Avnet Embedded EMEA has developed a microsite to explain the benefits of Microsoft’s family of software for dedicated devices.

The new site, which is now live at www.avnet-embedded.eu/software, details the available products and their suitability for certain vertical markets. Manufacturers will be shown the benefits of Windows Embedded licensing such as extended product availability, lower cost of ownership and specific features unique to the embedded portfolio. The site also hosts videos that demonstrate, step-by-step, how simple building a Windows Embedded image can be.

Nick Donaldson, Marketing Director Software EMEA, comments: “We recognised a need to raise awareness of a set of products that can dramatically improve the profitability of intelligent systems manufacturers. At Avnet Embedded, we decided to build a resource to help identify the best-fit Microsoft platform for them. This microsite is intended to be the first step in a long-term partnership with our manufacturing ecosystem built on delivery of value and continuous improvement. “

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Acal BFi – a division of Acal plc – is the first distributor to sample the new PremierWave®-XN dual-band 802.11n multi-port device server from Lantronix. As part of the award-winning PremierWave family, this 802.11n server combines high-performance WiFi and Ethernet connectivity, with Lantronix’ SmartRoam™ technology for seamless mobile connectivity, and enhanced security within a compact 11cm x 8.9cm x 2.6cm module.

With development kits and a limited number of samples available from May 2012, Acal BFi will enable lead customers to develop next-generation machine-to-machine (M2M) applications featuring increased wireless speed, improved reliability and an extended transmission range over 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

“These new servers allow designers to respond to market demands for enhanced remote monitoring and control of larger and more complex network infrastructures by delivering optimal wireless performance, signal reliability and security,” explains Martin Kemp, European Sales & Marketing Manager, Acal BFi. “The PremierWave-XN device server allows applications with an existing Ethernet interface to easily add WiFi connectivity, with no modifications to the existing code, by using Lantronix’ proprietary Secure ComPort Redirector virtualisation software.”

“The launch of four new products in the past four months highlights the new, more customer-driven, aggressive global growth strategy for Lantronix,” said Martin Poppelaars, Vice President of EMEA Sales for Lantronix. “A key driver in this strategy is aligning ourselves with partners who have the technical expertise, along with established sales and distribution channels throughout Europe. Acal BFi has proven to be exactly this type of partner, and we look forward to working more closely with them to speed our time-to-market and accelerate our growth in the region.”

Acal BFi’s wireless communications team will provide specialist design support to customers implementing advanced M2M applications using the Lantronix PremierWave-XN device server.

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RS Components and Allied Electronics are commencing shipments of Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized computer board designed to seed a new generation of programmers. The shipments are being sent to the first group of customers from around the world, all of whom registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS and Allied.

Invitations to place an order on the new RS and Allied Raspberry Pi online store have been sent out to customers on a first-come, first-served basis in line with registrations of interest placed on the companies’ websites and to match the number of boards available from RS and Allied in the first production run. This process will be repeated once the next batch of boards becomes available. RS and Allied have implemented this procedure to ensure that all orders for Raspberry Pi are fulfilled with a confirmed delivery date. Due to the exceedingly high demand for the product, and limited quantities available from the manufacturer at this time, orders are currently restricted to one board per customer.

When ordering Raspberry Pi from the dedicated online store, customers can click through to the associated parts and accessories required for activation of the board. These include USB A-B cables, HDMI cables, power supplies and SD memory cards from a range of leading suppliers, all available to purchase from stock. By ordering these cables and other accessories from RS and Allied at the same time as the Raspberry Pi board, customers can make a saving on the delivery cost, as the same total shipping charge is applicable.

“There has been a huge wave of anticipation and extraordinary levels of demand for Raspberry Pi since it was launched, so we are delighted to be delivering the first boards to initial customers,” said Glenn Jarrett, Head of Electronics Marketing at RS Components. “We are working very closely with the manufacturer to bring subsequent batches of boards into stock so that we can fulfil every customer order for Raspberry Pi as quickly as possible.”

Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi founder and trustee, commented, “This is an exciting and momentous phase for Raspberry Pi as the boards start heading out to customers from our distributors. We know from the incredible amount of interest in Raspberry Pi that there is a huge impetus among enthusiasts and educators for a product that brings computer programming to the masses, and we encourage these new programmers to share their experiences and results with us.”

RS and Allied are currently developing a variety of tools and initiatives to support Raspberry Pi users and the companies’ DesignSpark electronics design community is seeing many people discussing ideas and thoughts on Raspberry Pi. Recent additions to the site include a series of Pi Perspectives, where leading UK academics and scientists share their views on Raspberry Pi, and information on a Raspberry Pi experimenter’s kit now being developed. Various tutorials covering everything from initial set-up to a guide to the different Linux flavours, including a Fedora Mix start-up guide, are also available.

For developers, there is the free schematic capture and PCB layout tool from RS and Allied, DesignSpark PCB. It has already won awards from across the globe, and the company is seeing more developers adopt it with some already creating prototyping boards to use with Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi boards from RS and Allied are priced at £21.60 plus a shipping charge of £4.95 to any destination worldwide, plus VAT and import duty as applicable.

The Raspberry Pi board was created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity based in Cambridge, UK, and was conceived to encourage and enable children to learn and apply computer programming.

» Contact details for RS Components

Acal BFi announces the first samples of the world’s smallest complete GPS receiver. The OriginGPS ORG1410 is a complete GPS System‐in‐Package (SiP), which allows high-volume, cost-sensitive applications to achieve high levels of integration and sensitivity, combined with low power consumption and an ultra-compact footprint.

“As the only pan-European partner for OriginGPS, Acal BFi is able to offer the first samples and development kits for this benchmark product. Our unique position also allows us to support customers, throughout Europe, with an unrivalled level of product knowledge, in addition to design support and manufacturing services which will allow customers to push their products’ GPS capabilities to new levels of performance and functionality,” explains Philippe Gruson, Electronics Division President Acal BFi.

The integration of a SiRFstarIV™ GPS processor enables the ORG1410 to operate in challenging GPS environments, such as indoor tracking or when the end-user is on the move. This high level of GPS performance is achieved by using innovative GPS firmware which can detect changes in context, temperature, and satellite signals, and opportunistically update its internal parameters which enables the ORG1410 to deliver near-continuous navigation.

Within its 10mm x 10mm package, the ORG1410 integrates an active antenna; RF shield; TCXO and RTC crystal; LNA and SAW filters; and UART, SPI or I2C host interfaces; whilst achieving ultra-low power consumption of less than 15mW; a fast position fix of under 1 second and sensitivity of ‐163dBm.

A limited number of ORG1410 samples, in addition to development kits for lead customers, are available immediately from Acal BFi.

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RS Components has launched an exclusive promotion on its range of oscilloscopes from Tektronix, a leading supplier of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation. The special offer enables RS customers to trade-in a working oscilloscope, signal generator or frequency/counter timer from any manufacturer and receive a 15% discount on a new model from the Tektronix range.

Available for a limited period until 31 May 2012, the trade-in scheme provides embedded system designers with a cost-efficient means of upgrading their test equipment with the latest generation of high-performance products from an industry-leading manufacturer.

Tektronix offers a comprehensive range of test and measurement instruments and application software to quickly find and diagnose problems in complex designs. The MSO3000 Series and DPO3000 Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes Series, for example, allow users to analyse up to 20 analogue and digital signals with a single instrument. Bandwidths up to 500 MHz and a minimum of 5 times over sampling on all channels ensure the performance necessary for many of today’s mainstream applications.

“Today’s engineers are under pressure to meet increasingly demanding deadlines while getting to grips with ever more complex technologies. Tektronix’s intuitive tools for device design validation and debug play a significant role in easing the process by producing fast, intelligent results,” said Fred Knowles, Head of Product Management – Electronics at RS Components. “This exclusive offer gives engineers access to the most sophisticated equipment available on the market at cut-down prices and exemplifies RS’ value-for-money electronics offering as well as our commitment to maintaining strong relationships with suppliers and customers alike.”

“It is clear that the provision of a value-added service is a priority for RS. As a supplier, we can feel confident that our customers will have a highly efficient purchasing experience through RS’ ongoing find, design-in and buy initiatives,” Nigel Bentley, Channel Partner Manager, Tektronix, added. “By partnering with RS for this offer we are highlighting the most advanced test and measurement equipment available to engineers, while giving them the opportunity to replace old equipment at significantly reduced prices.”

Further information on this exclusive offer is available at http://www.rs-components.com/tektronix-recycle

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Specialist electronic components distributor Advanced Power Components is pleased to announce that Sensirion’s new Nano Flow Sensor for Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) applications is now available through APC Hero.

Key Features are a pressure rating of 1000bar (15000psi) and a short response time of 30ms. These properties mean that the high-end SLG64-0075 device is especially suited for monitoring dynamic flow rates in cutting-edge chromatography systems. This flow meter (US Pat. 6813944B2), which is based on CMOSens® technology is designed to accurately measure flow rates up to 5 microlitres per minute and features an additional high flow mode for up to 20 microlitres per minute.

A highly sensitive CMOSens® microchip that is mounted on the outside of an internal, straight fused silica capillary (ID 75 um) detects the flow while remaining totally isolated from the media. By using this technology, great repeatability for analysis – the most important criterion in chromatography – is ensured. The fully digital, calibrated liquid flow meter operates with repeatability that is better than 0.6% of the measured value. Moreover, the sensor offers resolutions down to 0.5nl/min and better. The SLG64-0075 is equipped with stainless steel fittings for 1/16” capillaries and an I2C interface for digital communication. An RS485 bus interface is offered as an alternative option.

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Farnell has today announced that the Farnell and element14 brands are uniting. Bringing together the European transactional and community offerings of parent company Premier Farnell will create a single brand that consolidates the end-to-end engineering solutions offered by the business. Design engineers and purchasing professionals will now be able to access all the latest products, information, tools and services needed to complete their work in one place.

The new brand will continue to provide customers with all they currently receive and expect from Farnell, but with the added benefit of combining the industry’s first online research, design and collaboration tools from element14. The pioneering community site was the first to allow engineers to connect with one another and with industry experts to collaborate on new ideas and challenges. The community helps users find answers to their questions and to gather impartial, independent knowledge and information on technical issues and the latest innovations and technologies.

Farnell has a proud history of innovation in electronics distribution across Europe. Always keeping customers at the core of its strategy, the business has led the industry in RoHS compliance, created award-winning packaging options, was the first to offer a free CAD software tool download, and recently launched the unique and powerful Knode on element14.

Through its recent announcement of a global distribution deal with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Farnell’s element14 community is driving the Raspberry Pi revolution across the globe to educate a new generation of programmers. Farnell element14 is one of only two global distributors to offer the ground-breaking credit card sized computer. A bespoke group created on the eCommunity is supporting the conversations, debates and sharing of knowledge and information from the flood of developers and first-time programmers keen to get the most from the Raspberry Pi.

Farnell element14 will build upon the company’s legacy of leadership in innovative electronics distribution and map the future with services and solutions beyond products. As more and more customers do their business over the web, Farnell element14 is leading industry through the transition, fusing the established Farnell brand with that of the innovative element14 community to give customers unparalleled service and access to global support and advice. The single brand will firmly establish Farnell element14 as the trusted global source of engineering solutions.

“When we analyse the web’s potential to transform the way businesses operate today, we realise that there’s more coming up in the next few decades with big changes in customer shopping habits,” said Alan Paterson, Marketing Director, Farnell Europe. “The coming together of element14 and Farnell into a single, powerful entity is a significant step that highlights how the business has adapted well to the digital age. We continue to provide the great products and services both brands are known for with a vision of a single destination that offers an unprecedented range of technical data, innovative tools and services, meaningful community and expert engagement, and the best component shopping experience ever.”

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Kontron has announced the cooperation with Real-Time Systems to distribute their RTS Hypervisor on selected Computer-on-Modules, boards and systems with Intel multi-core processors. Kontron will provide customers with application-ready, pre-integrated, real-time capable virtualization platforms from a single source to speed up time-to-market and reduce integration efforts for customers. The agreement complements Kontron’s portfolio of fully tested, application-ready platforms that combine standard embedded hardware with pre-integrated software suites such as operating systems, hypervisor technology and complementary middleware.

Kontron will showcase a demo system based on the Kontron V-Panel Express 170 equipped with the RTS Hypervisor at the Embedded World Trade Show (hall 1, booth 460). In this installation, a real-time OS (Wind River VxWorks 6.8) and a non-real-time OS (Windows 7 Professional) run independently on top of the RTS Hypervisor with 0 latency added in regards to hard real-time performance.

Kontron’s new pre-integrated virtualization platforms target applications in markets such as industrial, medical, military or transportation where customers rely on both a deterministic Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for time- and/or mission-critical functions and a standard OS for other tasks, such as running a feature-rich graphical user interface (GUI). By utilizing the RTS Hypervisor and Kontron’s multi-core hardware, both the embedded real-time application and the GUI can now be implemented on a single consolidated hardware platform. This helps customers to cut costs for the second system to zero and increase Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and reliability.

Embedded system configurations with real-time hypervisors are complex and not typically a plug & play implementation. Consequently, customers need more support from hardware and software experts and ideally from a single source, said Werner Ressle, Director of Software & Software Services of Kontron AG. The cooperation with Real-Time Systems enables us to provide customers with a convenient out-of-the-box experience and they can now receive our embedded hardware platforms bundled with a pre-configured RTS Hypervisor including operating system licenses of their choice.

Kontron, as the worldwide market leader in embedded computing technology is a strategic partner who can help us attain a very broad audience for our RTS Hypervisor in the markets with real-time requirements, said Gerd Lammers, CEO and President of Real-Time Systems GmbH. We believe that offering hard- and software application-ready and from one source is very customer-friendly, as the customer can also get testing equipment from one supplier and only has one contact person in case of any queries during the application implementation.”

Highlights of the RTS Hypervisor
The RTS Hypervisor allows customers to simultaneously run multiple instances of a real-time operating system, such as Wind River VxWorks, QNX, Windows CE or a heterogeneous mixture of operating systems, including general purpose operating systems (GPOS) such as Linux and Microsoft Windows. Because RTS Hypervisor does not depend on a specific host OS, all operating systems can start in any sequence, reboot independently and never harm each other just as if they were still separated in hardware. In order to facilitate communication between the separated operating systems, RTS Hypervisor implementations provide a configurable user-shared memory as well as a TCP/IP based virtual network. Further highlights are:

- Hard real-time performance (0 µs latencies added)
- Leverages Intel VT technology to securely run GPOSes
- Direct hardware access – use standard device drivers
- 100% separation of operating systems in memory
- Use of standard development tools and IDE

Kontron is now supplying project services for the application-ready implementation of the RTS Hypervisor and the required host OS on customer-specific hardware platforms as part of its global software services.

For further information on Kontron’s latest product launches at the Embedded World Trade Show 2012, please visit: http://www.kontron.com/embedded-world2012-en

For further information on the RTS Hypervisor, please visit: http://www.real-time-systems.com/real-time_hypervisor/

Pulse Electronics Corporation has selected Microtarget Tecnologia Digital Ltda. to provide sales, engineering, design support, parts, training, and service for its customers in Brazil and South America. Microtarget will represent Pulse Electronics’ antennas, connectors, Excelsus filters, and electronic components for the telecom, LAN, power, RF & wireless, and automotive industries.

“We are confident that Microtarget will provide exceptional service and engineering support to our customers in South America,” said Randy Hundl, regional sales manager. “They have a technically skilled team, product knowledge in the areas of LAN, antennas for mobile applications, passive components, automotive electronics, and power magnetics, along with extensive market knowledge. It is important for Pulse to have representatives close to our customers and available when our customers need them.”

Microtarget Tecnologia Digital Ltda. was founded in 1991 in Sao Paulo, Brazil and provides complete sales and engineering support for some of the world’s top electronics companies. For more information contact M. Umakoshi at comercial@microtargetrep.com.br.

Strategic alliance allows electronic design engineers to access an extensive range of oscilloscopes and address rising demands in the Asia Pacific

element14 (formerly Farnell), the industry’s first fusion of commerce and community supporting engineers and purchasing professionals worldwide, today announced a new partnership with LeCroy, one of the world’s leading provider of oscilloscopes, protocol analysers and related test and measurement solutions, as part of the company’s commitment to provide a full suite of solutions for customers in the Asia Pacific.

As the Asia Pacific enhances its position as a growing R&D hub and manufacturing powerhouse on the international stage, the demand for end-user electronics has soared in the region. These products are increasingly becoming more customized and sophisticated in design, making analysis and testing more complex and rigorous than before. It has become more challenging for electronic design engineers to analyse complex electronic systems and perform fast and accurate evaluation of their designs in order to reduce time to market.

element14 offers a comprehensive range of LeCroy products out of its Asia Pacific inventory portfolio of 130,000 products that apply to crucial applications in electronics design and maintenance, repair and operations support from design concept through to end of life. Customers can purchase LeCroy solutions with no minimum order quantity and next day delivery for products that are stocked within the Asia Pacific inventory. element14 also provides 24/7 customer support and 24/5 online technical support to ensure that they have access to the necessary resources to help them overcome any challenges.

“We recognise that Asia Pacific has a huge market for high performance oscilloscopes and we are thrilled at the possibilities of how we can step up and meet these demands as well as engage new segments of this vast market through our partnership with element14,” said Conrad Fernandes, Vice President of Sales, LeCroy, Asia Pacific. “element14’s unique platform enables us to better understand and support the needs of the community. This allows us to anticipate and exceed evolving market requirements in order to provide more relevant and effective analysis solutions to address and build a mutually beneficial relationship with the engineering community.”

“This strategic alliance with LeCroy marks another milestone in our commitment to becoming a one-stop solution for electronic design engineers in the region,” said Salman Syed, Regional Head, element14, Asia Pacific. “The analytical tools from LeCroy are staple solutions in the design and maintenance phase for engineers across different sectors, and element14 will complement these products with our extensive services ranging from information, software to technical solutions and design tools.”

Smart, simple and efficient analysis solutions for more effective electronic designs
The primary function of oscilloscopes is to help design engineers measure and analyse intricate electronic signals in order to develop high performance systems and validate designs, which makes these analytical solutions indispensable to engineers across multiple industries. In order to address the increasing sophisticated designs of end-user products, LeCroy consolidated the functions of conventional oscilloscopes with the cutting-edge applications to create the reliable and intelligent WaveAce 101 and WaveJet 324A.

WaveAce Oscilloscopes offer bandwidths from 40MHz to 300MHz, and support 32 completely automatic measurements. This small but versatile analytical tool combines long memory, colour display and advanced triggering consisting of Edge, Pulse Width, Video and Slope, to enable engineers to customise their measurements and ensure impeccable accuracy in their results. The WaveAce is also equipped with LAN/RS-232 and USB connections for printers, memory sticks, PCs, and remote control, providing engineers with flexibility with regard to the platforms that they can work with. These features provide excellent troubleshooting capabilities and debug time that exceeds the expectations of the engineering community.

The WaveJet 324A’s banner specifications, feature set and intuitive user interface allow engineers to easily grasp the functionality of this product, allowing them to simplify their work and shorten their debug time. Simplicity aside, the WaveJet 324A is able to capture Waveform details from the minutest to the most important with its impressive Trigger capabilities. Its visually impressive 7.5 inch display is backed up by long 500 kpts/Ch memory and 2GS/s sample rates. In addition, engineers can also use its unique replay mode to review the history of the signals captured, then use the measurement tools to analyse the waveforms. This enables engineers to perform a more accurate and detailed evaluation of their designs in order to create more designs and optimise the debugging process.

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