The most advanced System on Chip in the world is only so much inert silicon without the printed circuit board that supplies it with power, connects its interfaces and otherwise gives it a home where it can do its job. Vendors of Embedded Computing Board…

While open source hardware has dramatically reduced the time and cost associated with product development, there are still a few speed bumps that Makers and designers must endure en route to taking their idea from prototype to mass production. Looking…

Microchip has expanded its popular lineup of secure, ARM Cortex M0+-based MCUs with the new SAM L22 series. The Atmel | SMART SAM L family is the highest scoring product family in the EEMBC ULPBench and offers an ultra-low power capacitive touch with…

After migrating from an Arduino to a Raspberry Pi, Maker Jonathan Peace discovered that there were still some things that he just couldn’t do with a barebones Unix platform. In search of a way to help alleviate this problem, Ardhat was born

Billed…

System design used to be an exercise in optimizing speed. That has since changed. Nowadays, embedded systems pack plenty of performance to handle a number of task, leading the challenge for designers to shift to completing those tasks using as little…

As part of the preparation for the launch of the ARM Embedded Computing Board (ECB) resource guide I spoke to Thomas Aubin of Microchip about their approach to the market.  Thomas is a product marketing manager focusing on the SMART ARM Cortex-A based…

Although the theme of EW was Internet of Things, there was so much to see at Embedded World (EW).  I was impressed with the breadth of embedded computing technologies.   If you are interested in my morning EW adventures, please check out …

Most of you who’ve lived through the late ‘80s and ‘90s can’t distinctly recollect those Life Alert commercials with Mrs. Fletcher yelling, “Help! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” Lo and behold, the catchphrase would go on to become a pop culture phenomenon…

In 2014, TAO Wellness wowed the CES crowd with its smartphone-sized WellShell exercise device. This year, the team debuted its consumer-ready version along with a brand new prototype for their TAO Chair, allowing users to burn calories right from the…

Its the first official day of CES today (Jan 6, 2015) and the circus is in full swing.  It's hard to miss the big stories of the show because every major media outlet in the world is there and the tech press in particular flock there en masse (…

There was so much I wanted to share about my one day at Maker Faire that I needed to write two blogs. My first thoughts are in My First Maker Faire: Engineers and Kids at Play.

Massimo launching the Arduino Zero

While my son played on an iPad, I joined…

At Maker Faire in San Mateo Arduino and Atmel announced the Arduino Zero, powered by an Atmel ARM Cortex-M0+ based microcontroller.

The Arduino Zero is a great tool for prototyping, hobbyists and makers that need more power than what is offered by the…