EDN Hot 100 products of 2011: Dev tools, boards & processors

EDN presents its list of the Hot 100 products that in 2011 grabbed the attention of our editors and our readers.

Staff -- EDN, November 8, 2011

This section of EDN's Hot 100 Products of 2011 includes processors, development tools and boards, as well as programmable logic devices. Click on any product name to read the original full article on EDN:

BOARDS:

• CraneBoard ARM Cortex-A8-based open-source development board
  "...provides a cost-effective, alternative development option to Texas Instruments’ AM35x Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors EVM."
  Mistral Solutions


• PICtail Daughter Board M2M platform
  "...comes with all of the hardware, wireless-communication protocols and application-code examples needed to help designers jump start their fleet-management or location-based service application."
  Microchip Technology


• Stellaris MCU Robotic Evaluation Platform (EVALBOT)
  "...provides developers the flexibility to choose from a variety of software tool chains so they can fully access the features of the Stellaris Cortex-M3 MCU in their preferred environment."
  Texas Instruments

DEVELOPMENT TOOLS

• Tower System development platform with added controller modules
  "...with development boards (modules) for medical, industrial and general embedded applications."
  Freescale Semiconductor


• Accessory Development Starter Kits for Android
  "...enable the fast and easy development of Android smartphone and tablet accessories based on 16-bit and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers."
  Microchip Technology


• Arduino-compatible 32-bit MCU development platform
  "...the first 32-bit-microcontroller-based, open-source development platform that is compatible with Arduino hardware and software."
  Microchip Technology and Digilent


• TrueSTUDIO for ARM development tool
  "...supports MCUs from many semiconductor manufacturers and provides ARM build and debug tools, serial wire viewer tracing and graphical UML diagram editors for model-based design and architecture."
  Atollic


• Calcuccino programmers' calculator for the iPhone
  "...a programmers' calculator for the iPhone that includes all the functions you would expect for programming, engineering, and scientific use."
  Cambridge Coders


• MATLAB Coder automatic C code generation software
  "[Allows] design engineers to generate readable, portable C and C++ code automatically from their MATLAB algorithms."
  MathWorks


• Si10xx-based Energy Harvesting Reference Design
  "...a wireless sensor node reference design based on [the company's] Si10xx wireless MCU family and powered by a solar energy harvesting source."
  Silicon Laboratories


• MPLAB X IDE
  "...an entirely new open-source IDE which provides cross-platform support for Linux, Mac OS and Windows operating systems."
  Microchip Technology

MICROCONTROLLERS AND PROCESSORS

• VereFoodborne Lab-on-Chip solution
  "...can detect 10 to 12 food-borne pathogens in one test [and return] results within two hours."
  Veredus Laboratories


• PIC10F(LF)32X and PIC1XF(LF)150X 8-bit MCUs
  "...feature peripherals which include configurable logic cells, complementary waveform generators and numerically controlled oscillators."
  Microchip Technology


• WM5100 audio SoC
  "...represents the first extensible solution using algorithms either developed by the customer or purchased from [the company]."
  Wolfson Microelectronics


• Stellaris LM4Fx Cortex-M4F-based MCUs
  "...are the first Cortex-M-based microcontrollers to be built on 65-nanometer technology."
  Texas Instruments


• MSP430AFE2xx metrology analog front end 16-bit MCUs
  "...the first programmable single-phase metrology devices supported with multiple communication interfaces."
  Texas Instruments


• LPC11U00 MCUs with USB 2.0
  "...has a configurable full speed USB 2.0 device controller as well as a smart card interface."
  NXP Semiconductors

PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC

• GreenPAK 1 micro-FPGA with programmable analog
  "...a super-small mixed-signal FPGA that you can design and program in just a few minutes and that costs only a few cents."
  Silego Technology


• MachXO2 PLD family
  "...offering designers of low-density PLDs a mix of low cost, low power and high system integration in a single device."
  Lattice Semiconductor


• Virtex-5QV space-grade rad-hard FPGAs
  "...can handle greater than 1Mrad(Si) Total Ionizing Dose (TID)."
  Xilinx


• Virtex-6 HXT FPGA Optical Transport Network (OTN) platform
  "...for supporting faster market implementation of 100G line cards and demonstrating the key technology for a smooth path to the development of future 400G line cards."
  Xilinx


• ARM-based SoC FPGAs
  "...integrate 28-nm Cyclone V and Arria V FPGA fabric, a single- or dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor, ECC protected memory controllers, peripherals and high-bandwidth interconnect into a single chip."
  Altera


• ScanWorks FCT board-tester-in-a-chip
  "...operates the board tester in a chip from a drag-and-drop user interface to perform validation, testing, and debugging."
  ASSET InterTech

More Hot 100 Products:
EDN Hot 100 products of 2011: Analog, components & sensors
EDN Hot 100 products of 2011: Communications and test instruments
EDN Hot 100 products of 2011: EDA, IP & storage
EDN Hot 100 products of 2011: Power & optoelectronics