Embedded

The Object Management Group™ (OMG™), announced that the Ninth Annual Distributed Object Computing for Real-time and Embedded Systems Workshop will be held July 14-16, 2008 in Arlington, VA, USA. OMG is also announcing that the Call for Participation has been issued; details about the workshop and the Call for Participation are available online at http://www.omg.org/rte-pr.

Stringent performance requirements are a feature of a broad range of computer applications, from enterprise-scale systems handling bookings and online financial transactions to compact systems embedded in software radios, cell phones, medical equipment and vehicles of all kinds. However, whether their code is running on enterprise servers or embedded within devices, the designers of these mission-critical, time-critical systems share many challenges, and address them using similar design approaches.

Altair Semiconductor (Altair), a fabless chip company, has released the ALT2150 mobile WiMAX baseband processor to leading handheld device and module manufacturers. The ALT2150, the world’s smallest and most power-efficient mobile WiMAX processor, implements full WiMAX Forum™ Wave-2 physical (PHY) Layer and Media Access Control (MAC) functionality, and offers substantial performance enhancements beyond this profile.

Cars are becoming more complex, with a range of advanced features we could hardly have imagined a few years ago made possible by sophisticated software-driven electronics. The downside is, with more to go wrong, more is going wrong, but European researchers have developed an antidote: a new computer language.

The average new car coming off the production line today has the same amount of electronic systems as a commercial airliner did two decades ago. Hard to accept perhaps, but true if auto-makers are to be believed.

VIA Technologies, Inc, has announced its participation at Digital Signage Expo on February 27th and 28th in Las Vegas. At booth 683, VIA will showcase cutting edge technologies geared towards signage and interactive media systems and point-of-sales networks for retail, hospitality and enterprise.

The trend towards digital signage systems reflects the growing demands for sophisticated audio-visual technology and more complex interactivity in display solutions, and the x86 architecture is fast-emerging as the ideal platform to drive this trend, especially with silicon being designed smaller and cooler-running to fit behind – or even within – display panels.

Discretix exhibited its Multi-Scheme DRM Client, pre-integrated with the embedded Linux platform at TrollTech’s booth at the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain. Mobile DRM adds significant value to devices equipped with the Linux operating system, by establishing a trusted environment for the distribution and consumption of various types of premium content.

The world's fastest circuit technology for embedded DRAM for System LSI, achieving a speed of 833MHz at 32Mb density, has been developed by Toshiba Corporation. The technology will be applied to graphic processing LSI. The technology was today introduced at the ISSCC (International Solid State Circuits Conference), held at San Francisco CA from February 3rd.

A revolutionary new technology developed by engineers at the University of Leicester after over 12 years research promises to make safety a sure thing in equipment as diverse as cars, aircraft and medical equipment.

The new patented technology invented by the researchers has led to the development of a new product family called “RapidiTTy”. A company – TTE Systems Ltd - has been spun out from the University of Leicester to develop and market this product.

The VIA NAB 7500 embedded board for advanced network security solutions, from VIA Technologies, Inc.

Designed to address the needs of modern network security systems, the "7500" is a highly integrated Network Appliance Board for network security or gateway applications, including Firewall, VPN, UTM, Anti-Virus and Intrusion Prevention System products. Other network applications include Proxy Server, Quality of Service and Load Balancer products.

Microsoft Corp. and Broadcom Corporation are going to collaborate on Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) products. The collaboration includes Microsoft and Broadcom working together to enable the Microsoft Mediaroom™ IPTV client software to operate on next-generation set-top boxes (STBs) utilizing the Broadcom® BCM7405 system on a chip (SOC). This technology will permit service providers and OEMs to support a range of features such as whole-home digital video recording (DVR), high-performance user interfaces, and photo and music sharing.

Recently published research by Venture Development Corporation (VDC) concludes that over 4 billion embedded systems/devices were shipped worldwide in 2006. According to VDC’s 2007 Embedded Systems Market Statistics report, significant growth in the number of embedded shipments is expected to continue over the coming years.

Furthermore, VDC estimates that embedded systems using no formal operating system (with no software on the device that is considered to be an operating system by the project team) or in-house developed operating systems as their primary operating system represented the majority of total embedded system shipments in 2006. Through 2009, VDC expects the number of embedded devices shipping with a commercial and/or open source operating system to grow at a faster rate than shipments of devices with an in-house/proprietary operating system or with no formal operating system.