Freescale Tech Forum (without yours truly)
I’m bummed that I’m missing the Freescale Tech Forum this week, better known as FTF. This is the first one I’ve missed (ever, I think). Thankfully, it’s for good personal reasons that I’m not partaking this year. From what I’ve heard and read about the event, the show is going on in my absence. Imagine that. First, there was a panel session covering medical...
Compensated Sensors Handle Low-Pressure Measurement Ranges
Servoflo Corp. has released a series of pressure sensors for low pressure measurement ranges. With an analog or digital output, the MS4515 series is available in various calibration ranges from 0 to 2 in. H2O, and 0 to 30 in. H2O. This ceramic-based, pcb-mount pressure sensor employs CMOS signal-conditioning circuitry to create a low-cost, high-performance sensor. The analog version, the MS4515,...
New Superatoms Discovered
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University have discovered a new class of superatoms that could someday be used in next-generation molecular electronic devices. The superatoms contain magnetized magnesium atoms, an element usually considered non-magnetic.  "A combination such as the one we have created here can lead to significant developments in the area of 'molecular electronics...
PharmaLive Special Report: Leading Medical Device and Technology Companies
Companies able to use technological advancements to make medical devices more intelligent, faster, and cost effective have made great strides in the industry. Breakthrough advancements have improved patient monitoring, safety and outcomes, reduced recovery time, and prevented costly complications. Although U.S. companies make up more than half of the listing of the top 100 medical device...
DC-to-DC Converters Have Continuous Short-Circuit Protection
Mornsun is announcing the A_S-1WR and B_LS-1WR series of SIP dc-to-dc converters that feature continuous short-circuit protection and are low cost. This replaces unregulated dc-to-dc converters that can fail quickly with a short-circuit condition. The A_S-1WR and B_LS-1WR products offer 1 W of power in a high-density 0.77- by 0.37- by 0.24-in. package. These converters have the additional feature...
Doctors Don't Use iPads for EHRs
Doctors love their iPads, as we’ve discussed before on the MED Blog. But ironically, most don’t seem to be using them in a way that could reduce costs and prevent complications for patients. While more than one in four primary care and specialty physicians own an iPad or other tablet, according to American Medical News, at best a little more than half and at worst just 9.7% by state...
Alliance Forms to Enable Devices with Enhanced Imaging Capabilities
Machine vision, or the ability for a computer to read an image, is vital in many industries and application spaces, with medical devices being at or near the top of that list. Imaging devices play a key role the medical/health care space, and that will only increase moving forward. To help facilitate such a movement, a new industry group has been formed, the Embedded Vision Alliance. Made up of...
“Chamelon Magnets” Could Redefine Electronics
Theoretical physicist and University at Buffalo professor Igor Zutic has long been fascinated by magnetics. And not without good reason. Advances in the field can lead to breakthroughs in electronics, he says, including improvements in high-capacity and low-energy memory, data storage, and data transfer devices. The professor has recently teamed up with a fellow University of Buffalo John Cerne...
Tablet PC Suits Mobile Medical Apps
Advantech has released a tablet PC specifically aimed at the medical field. Its MICA-101 mobile clinical assistant is an upgrade to a predecessor model, but has been enhanced to provide better imagery, faster storage, and better power, making it even more robust. The device is suitable for EMR, HER, and Nursing Information Systems (NIS). It’s a fanless system that’s lightweight,...
Server Board Comes With Longevity Supply
Advantech introduced the ASMB-310IR, a dual-processor server board with a CEB form factor that fits into both standard and smaller industrial-grade chassis. Featuring dual Intel Xeon 5500/5560 series processors, six ECC registered DIMMs with a 48-Gbyte capacity, and rich expansion slots with high bandwidth support, the board comes with five to seven years of component supply longevity support and...
Novel Synthetic Material Could Facilitate Wireless Power Transfer
Researchers at Duke University have that development in composites known as metamaterials could improve the ability to transfer power without wires. The metamaterials that are the subject of the research resemble tiny Venetian blinds. The material could, at least in theory, improve the ability of recharging devices by improving the focus of energy through open space between the energy source and...
Texas Instruments Ups the Ante with its Latest ADC for Medical Imaging Equipment
Texas Instruments has introduced a quad-channel, 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for medical imaging applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). According to the company, it’s the first of its kind to meet these specs. The ADS5263 delivers a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 84.6 dBFS with 10-MHz input and a sampling frequency of up to 100 MSPS. The quad-channel...
Electrical Stimulator Helps Paralyzed Man Stand
The New York Times ran a remarkable story last week about a paralyzed man who was able to stand and even take a few steps with help, thanks to an electrical stimulator implanted in his lower back. The 25-year-old man, who was paralyzed five years ago after he was hit by a car, is the first person to receive the experimental device, a 16-electrode array surgically placed on the L1–S1 cord...
Doctor Disses EHRs
Dueling articles in Annals of Internal Medicine (here and here, behind a paywall) this week debate how EHRs should be implemented, and The Wall Street Journal picked up on a dig one of the authors made against the technology. According to the WSJ, Richard J. Baron, M.D., of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation wrote that EHRs, “are not as good as they could be, as safe as they...
TED Talks Medical Devices
There’s a fascinating talk on TED today about technology that could lead to neural prosthetics. Neuroengineer Ed Boyden discusses how it’s possible to selectively activate or de-activate specific neurons with fiber-optic implants. He inserts a light-sensitive algae gene into brain cells, creating a kind of light switch for neurons. Using the science, Boyden, who leads the Synthetic...
Altera, MIPS, and SLS announce MP32, a MIPS-based, FPGA-optimized soft core processor that supports Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS
Altera, MIPS, and System Level Solutions (SLS) recently introduced a MIPS-based, FPGA-optimized soft processor for use on Altera’s FPGAs and ASICs. The MP32 processor is a MIPS-compatible applications class processor that inherits a large ecosystem of software development tools and operating system (OS) support. The MP32 soft processor is supported by Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS and the...
Mentor Graphics IDE based on GNU tool chain
Last week, Mentor Graphics announced its Embedded Sourcery CodeBench product, a next-generation integrated development environment (IDE) based on the open-source GNU tool chain. The Sourcery CodeBench technology provides embedded developers with a powerful and easy-to-use tool suite for developing and optimizing systems based on a broad range of devices from the most advanced microprocessors to...
Kozio’s structured, language-based environment for embedded system verification operates at target-hardware speed
Kozio recently developed the ValidationAssistant, a unified, interactive, embedded hardware verification environment that simplifies hardware control, automates test execution, and conveniently maintains test cases in a structure that maximizes reuse across the entire product life cycle. Such a lifecycle typically consists of engineering, production, and field test. This PC-based application...
Microchip unveils open-source IDE that supports all its MCUs
Microchip Technology recently announced its next-generation, open-source integrated development environment, the MPLAB X integrated development environment (IDE), which offers cross-platform support for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. Features added to the IDE include the ability to manage multiple projects and tools with simultaneous debugging, an advanced editor, visual call graphs, and code...
Wozniak, dinosaurs, power outages, and some great technology
What a wild week it was at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC). I spent Tuesday and Wednesday last week in San Jose with the world’s leading embedded developers and came back with some great ideas. The highlight of the trip was a meeting with Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple). It was an impromptu meeting, but one I’ll surely remember. Steve was the event’s keynote...
EPIC SBC Holds Single- or Dual-Core 1.66-GHz Atom
WinSystems announced their EPX-C380, an EPIC-compatible, 1.66-GHz Atom-based single board computer (SBC). The board uses either the Atom single-core N450 or dual-core D510 processor combined with the ICH8M I/O hub controller, both of which are supplied from Intel’s Embedded Architecture Division for long-term availability. Operational from -40° to +70°C, these SBCs provide an open...
Predictable Operation Defines ARM-Based MCU from On Semi
On Semiconductor has introduced the Q32M210, the first in a family of mixed-signal microcontrollers (MCUs) for precision measurement and monitoring applications. Designed with an ARM Cortex M3 processor core, the device features dual 16-bit ADCs, a highly accurate voltage reference, and triple 10-bit DACs. Predictable operation is a key aspect of the device, a spec that’s required for...
12-, 14-Bit, 25- to 125-Msample/s ADCs Operate Below 100 mW
Linear Technology Corp. (LTC) has developed a family of 14- and 12-bit, 25- to 125-Msample/s analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that dissipate less than 1 mW/Msample/s from a 1.8-V supply. The LTC2145 family includes two-channel simultaneous sampling, parallel output ADCs,  offering a choice of full-rate CMOS, or double data rate (DDR) CMOS or DDR LVDS digital outputs with programmable...
LDRA Tool Suite Provides Requirements-to-Object-Code Traceability
LDRA has developed a tool that performs an often-desired task by developers—requirements-to-object–code traceability. In the safety-critical domain, devices required to meet the most critical levels of certification must verify software traceability from requirements through design to code at both source- and object-code levels. By providing comprehensive traceability, LDRA’s...
Good News and Bad News on World Asthma Day
Yesterday was World Asthma Day, and it came with some sobering news about the chronic lung disease. Asthma prevalence in the US increased more than 12 percent from 2001 to 2009, and only about one-third of the 24.6 million sufferers were using long-term control medicine, such as inhalers. Over three-quarters of severe asthma patients have landed in the emergency room due to the disease.  ...