Sarsen Technology Christmas Party - The Harrow at Little Bedwyn

Author - Laura

Every year the Sarsen Team are lucky enough to be treated to a Christmas outing. Over the years we have done a variety of events; from a night at the Burlesque to seeing Jason Byrne live at the Wyvern (hilarious by the way - if you get the chance to see him, do it!). This year we decided to go for something a little more elegant, so we spent a lovely long lunch at The Harrow at Little Bedwyn.

The Harrow is a Michelin-star restaurant hidden away in a tiny village in Wiltshire, about 3 miles south-west of Hungerford, and 9 miles from the Sarsen Technology offices.

The food is really beautifully presented, and tastes amazing - the flavour combinations seem a little odd at first, but it all works perfectly. I don't know about everyone else, but the boiled egg was definitely my favourite part.

Check out the pictures - it's a pretty special place, and a fabulous menu.

...

Thanks so much from all of us to Nigel and Angela for arranging a lovely Christmas party!

On behalf of everyone here at Sarsen Technology, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. See you in 2015!

Festive Goodness from Sema4

Author - Laura

Thanks very much to the lovely guys and gals at Sema4 for our truly lovely festive goodies from The Carved Angel!

Even though its the season of goodwill to all men I'm afraid I won't be sharing mine...

If you're one of the lucky ones for whom today is your last day, we wish you a happy and relaxing Christmas break.

See you in 2015!

The Carved Angel

About Sema4

Altera SDK for OpenCL Recognised at the 2014 Elektra Awards

Author - Laura

The Altera SDK for OpenCL has been selected by Electronics Weekly as its design tool of the year at the annual Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards gala in London. This award is the latest in a series of recognitions the Altera SDK for OpenCL has received since its release in 2012. 

Altera offers the industry’s only OpenCL-conformant solution in today's market that allows software programmers to easily implement OpenCL applications on FPGA accelerators.

Founded by Electronics Weekly in 2003, the Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards are the most prestigious product, technology and business awards in Europe, recognising the achievements of individuals and companies in the electronics industry. A panel of independent industry experts and representatives from Electronics Weekly selected the Altera SDK for OpenCL as the winner in its "Design Tools and Development Software” category.

Read Full Press Release 
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BittWare’s OpenCL Developer’s Bundle provides the tools necessary to begin developing applications for the Altera Stratix V using OpenCL. OpenCL dramatically simplifies FPGA development by enabling designers to code their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework, directly generating FPGA programming files from a pure software development flow. 

The OpenCL Developer’s Bundle includes BittWare’s S5-PCIe-HQ (S5PH-Q) half-length PCIe board, the BittWorks II system development software, the Altera Quartus II software, and the Altera SDK for OpenCL. This development bundle gives developers access to the latest generation of high-performance FPGAs on a validated COTS PCI Express board, while also significantly reducing their time-to-market by using OpenCL to develop their application.

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About the Altera SDK
The Altera SDK for OpenCL allows programmers to develop algorithms with the OpenCL language and harness the performance and power efficiencies of FPGAs. The Altera SDK for OpenCL includes a rapid prototyping design flow that allows OpenCL kernel code to be emulated, debugged, optimized, profiled and re-compiled to a hardware implementation in minutes. The re-compiled kernels can be tested and run on an FPGA immediately, saving programmers weeks of development time. 

Sarsen Technology Christmas Opening Hours

author - Laura

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The Sarsen Technology offices will be closed over the festive period, so if there is anything we can help you with before the end of the year please let us know.

We will also be wearing our Christmas jumpers on December 22nd, just for fun, so if you want to send us any pictures of you and your team in all your Christmas finery please email them to me at laurab@sarsen.net.

X-ES Recognised by Brigadier General L. Neil Thurgood for Outstanding Support

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

We'd like to wish everyone at Extreme Engineering Solutions a huge congratulations on their recent visit from Brigadier General L. Neil Thurgood, in recognition of their support for the Army’s Missiles and Space program.

General Thurgood and his staff traveled to Middleton, Wisconsin to personally thank X-ES and present eight individual certificates of appreciation, recognsing the employees directly involved with the delivery and outstanding support of the rugged Intel® Core™ i7-based Single Board Computers (SBCs) used for his program.

Read Full Press Release

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X-ES supports the Intel® Core™ i7 processor for a number of different form factors and rugged systems. These include:

• 3U VPX XPedite7570
• 6U VPX XCalibur4540
• 3U cPCI XPedite7530
• 6U cPCI XCalibur4500
• 6U VME XCalibur4530
• COM Express XPedite7450

See Full Product List
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About Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc. 
(X-ES)is a 100% U.S.A.-based company, designing and manufacturing Intel® and Freescale-based single board computers, networking products, power supplies, and system-level solutions for embedded computing customers. X-ES offers cutting-edge performance and flexibility in design, plus an unparalleled level of customer support and service.

High Reliability Mini PCIe Modules - Expansion Designed for Extreme Environments

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

PCI Express Mini Card (also known as Mini PCI Express, Mini PCIe,  and mPCIe), based on PCI Express, is a replacement for the Mini PCI form factor, supporting both PCI Express and USB 2.0 connectivity. Each card may use either standard. Mini PCIe modules provide an economical and standardised way to add I/O and storage functions to embedded computer products. Unlike typical expansion boards, Mini PCIe allows additional functions to be added to a system with almost no increase in overall package size.

MiniPCIe cards are 30mm × 50.95mm. There is a 52-pin edge connector, consisting of two staggered rows on a 0.8 mm pitch, and each row has eight contacts, a gap equivalent to four contacts, then a further 18 contacts. The PCB itself has a thickness of just 1mm, excluding the components.

VersaLogic's new MiniPCIe modules are all designed for high reliability in demanding environments. They are all rated for operation across the full industrial temperature range (-40º to +85ºC), and for high shock and vibration (MIL-STD-202G).

VersaLogic's Mini PCIe modules are RoHS compliant and include VersaLogic's renowned 5+ year product life guarantee for long lifecycle applications. Customisation options include conformal coating, IPC Class 3 assembly, application-specific testing, BOM revision locks, etc.

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The latest product to join the MiniPCIe family is the VL-MPEe-V5 - a video expansion module which provides an easy and economical way to add VGA and LVDS display outputs to an embedded computing solution.

The VL-MPEe-V5 is compatible with a variety of popular x86 operating systems including Windows, Windows Embedded, and Linux.

Pricing starts at $218 for up to 49pcs.

Contact Sarsen Technology for more information - info@sarsen.net

Did You Meet DAVE at the Embedded Design Show 2014?

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

We had a great time at the Embedded Design Show last week, and were lucky enough to meet some really interesting people. The show gave us a platform to introduce DAVE Embedded Systems to the UK market, and I think the reception was fantastic.

The biggest crowd pleaser was, by far, the BORA. This little board is a Dual Cortex-A9 + FPGA CPU module based on the recent Xilinx "Zynq" XC7Z010 / XC7Z020 application processor. At just 85mm x 50mm the BORA helps customers save time and resources by providing a compact solution that includes both a CPU and an FPGA, avoiding complexities on the carrier PCB.

The BORA is suitable for high-end applications such as medical instrumentation, advanced communication systems, critical real-time operations and safety applications.

DOWNLOAD DATASHEET

Not only is the BORA a great platform to design your system around, DAVE makes it even easier to start your development by offering the the Bora Embedded Linux Kit (BELK for short), which provides all the necessary components required to start developing your application.  

The Bora Embedded Linux Kit contains everything you need to start developing your application, including all source trees (FPGA project, U-Boot and Linux kernel), which are provided as git repositories.

Contact Sarsen Technology to request a free information pack or to find out more!

Less Than 1 Week To Go... Have You Registered?

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

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This time next week it will all be coming to an end. But don't panic - you still have 5 days in which to register for your FREE Visitor badge for the Embedded Design Show 2014. 

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Sarsen Technology will be on Stand G32, where you can see the complete range of System-on-Module (SoM) and CPUs from DAVE Embedded Systems, which are based on the latest technologies, including the Freescale i.MX6 and Texas Instruments ‘Da Vinci’ DM814x and ‘Sitara’ AM387x processor families, and the brand new Xilinx ‘Zynq’ XC7Z010 / XC7Z020 SoC.

Laura, Manuele, Alberto and Nigel will be at the show so please stop by and say hello, and take a look at the exciting demo featuring the BORA module.

To be our guest at the exhibition, register for your free entry badge by clicking here, and if you'd like to attend any of the Conference sessions as our guest you can sign up for free by simply entering entering this discount code ENG14C.

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We look forward to seeing you there! 

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BittWare Currently Exhibiting at MILCOM 2014

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

Event: MILCOM 2014 - Find out more
Location: Baltimore Convention Center - Baltimore, MD
Date: October 06. 2014 - October 08. 2014

It's not too late to catch BittWare in Baltimore, MD, at the 33rd MILCOM event.
Attracting decision-makers from government, military, academia, and industry, MILCOM gathers military and government communications subject matter experts from around the globe to conduct in-depth discussions about the latest in technology advancements. This event is an ideal forum for industry to demonstrate the application of these technologies and to promote products and services that provide reliable solutions to today’s mission-critical challenges. Hundreds of technologies and solutions are being demonstrated right now.

BittWare are currently showcasing a host of their Altera FPGA-based hardware, including:

The Terabox - Integrated FPGA PCIe Platform

• 20 TeraFLOPS processing: 16x Altera Stratix V GX/GS FPGAs
• 1.28 Terabits/sec I/O
• 6.5 Terabits/sec memory bandwidth
• 4U or 5U Rackmount PCIe system (server, industrial, or expansion)

and the Channelizer – Integrated FPGA 6U VPX Platform

• 19” 2U rackmount enclosure
• 1-slot backplane
• BittWare Stratix V FPGA-based 6U VPX board
• 4-channel, up to 5 GSPS, 8-bit ADC
• 2-channel, 5.6 GSPS, 14-bit DAC
• 6U VPX rear transition module for access to VPX I/O

Join BittWare on Booth #419 at MILCOM until October 8 in Baltimore...

XMC/PMC and Rugged COM Express modules for high-temperature environments introduced by X-ES

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

We have a little treat for you - the brand new XPedite8101 Express Mezzanine Card and PCI Mezzanine Card (XMC/PMC) and XPedite8150 Rugged COM Express modules from Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) have been featured in an article written by the editor of Military & Aerospace Electronics, John Keller.

Based on the Intel Atom E3800 processor family (formerly Bay Trail-I) these embedded computing modules are designed and tested for maximum reliability in the most demanding environments and applications that require long life cycles.

Read the full article

X-ES supports the Atom E3800 processor in industry-standard XMC/PMC and Rugged COM Express modules, enabling system integrators to develop a single x86-based application on modular hardware solutions that can be tailored for the performance and environmental constraints of each platform.

The XPedite8150 Rugged COM Express Module from Extreme Engineering Solutions

For more information or to request a quote please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email.

BittWare's Brand New PCIe Card Based on the Altera Arria® V FPGA

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

BittWare’s A5-PCIe-L (A5PL) is a low-profile PCIe x8 card based on the Altera Arria V GZ FPGA.

Up to 8 GBytes of on-board memory includes DDR3, QDRII/II+, or RLDRAM3. Two front-panel QSFP+ cages allow two 40GigE or eight 10GigE interfaces. The A5PL also features a Board Management Controller (BMC) for advanced system monitoring, which greatly simplifies platform management. All of these features combine to make the A5PL a versatile and efficient solution for network processing, security, broadcast, and signals intelligence applications.

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CLICK TO VIEW DATASHEET (PDF)

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BittWare offers complete software support for the A5PL with its BittWorks II software tools and FPGA Development Kit. Designed to make developing and debugging applications for BittWare’s boards easy and efficient, the software provides a collection of libraries and applications and FPGA components that provide preconfigured physical interfaces, infrastructure, and examples, drastically cutting development time and easily integrating into existing FPGA development environments.

Working example projects are available for each board which illustrate how to move data between the board’s different interfaces. Supported interfaces include DDR3, DDR2, QDR2/+, PCIe, 10GigE, LVDS, SerDes, and Double Data Rate I/O. All example projects are available on BittWare’s Developer Site.

For more information please contact  Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or visit www.sarsen.net.

DAVE Embedded Systems Now ISO 13485 Certified for Medical Applications

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

We are pleased to share some exciting news with you - DAVE Embedded Systems has just been certified ISO 13485.

ISO 13485 2003 is the quality management standard for medical devices which specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet both customer requirements and regulatory requirements applicable to medical devices and related services.

The ISO 13485 standard was developed to facilitate harmonized medical device regulatory requirements for quality management systems. In Europe, ISO 13485 (or EN ISO 13485) is seen as the standard for the medical device industry. Based on the ISO 9001 standard, ISO 13485 was first introduced in Europe in 1996. Although ISO 13485 certification is voluntary, achieving it allows you to meet the quality system requirements of various medical directives with much less difficulty.

Download the DAVE Embedded Systems ISO 13485 declaration in PDF format - DOWNLOAD

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The DIVA  is a CPU module based on the Texas Instruments "Sitara" AM335x Cortex-A8 application processor. It is built with SO-DIMM 204 pin form factor and it offers lots of graphics, processing, peripherals and industrial interface options, allowing customer to implement cost-effective designs.

• ARM Cortex-A8 architecture @ up to 720 MHz
• NEON Multimedia Coprocessor and PowerVR® SGX Graphics Engine
• Dual Programmable Real-Time Unit and Industrial Communication Subsystem
• Crypto Hardware Accelerator
• Interfaces including Dual CAN and Ethernet

Download DIVA Datasheet 
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Intel® Atom™ E3800 Solutions from Extreme Engineering Solutions

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

So here is something rather exciting for you....

Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc. (X-ES) has introduced the XPedite8101 XMC/PMC and XPedite8150 Rugged COM Express® modules based on the Intel® Atom™ E3800 (formerly Bay Trail-I) processor family.

With Built-In Test (BIT) support, true configuration and obsolescence management, class III PCB fabrication and assembly, environmental qualification per MIL-STD-810, as well as many other features, X-ES E3800-based modules are designed and tested for maximum reliability in the most demanding environments and applications that require long life cycles. Also, instead of using a legacy BIOS-based bootloader, X-ES’s E3800-based modules support industry-leading boot times and drastically simplify system security by employing Intel’s Firmware Support Package (FSP) to power their open source coreboot bootloaders.

Full Press Release
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   Left to right

   XPedite8150 - Rugged COM Express Mini Module
   XPedite8101 - Conduction-or-Air-Cooled XMC/PMC Module
   XPedite8152 - Rugged COM Express Mini Module with NAND    Flash



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Wind River VxWorks and Linux Board Support Packages, as well as Microsoft Windows drivers, are available for the XPedite8101, XPedite8150, and XPedite8152. These products support the E3827, E3826, E3815, E3845, and E3825 processors from the E3800 series.

The E3800 series is the 4th generation Atom processor from Intel and was formerly known as the Bay Trail-I platform and Valleyview processor.

X-ES will be displaying the Intel® Atom™ E3800-based modules at the 2014 Intel Developer Forum (IDF14) in San Francisco, September 9th through the 11th. Stop by and visit the team at IDF in booth 661 of the Intelligent Systems Community, or contact Sarsen Technology today to find out more about using the Intel® Atom™ for your application.

Extra Diagnostic Power When You Need It - The GUARDIAN Series I/O boards from United Electronic Industries

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

The Guardian series of boards from United Electronic Industries (UEI) provide a host of powerful diagnostics and have been extremely popular in simulator applications as well as other applications requiring high system up-time and maintainability.

The Guardian series boards provide an extra level of diagnostics and are designed to help you quickly and easily diagnose and correct short circuits, open circuits, over-voltage conditions and many other possible failure conditions. These features are also very useful when used in conjunction with Power On Self Test (POST). All Guardian series I/O boards are shown on a green background in the latest edition of the UEI Product Catalogue - click here to request a free copy.

With so many I/O options available to the UEI's unique PowerDNA/DNR I/O interface chassis, there are virtually limitless possibilities for deployment to suit your unique application, all with outstanding software support for a great number of operating platforms including Linux, Windows and Real-time operating systems. Application packages including LabVIEW, MATLAB, DASYLab are also supported. As with all PowerDNA/DNR products from UEI, their I/O boards are guaranteed to remain available for the next 10 years.

The DNx-DIO-449 from United Electronic Industries is a 48 channel, high performance AC and DC digital input board designed for use in a wide variety of digital monitoring applications.

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or email the team.

Extreme Environments Demand Extreme Engineering Solutions - Rugged SBCs and Systems from X-ES

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) is a leader in designing advanced, embedded computing products for the harsh environments seen in military and industrial applications.

They utilise best-in-class design, test, and manufacturing practices to develop products that deliver reliable operation in the extremes of temperature, shock, vibration, and environment.

Three levels of ruggedization are available for X-ES products, supporting commercial, extended temperature, and conduction-cooled applications. Products may be air-cooled or conduction-cooled depending on the end application. These levels allow our customers to tailor a solution to their application by selecting the range that best suits their needs for thermal, vibration, shock and performance.

Standard Air-Cooled - Level 1
Operating Temperature	0 to +55°C ambient, 300 LFM, per MIL-STD-810F 501.4 Procedure II and Method 502.4 Procedure II
Storage Temperature	-40 to +85°C ambient †
Vibration	0.002 g²/Hz, 1 hour per axis from 5 to 2000 Hz
Shock	20 g, 11 ms sawtooth, per MIL-STD-810F Method 516.5 Procedure I
Humidity	0% to 95% non-condensing, per MIL-STD-810F Method 507.4
Rugged Air-Cooled - Level 3
Operating Temperature	-40 to +70°C, 600 LFM, per MIL-STD-810F 501.4 Procedure II and Method 502.4 Procedure II
Storage Temperature	-55 to +105°C, per MIL-STD-810F Method 501.4 Procedure I and Method 502.4 Procedure I †
Vibration	0.04 g²/Hz (maximum), 1 hour per axis from 5 to 2000 Hz ‡
Shock	30 g, 11 ms sawtooth, per MIL-STD-810F Method 516.5 Procedure I
Humidity	0% to 95% non-condensing, per MIL-STD-810F Method 507.4
Conduction-Cooled - Level 5
Operating Temperature	-40 to +85°C board rail surface temperature, per MIL-STD-810F Method 501.4 Procedure II and Method 502.4 Procedure II
Storage Temperature	-55 to +105°C, per MIL-STD-810F Method 501.4 Procedure I and Method 502.4 Procedure I †
Vibration	0.1 g²/Hz (maximum), 1 hour per axis from 5 to 2000 Hz ‡
Shock	40 g, 11 ms sawtooth, per MIL-STD-810F Method 516.5 Procedure I
Humidity	0% to 95% non-condensing, per MIL-STD-810F Method 507.4

If an application does not fall into one of these three ruggedization levels, X-ES offers extended temperature, humidity, and vibration screening services. Many military designs, for example, have a -55ºC operational requirement. In the case where screening alone is not practical, X-ES has experience with heater tapes and other alternative solutions. Optional features, such as conformal coating, are available.

Contact the Sarsen Technology Technical Team for more information about available options.

UL 94 - Flammability Rating in PCBs

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

UL 94 is the Standard for Safety of Flammability of Plastic Materials for Parts in Devices and Appliances. It is a plastics flammability standard released by Underwriters Laboratories of the USA. The standard enables testers to classify plastics according to how they burn in various orientations and thicknesses.

From lowest (least flame-retardant) to highest (most flame-retardant), the classifications are:

• HB: slow burning on a horizontal specimen; burning rate < 76 mm/min for thickness < 3 mm and burning stops before 100 mm
• V-2 burning stops within 30 seconds on a vertical specimen; drips of flaming particles are allowed.
• V-1: burning stops within 30 seconds on a vertical specimen; drips of particles allowed as long as they are not inflamed.
• V-0: burning stops within 10 seconds on a vertical specimen; drips of particles allowed as long as they are not inflamed.
• 5VB: burning stops within 60 seconds on a vertical specimen; no drips allowed; plaque specimens may develop a hole.
• 5VA: burning stops within 60 seconds on a vertical specimen; no drips allowed; plaque specimens may not develop a hole.

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In general, VersaLogic products are designed to meet certain safety standards, including UL 60950, CE emissions and immunity standards, and FCC Class A.

However, VersaLogic boards are components and not intended for stand-alone use. They are not tested and certified to meet those standards, as most safety certifications apply to complete products.

The UL mark on VersaLogic PCBs certifies a flammability rating of UL 94 V-0. This certification applies to the PCB only. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Requirements for V-0

• The specimens may not burn with flaming combustion for more than 10 seconds after either application of the test flame.
• The total flaming combustion time may not exceed 50 seconds for the 10 flame applications for each set of 5 specimens.
• The specimens may not burn with flaming or glowing combustion up to the holding clamp.
• The specimens may not drip flaming particles that ignite the dry absorbent surgical cotton located 300 mm below the test specimen.
• The specimens may not have glowing combustion that persists for more than 30 seconds after the second removal of the test flame.

 For more information on flammability ratings for any of our product lines please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166 or send us an email - info@sarsen.net

Sarsen Technology and DAVE Embedded Systems Team Up for the Embedded Design Show 2014

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

Here at Sarsen we really like doing things with our principals. Which is why we are very excited about taking part in the Embedded Design Show 2014 with our friends at DAVE Embedded Systems.

Launched to fill a gap in the growing embedded electronics market, the Embedded Design Show will offer a focused event for the industry.

This year the Embedded Design Show will be co-located with the Electronics Design Show and Engineering Design Show which will also incorporate Engineering Materials Live. These award-winning exhibitions were created to champion British engineering and are entirely targeted at electronic and design engineers, making this a must attend event for anyone working in these industry sectors.


 
The Embedded Design Show will feature two workshop theatres and a conference area. Attendance to the workshop theatres is completely free.

Registration is now open! To be our guest at the exhibition, register for your free entry badge by clicking here, and if you'd like to attend any of the Conference sessions as our guest you can sign up for free by simply entering entering this discount code ENG14C.

You can find us on Stand G32, where we will be showcasing the complete range of SoMs from DAVE, based on ARM Cortex-A architecture, Freescale and Texas Instruments processors and Xilinx SoC.  

www.embedded-design-show.co.uk

 About DAVE Embedded Systems 
DAVE Embedded Systems is a well-established and constantly growing Italian company, focused on the design, manufacture and sale of miniaturized embedded systems solutions. Since its foundation, back in 1998, DAVE Embedded Systems has developed its business, increasing its know-how and activities. Support and assistance provided to many Italian and foreign companies is based on the design of microprocessor platforms around Linux, Windows or Android OS.

Rugged Rackmount 1U LCD Touchscreen Monitor and Keyboard Tray

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

Rugged computers are a necessity when you need both performance and reliability in harsh environments. This is one of the reasons why Trenton Systems has retained in-house electronic, mechanical and system BIOS engineering expertise to create board-level products and integrated computer systems designed for challenging environments.

Every military computer they integrate provides the performance, space-savings, flexibility and long-term system configuration stability necessary for airborne, shipboard, undersea and ground vehicle deployment, or applications located within command and control centres.

The TKM1503 rackmount LCD touchscreen monitor from Trenton Systems features a rugged NEMA 4 sealed 17″ LCD display with a resistive touchscreen. The aluminium 1U rackmount LCD touchscreen monitor and keyboard tray provide a backlit NEMA 4X keyboard for Mil-Spec touchscreen LCD touchscreen monitor applications. The rugged 1U monitor / keyboard tray saves rackmount component mounting space, fitting inside 19″ racks with depth dimensions from 17″ to 36″.

More about NEMA definitions

The TKM1503′s clamshell enclosure design allows additional rackmount component placement to maximise the use of limited mounting space. The sealed 17″ LCD display with resistive LCD touchscreen supports SXGA screen resolutions and over 16 million monitor colors.

Key features of the TKM1503 rackmount LCD touchscreen monitor include:

• Mil-COTS rackmount LCD touchscreen monitor & sealed keyboard
• Shallow 17″ (43.18cm) depth is ideal for transit case applications
• Watertight NEMA 4 optically bonded 17″ LCD touchscreen monitor
• Sealed 17″ LCD display with resistive touchscreen supports SXGA resolutions
• Includes NEMA 4X backlit keyboard with built-in mouse
• Integrated keyboard and mouse simplifies hardware mounting and cable routing
• Fits inside 19″ racks with depth dimensions from 17″ to 36″ (43.2cm – 91.4cm)
• Rugged, yet lightweight all-aluminium 1U rackmount enclosure design

The TKM1503 rackmount LCD touchscreen monitor is compatible with all of Trenton's rackmount computers, and is supported by Trenton’s unsurpassed US-based technical support, including their industry-leading 5 year warranty.

For more information please contact the team at Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or send us an email with your request.

Sarsen technology hosts work experience student from local school!

Hi! My name is Harvey and I’m on Work Experience here at Sarsen Technology from the 7^th to the 11^th July and also I come from the school St Johns.

Let’s Talk About Me!

I’m 15 years old, soon to become 16 in December. I have a monthly job delivering a paper round in the area that I live. I have a few hobbies, including biking, football and playing video games with my mates.  I want to be involved in engineering in my future career so I hope this work experience will help me decide which path I want to take.

 

What do I want to achieve whilst being at Sarsen?

I want to know if this is the sort of thing that I would like to do in Engineering later in life, eg financial or technical support. I hope that being able to learn about the different aspects of the company will give me a good idea about the area I would like to work in.

Why Did I Choose Sarsen Technology?

I picked Sarsen because it’s a local engineering company who are successful across a number of different technologies. What they do was intriguing to me, and I wanted to see what their part in engineering was, for example – do they make products, how they sell them etc. They can teach me about the types of engineering they do, and can give me advice for the future!

New YouTube Video Series from United Electronic Industries

Author - Laura Biddiscombe 

Now United Electronic Industries (UEI) has made it even easier to stay up-to-date with what they are up to, with regular vNews updates on their YouTube channel.

Each video will feature form factor and deployment options, applications, programming, screencasts, product releases, and hands-on demos. The new YouTube video series starts with a solutions overview, and will continue with updates in applications and programming.

Not only that, the new QuickTakes series features brief, fun, "selfie-style" how-tos and application demonstrations by UEI engineers — sure to inspire your thinking about application possibilities.

Here are the first QuickTakes in the series:

• How to control an aircraft throttle using UEI RVDT synchro board and display results via web browser
• How to take vibration measurements using the UEI spectrum analyzer and the ICP/IEPE board from UEI
• Real-time control using embedded Linux and a UEI programmable automation controller

For more information about products and solutions from UEI please contact Sarsen Technology by email - info@sarsen.net or give us a call on +44 1672 511166.

Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) on FREESCALE i.MX6

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

Some more excitement from our friends at DAVE Embedded Systems, who have just announced the availability of a new enhanced application of Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) on the AXEL System On Module (SoM).

So what exactly is ASYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING?

Asymmetric Multi Processing (AMP) allows a multiprocessor system to run multiple Operating Systems (OS) that are independent of each other.

In other words, each CPU has its own private memory space, which contains the OS and the applications that are to run on that CPU. In addition, there can be some shared memory space that is used for multiprocessor communication. This is in contrast with Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP), in which one OS runs on multiple CPUs using a public shared memory space. Thanks to AMP, developers can use open-source Linux and FreeRTOS operating systems and the RPMsg Inter Processor Communication (IPC) framework between the i.MX6 high-performance ARM Cortex-A9 processors to quickly implement applications that need to deliver deterministic, real-time responsiveness for markets such as automotive and industrial.


AXEL: a family of System On Modules (SOM) based on Freescale i.MX6

AXEL LITE, AXEL ESATTA and AXEL ULTRA are the new top-class Solo/Dual/Quad core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU modules from DAVE Embedded Systems, based on the recent Freescale i.MX6 application processor. The use of this processor enables extensive system-level differentiation of new applications in many industry fields, where high-performance and extremely compact form factor are key factors. Smarter system designs are made possible, following the trends in functionalities and interfaces of the new, state-of-the-art embedded products.

Contact Sarsen Technology for more information by email - info@sarsen.net or by calling our technical sales team - +44 1672 511166

BittWare Introduces Brand New Arria 10 Family of FPGA Boards

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

Arria® FPGAs and SoCs from Altera deliver optimal performance, power, and cost efficiency in the midrange.

Built on 20 nm process technology, the Arria 10 FPGAs feature industry-leading programmable logic that integrates a rich feature set of embedded peripherals, embedded high-speed transceivers, hard memory controllers, and protocol IP controllers. In addition, Arria 10 FPGAs and SoCs are the industry’s first FPGA to integrate hardened floating-point (IEEE 754-compliant) DSP blocks that deliver breakthrough floating-point performance of up to 1.5 TFLOPS. Arria 10 SoCs are also the industry’s only 20nm FPGA to integrate a dual-core ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ hard processor system (HPS).

The brand new A10 board family from BittWare leverages the Arria 10 FPGAs exciting capabilities to build solid platforms in a variety of formats that support a wide range of challenging applications, such as network processing & security, compute & storage, instrumentation, test & measurement, broadcast, medical imaging, wireless infrastructure, and signals intelligence.

The A10 board family features flexible memory configurations, sophisticated clocking and timing options, QSFP28 cages that support 100Gbps (including 100GigE) optical transceivers, FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC), and support for the network-enabled Altera® SDK for OpenCL™.

BittWare’s Arria 10 GX-based boards will begin shipping in Q4 2014. Arria 10 GT and SoC versions will be available in Q1 2015. Contact Sarsen Technology for pricing and details.

UEI makes it SIMple: An in-depth look at designing a Temperature Warning System using the UEISIM

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

We promised a new Technical Article... So here it is!

Our very own Alberto Bassett brings us his findings from his first look at designing a Temperature Warning System using the UEISIM from United Electronic Industries (UEI).

A Temperature Warning System is just one example among thousands of applications you can build with United Electronic Industries (UEI) Racks and I/O Layers. This example shows the simplicity you gain when using UEISIM combined with Simulink from MathWorks. The powerful Software Suite that comes with UEI products makes it possible.

Click the image to read the complete article...

DAVE Embedded Systems Hosts First Partners Meeting

Last week Nigel and Alberto made the short hop across Europe to north-west Italy to visit our friends at DAVE Embedded Systems.

DAVE invited their partners to their headquarters in Porcia to take part in the very first 'Daving' event - a three day training session designed to share information, news and future plans for DAVE Embedded Systems and their partners.

The three days, which lasted from the 29th of May to the 31 of May 2014, were packed full of presentations, team building exercises and training sessions. But it wasn't all work and no play...

There was plenty of opportunity to build relationships and have some fun!

About DAVE Embedded Systems - DAVE Embedded Systems is a well-established Italian company, focussed on the design of highly complex miniaturised embedded electronic systems. They offer a complete line of CPU modules covering ARM and PowerPC architectures, from entry level models right through to high end ruggedised boards. DAVE Embedded Systems modules are suitable for applications in the industrial, transportation, home automation, medical, networking, smart grid and telecom markets.

Are You Missing Out?

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

Here at Sarsen Technology we like to share.

We share all the latest product announcements, industry news and general excitement from the 12 manufacturers we work with in our monthly News Bytes email.

It's been going for over 3 years, and although it has evolved over time News Bytes still provides readers with a wide range of technology and solutions.

May's edition is released tomorrow - Thurs 29th May, so sign up now to receive the latest news, reviews and technical papers from the embedded industry.

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