Industrial Factory Automation

Evatronix has introduced the latest release of the software driver for its Nand Flash memory controller IP core. The driver supports all functionalities of the controller and introduces features to facilitate Nand Flash application development. The Evatronix Nand Flash memory controller software driver is written entirely in ANSI C for operating system independence. It natively supports memories from manufacturers such as Numonyx, Samsung, Micron and Toshiba, but with a unified set of commands it can be configured to support custom memory chips. The latest release of the driver features a set of configurable options for best fit to customer's application. These options include support for implementation of an indirect DMA buffer, DMA and Bad Block Scan modules, as well as for configurable system clock frequencies. The release also allows software configuration of hardware ECC (Error Correction Code) settings. The Evatronix Nand Flash memory controller provides support for single- ...

Toshiba Electronics Europe has launched a 16-channel light-emitting-diode (LED) driver that combines brightness control with a built-in pulse-width-modulation (PWM) greyscale capability. The TB62721 is suitable for traffic signs, information boards and other large-panel displays requiring the accurate and reliable control of multiple-colour LEDs. The new driver can deliver output voltages of up to 38V and provide constant currents of between 2mA and 80mA per channel using a single resistor. All of the functionality needed to deliver 256-step output brightness control is integrated into the device, while the onboard PWM capability provides 65,536-step greyscale control per channel. Both the output-to-output accuracy and IC-to-IC accuracy of the TB62721 are 1.5 per cent. This allows large displays based on multiple LED chains and drivers to maintain consistent brightness levels within very tight tolerances. Designed for secure, reliable operation, the TB62721 features onboard protection...

National Instruments has released an instrument driver that allows users of NI Labview to interface with environmental monitoring sensors that communicate via SDI-12. SDI-12 is a serial-based communication protocol optimised for battery-powered intelligent sensors NI Labview is a graphical system design platform. With NI Labview SDI-12 Application Programming Interface (API) software, researchers, engineers and scientists can easily acquire measurements such as turbidity, dissolved oxygen, tank level, soil pH, conductivity and other critical environmental sensor measurements. The SDI-12 protocol makes it possible to communicate with a wide variety of sensors and recorders that are most commonly used in environmental data acquisition applications such as climate change tracking, water quality and testing, ecological research, soil monitoring, agriculture and weather analysis. Using the Labview SDI-12 API, researchers, engineers and scientists can connect traditional environmental da...