Avnet Abacus, Distribution Agreements, Kontron, embedded tools

Franchise extended to offer UK embedded designers a new world-class portfolio of solutions

Avnet Embedded, an Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) company, today announced that its franchise with Kontron, the global leader of embedded computing technology, has been further extended to include the UK. Kontron’s vast portfolio of embedded computing technology solutions is already represented by Avnet Embedded in France and the Nordic regions through longstanding relationships with Axess Technology and Trident, both Avnet Embedded businesses. This newly extended relationship will provide Avnet Embedded with access to Kontron’s entire range of embedded computing solutions broadening its offering to embedded designers throughout the UK. An agreement covering Italy was recently announced. The franchise agreement with Kontron is also covered globally including America through Avnet Electronics Marketing.

According to Jürgen Grabow, Vice President of EMEA Sales, Kontron, “This new agreement extends our relationship with Avnet Embedded to most of the major markets in Europe. Their energy, focus and customer-centric approach, based on strong technical know-how have been extremely productive in Italy, France and the Nordic region. Their UK team has demonstrated that they can replicate this performance.”

“We are very excited about this opportunity and hope to continue the success in the UK we have achieved with the Kontron products in France and the Nordics,” said Martin Brooks, vice president, Avnet Embedded. “Kontron is a key and strategic supplier of innovative world-class products for Avnet Embedded in Europe and this appointment shows that our relationship with them continues to grow and strengthen.”

Trident and Axess Technology received awards in Kontron’s annual sales partner meeting for their excellent performance in 2008.

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Mouser Electronics First to Stock the Freescale Tower System

Posted in Distributor News, Freescale, Mouser, design, embedded tools

TWR-MCF51CN-KIT simplifies configuration with modular hardware development platform

Mouser Electronics, Inc., known for its rapid introduction of the newest products, today announced it is the first to stock Freescale’s Tower System. Freescale is an industry leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors.

Freescale’s Tower System evaluates Freescale solutions with easy to use, modular, reconfigurable hardware. The interchangeable microcontroller and peripheral boards leverage standardized, open source hardware, making it simple to create customized plug-and-play development tools for all of your design needs. The first development kit (TWR-MCF51CN-KIT) in this new platform configuration includes the elevator module (TWR-ELEV) that provides all the power regulation and structural integrity for a complete Tower System, a modular development platform (TWR-MCF51CN) supporting the ColdFire® V1 MCF51CN128 Ethernet microcontroller and included complimentary MQX software, and a peripheral module (TWR-SER) to provide USB, Ethernet, CAN, and RS323 / 485 connectivity solutions. Additional microcontroller platforms are planned and will also be available from Mouser. For more information about Freescale’s Tower System, visit http://www.mouser.com/freescale_tower_system/.

“Mouser is excited to be the first to stock these latest Freescale development tools, again reiterating Mouser’s focus on progressively supporting the needs of the design engineering community,” stated Mike Scott, Mouser’s Vice President of Active Products.

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Premier Farnell’s new CAD tool interface, DesignLink, allows Altium Designer and OrCAD users to specify components from within the design environment

Posted in Altium, Distributor News, Premier Farnell, design, embedded tools

Design Engineers can see and use component parameters and enjoy local price and stock availability

DesignLink_Altium_LRESPremier Farnell plc, the leading multi-channel, high service distributor supporting millions of engineers and purchasing professionals worldwide, announces Altium and EMA Design Automation™ have integrated Premier Farnell’s DesignLink, a new web service environment that provides an electronic interface to major Computer Aid Design (CAD) tools. DesignLink allows electronic designer engineers to immediately search and find parts from within their CAD design environment, without ever having to leave the program.

Altium Designer with DesignLink offers engineers the ability to check local prices and delivery as well as vital product attribute information. It will be available to customers globally. Users of Cadence’s OrCAD in the United States can now see similar information via EMA’s Component Information Portal (CIP), a bridge software to Cadence’s OrCAD tool.

The DesignLink Coupling Interface allows designers to take manufacturer’s data and use it directly in their schematic without additional research; it interfaces directly with Premier Farnell companies’ websites product data giving access to over 4,000,000 items from 3,500 leading manufacturers, all with data and pricing in local language and currencies.

“As we increase our focus on the needs of the global electronic design engineering segment, expand our online capability and continue to internationalise our business, DesignLink adds another innovative solution from Premier Farnell, which makes us a leading provider of product, information, software and services to meet the needs of our global customers,” said Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell. “We are excited about DesignLink, and the value it will add for our engineering customers globally in the early product design phase. Like element14, our new online community, DesignLink will give our customers access to significant product data and information.”

“We are very pleased that Altium has embedded DesignLink into Altium Designer, allowing electronic design engineers to search instantly for information and products,” said Randall Restle, Director of Global Technical Marketing at Premier Farnell. “This new innovation will also allow engineers to find product availability, pricing and even new products for their designs without having to leave their design environment.”

Premier Farnell invites manufacturers of CAD tools to contact them to discuss how they too can implement the DesignLink interface with their design environment. Premier Farnell is rapidly increasing their global capability to interface with a wide range of different CAD platforms as they expand their support to meet the unique needs of their electronic design engineering customers.

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Digi-Key Corporation and IAR Systems Announce Global Distribution Deal

Posted in Digi-Key, Distribution Agreements, IAR Systems, design, embedded tools

Digi-Key Corporation and IAR Systems Announce Global Distribution Deal

Electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation, recognized by design engineers as having the industry’s broadest selection of electronic components available for immediate shipment, and IAR Systems announced today that the companies have entered into an agreement for the distribution of IAR Systems development tools for embedded systems.

IAR Systems products stocked by Digi-Key include:

* IAR Embedded Workbench® – a set of highly sophisticated and easy-to-use development tools for embedded applications. It integrates the IAR C/C++ Compiler™, assembler, linker, librarian, text editor, project manager, and C-SPY® Debugger into an integrated development environment.
* IAR PowerPac™ – an integrated middleware toolset for designing embedded applications. This toolset contains a fully featured, real-time operating (RTOS) and a high-performance file system, which is highly optimized for minimum memory consumption in both RAM and ROM. IAR PowerPac is the perfect complement to IAR Embedded Workshop.
* IAR KickStart Kit for STM32 and IAR KickStart Kit for LPC2478 – all the hardware and software needed to design, develop, integrate, and test your application.
* IAR J-Link – a small USB-JTAG/SWD debug probe.

These products are featured in Digi-Key’s print and online catalogs and are available for purchase via Digi-Key’s global websites.

Dave Doherty, Digi-Key vice president, semiconductor product, said, “We are very pleased to partner with IAR Systems and make its flexible, easy-to-use, and powerful development tools available to the embedded engineers who look to Digi-Key for not only leading-edge technologies but products that will make their jobs easier as well.”

Andreas Lifvendahl, IAR Systems sales & marketing director, said, “With its strong market presence in distributing electronic components, Digi-Key is an ideal partner for IAR Systems in our ambition to provide professional development tools for the embedded market. I believe this will be a very fruitful partnership for both companies.”

» Contact Details for Digi-Key Corporation

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