The New Normal for Semiconductor Manufacturing

The New Normal for Semiconductor Manufacturing
by Daniel Nenni on 05-27-2022 at 6:00 am

200mm 300mm Semiconductor Capacity

One of the recent live events I attended was the 2022 GSA Silicon Leadership Summit on May 12th at the Santa Clara Convention Center (my favorite location). This was the first GSA live event in two years so it was a must attend gathering. This event targets semiconductor ecosystem executives (200+ people attended) so there were many… Read More


BLDC motor control kit targets power savings

BLDC motor control kit targets power savings
by Don Dingee on 05-03-2016 at 12:00 pm

We tend to focus on connectivity and sensors for the IoT, however there is a third element to what I call the “Edge Device Triad” that is just as important: actuators. Making things move with microcontrollers (MCUs) is a science in and of itself. For small size and low weight combined with decent mechanical power, designers are opting… Read More


3 IoT demos highlight Atmel SAMA5

3 IoT demos highlight Atmel SAMA5
by Don Dingee on 03-04-2016 at 4:00 pm

At the high end of the Atmel product spectrum resides SAMA5 based on an ARM Cortex-A5 core. With an MMU supporting Linux or Android, plus on-the-fly memory encryption and ARM TrustZone in some variants, the SAMA5 family is drawing interest from IoT app developers. We’ll look at three examples, all illustrating how important seamless… Read More


tinyAVR in 8 and 14 pin SOIC now self-programming

tinyAVR in 8 and 14 pin SOIC now self-programming
by Don Dingee on 02-24-2016 at 4:00 pm

At this week’s Embedded World 2016, Atmel is heading back to 8-bit old school with their news, straight to the low pin count end of their MCU portfolio with a significant upgrade to the tinyAVR family.

According to Atmel’s briefing package, development of the ATtiny102 and ATtiny104 has been in progress for some time.… Read More


How Makers are changing the world—and why I’m so excited about it

How Makers are changing the world—and why I’m so excited about it
by Sander Arts on 01-21-2016 at 12:00 pm

I’ve spent my entire career in the tech space, being exposed to some of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies. But these days, the thing that excites me a most is how Makers are using technology to make the world a better place.

Consider this: The recent Hackaday prize challenged Makers to build something that matters … Read More


Semiconductors Future Hinges on a Single Pillar

Semiconductors Future Hinges on a Single Pillar
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-03-2016 at 7:00 am

A unique phenomenon has started manifesting itself under the slew of mergers and acquisitions this year in the semiconductor landscape. This phenomenon is bound to intensify in the near future and would positions itself as a key factor for the future of the semiconductor industry. The winners and losers in the game would be determined… Read More


Why Connect to the Cloud with Atmel SMART SAM W25?

Why Connect to the Cloud with Atmel SMART SAM W25?
by Eric Esteve on 12-15-2015 at 4:00 pm

Atmel SMART SAM W25 is in fact a module, Atmel names it “SmartConnect Module”. As far as I am concerned I like SmartConnect designation and I think it could be used to describe any IoT edge device. The device is “smart” as it includes a processing unit, in this case ARM Cortex M0 based SAMD21G, and “connect” remind the Internet part of… Read More


Six Ways Your Car Can Be Hacked!

Six Ways Your Car Can Be Hacked!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-25-2015 at 7:00 am

The question is not IF but WHEN your car will be hacked. How about this: You connect your smartphone to your car and malware sets off the airbags. My car has front, side, and rear airbags so that would be a very painful and expensive experience for sure. According to my mechanic this is certainly possible and it would cost more than $10,000… Read More


Secured SAM A5D4 MCU for Industrial, Fitness or IoT Display

Secured SAM A5D4 MCU for Industrial, Fitness or IoT Display
by Eric Esteve on 10-06-2015 at 12:00 pm

The new SAMA5D4, ARM Cortex-A5-based, expands the SAMA5 microprocessors family, adding a 720p resolution hardware video decoder to target Human Machine Interface (HMI), control panel and IoT applications when high performance display capability are required. Cortex-A5 offers raw performance of 945 DMIPS (@ 600 MHz) completed… Read More


Dialog and Atmel, 2 cultures to build 1 successful company ?

Dialog and Atmel, 2 cultures to build 1 successful company ?
by Eric Esteve on 09-21-2015 at 2:00 pm

Consolidation is on-going in semi industry, as we learn that Dialog Semi just announced the acquisition of Atmel. Is it a good news for Atmel, or for Dialog ? Apparently not for the stock market, as Dialog stock went down by 20% within the last few hours… But we can try to look more in-depth at the potential synergy between these two companies’s… Read More