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by jason mcdonald, senior editor | read other blog posts

Fall is show time, and this Fall is no exception. The Embedded Systems Conference just concluded in Boston, Intel's IDF in San Francisco, and 4G World in Chicago. The fantastic thing about the Internet is that you can pull a lot of the news and technology trends from the Web. Why go to shows anymore? There's the web, there are webinars... So in that spirit, here are the best highlights of recent show news.

contents of this post:

1. usb 3.0: usb - the next generation
2. busses & boards: news on the sbc front
3. tools and software: cool new tools and software for embedded
4. feedback - read it
5. feedback - give it

usb 3.0: usb - the next generation

USB is one of the most popular keywords on eg3.com, because so many devices now demand USB. It is perhaps the most ubiquitous standard out there. And USB is evolving to 3.0, which is marketed as "SuperSpeed USB." SuperSpeed USB is up to ten times faster than 2.0 and has significant improvements in power and performance. You can find more information on it here , and don't miss the introductory video.

One of the vendors leading the way to USB 3.0 is PLX Technology. "With USB 3.0, PLX intends to build upon its rich history of superior performance, software support and standards compliance," said Jimmy Chou, director of marketing for USB products at PLX. "Our robust and growing product line of USB, as well as SATA, IEEE1394 and PCI Express solutions, enables PLX to provide engineers with the industry's most advanced connectivity with a focus on differentiation." PLX is developing USB 3.0 devices and specialized firmware whose targets also expand into multi-function printers (MFPs), video projectors, ultra-high-speed wireless networking, portable computing, and digital media products. (More information, here .)

Synopsys is also rapidly enhancing its USB 3.0 portfolio. That company recently announced, it was the first IP vendor to demonstrate SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Host, Hub and Device IP in a single demonstration. Additionally, Synopsys' DesignWare® SuperSpeed USB 3.0 digital controllers have been tested successfully for interoperability with Texas Instruments' (TI) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 transceiver. The DesignWare® SuperSpeed USB IP complete solution is based on the USB 3.0 specification from the USB Implementers Forum and consists of the xHCI host and device controllers, PHY and verification IP. Additionally, the solution includes a SuperSpeed USB virtual platform and drivers to aid software development. Utilizing elements from a single vendor enables designers to quickly create SuperSpeed USB-based designs from concept through implementation and software development. You can find more information, here .

There are also, of course, many USB 2.0 products and services out there. You can follow the whole USB ecoystem for designers at eg3.com/usb.htm .

busses & boards: news on the sbc front

Many developers choose not to build their own board, but rather to outsource that function to a trusted vendor. Every show season we thus see a proliferation of news and news announcements usually by board standard. Some of the hotter standards this Fall are computer-on-module , EPIC , and the small form factor standards coming out of the Small Form Factor SIG . Here are some of the better new announcements from ESC Boston -

VersaLogic Corp., for example, introduced the "Komodo", the embedded industry's highest performing EPIC™-sized single board computer (SBC). Running on the new Intel® Core™2 Duo (model P8400) 45 nm processor, the Komodo performs at an impressive 2.27 GHz - with mid-range power consumption. Komodo also deploys the new SUMIT™ (Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technology) interface, making this SBC an ideal solution for OEM designers in demanding defense, aerospace, and medical markets. The company also announced that it has developed two new SUMIT™-based expansion modules. The new modules feature the Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technology (SUMIT) interface scheme developed by the Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF -SIG™). You can find out more, here .

Another vendor with a lot to offer these days is Eurotech. The company is launching the highly configurable Helios™ edge controller platform. The Helios platform offers data access and control on the edge of the cloud, to aggregate and deliver data from edge devices, pervasive sensors, and distributed monitors to the network core for further analysis and action. Even more exciting, the company announced the launch of Everyware™ Software Framework (ESF) on Intel® Atom™-based embedded platforms. ESF offers open source developer tooling based on the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Java Micro Edition Virtual Machine. Eurotech systems loaded with ESF give OEMs a flexible and portable Java-based development environment that makes application creation quick and easy. More details on Eurotech, here .

tools and software: cool new tools and software for embedded

Embedded systems - both hardware and software issues - is an area that usually generates some new technologies. Two of the hotter trends are Intel Atom and Multicore. On the Intel Atom front, Arium of Tustin, California, has been re-inventing itself by leveraging Intel Atom and Linux to provide a broad range of tools to help developers work with both. It's a strategy that clearly leverages two of the best tendencies in embedded systems - Atom and Linux. Arium announced the release of SourcePoint™ 7.7.1, the latest version of the company's flagship debugger. This release offers substantial improvements for software based on Intel® architecture and firmware development assisting engineers to bring designs to market faster and with higher quality. "This software release breaks new ground for Intel developers, with new features that provide powerful tools for BIOS/UEFI and embedded Linux developers. As Linux continues to be adopted on many embedded designs, especially mobile and MID-based applications, developers can now enjoy non-evasive hardware-assisted debug in all phases of Linux development." said Larry Traylor, Arium’s CEO. Arium also simultaneously announced, that their JTAG Debugging offers Linux OS-Aware features. You can find out more, here .

Another big trend in embedded is multicore. Vendors like Wind River, VirtualLogix, Green Hills and others have jumped on the multicore bandwagon offering varieties of software solutions that build upon multicore in the processor architectures. One of the big splits has been between AMP and SMP multicore. Consequently, Enea has entered the market with a hybrid solution. Enea announced the immediate availability of Enea OSE Multicore Edition, a unique and innovative kernel design that combines the advantages of both traditional Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) and Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) while avoiding the disadvantages inherent in both programming models. This powerful solution will help developers of advanced systems achieve the performance, scalability and ease-of-use needed to meet increasingly stringent market requirements. Enea OSE Multicore Edition kernel delivers on the ease-of-use promise of SMP when it comes to simplicity, flexibility, application transparency and debugging. But it behaves like an AMP RTOS when it comes to scalability, determinism and performance. Details, here .

In summary, we have indexed all the available news for the big Fall shows, and you can browse it by category, here . Enjoy!

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Express Logic develops, markets and supports the ThreadX® real-time operating system (RTOS), NetX™ TCP/IP networking stack, USBX™ USB stack, and FileX® embedded file system, and PrismX™ GUI toolkit for embedded applications. ThreadX is a royalty-free, full source code, small-footprint, low-overhead RTOS that is extremely easy to learn and use. ThreadX is one of the most widely deployed RTOS products in the world, with over 800 million products based on ThreadX.