17. February 2009 by admin.

If USB is a topic of major interest to you, then it will be worth hastening down to the Bristol Trade Counter on March 25.

Your hosts will be RS Components and Microchip, and in a one day seminar they will aim to provide an introduction to USB, covering specification and protocol, the USB peripheral in Microchip’s PIC18F USB microcontroller. It will conclude with some tips on specific system level design.

Now you should be familiar with the Microchip MCUs and have a working knowledge of MPLAB C18. It’s a hands-on class and attendees will get an introduction to the MPLAB C18 USB firmware library and will receive instruction on how to select a Windows driver to interface a Windows program to a USB device.

The venue is RS Components Trade Counter in Bristol and the event runs from 9am to 4.30pm. Cost is £80 which includes lunch and a Microchip PICDEM FS-USB demo board.

To register go to www.rswww.com/electronicsand scroll onto the seminars link in the Trade Shows and Seminars window. Oh, and hurry up there are only 10 places.

(http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e5539d76a58834011278ddfcb328a4) 

Posted in Training & Education, RS Components, USB, 8-bit, Microchip, Development Tool | Print | 2 Comments »

17. February 2009 by admin.

ZeroG Wireless Teams With Microchip Technology to Introduce ZeroG Wi-Fi Development Kits for PIC Microcontrollers

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ — ZeroG Wireless, Inc., an innovator in low-power embedded Wi-Fi design, today announced the ZeroG “Wi-Fi I/O” development kits for Microchip Technology Inc.’s (Nasdaq: MCHP) PIC microcontrollers. The ZeroG development kits are based on the standard Microchip PICtail(TM) and PICtail Plus daughter-board connectors, which allows a designer to easily plug Wi-Fi connectivity into a variety of Microchip development kits. The Wi-Fi I/O kits are now available to select customers as part of an early-access program, with general availability expected in April. Interested customers can register on the ZeroG Web site at http://www.zerogwireless.com.

“We needed to develop a solution that would enable customers to easily and seamlessly add Wi-Fi to their existing designs,” said David Friedman, vice president of Business Development for ZeroG. “Teaming with Microchip to develop a tightly integrated PICtail daughter board approach ensures that there is no need to buy a lot of additional hardware or software, or do a lot of re-engineering to make it work. Customers can begin prototyping with Wi-Fi the very same day they receive their ZeroG Wi-Fi PICtail Daughter Board.”

The PICtail daughter board-based kits contain a ZeroG Wi-Fi module mounted to a PICtail daughter board, along with software drivers. As a result of the joint development by ZeroG and Microchip, the ZeroG software stack runs on the 8-bit PIC18, 16-bit PIC24 and 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers as well as the dsPIC digital signal controller families, requiring little additional system resource to add Wi-Fi connectivity. The driver is highly integrated with Microchip’s royalty-free TCP/IP networking stack, so customers that have used the stack can easily migrate from wired Ethernet to Wi-Fi communication. The module is being FCC certified and has an onboard antenna, with options for several external antennas for production.

“We have seen a growing interest in Wi-Fi from our customers, over the last two years,” said Rodger Richey, director of applications for Microchip’s Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division. “Working with ZeroG, we are jointly engineering a solution that leverages our customers’ existing investments in hardware and software. Their PICtail daughter board and module is an easy-to-use Wi-Fi prototyping system with a fast path to production.”

The ZeroG development kits are currently available to customers as part of an early-access program. General availability is expected to follow at the beginning of April 2009. Development kit pricing ranges from $219 to $595 (U.S.), and is dependent on the configuration of the kit. Interested customers can register on the ZeroG Web site at http://www.zerogwireless.com.

The kits will be on display at ZeroG’s Booth #541, at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, March 31-April 3.

Posted in TCP/IP, WiFi, ZeroG, Early Adopter List, 8-bit, PIC, 32-bit, dsPIC, 16-bit, Development Tool | Print | 1 Comment »

17. February 2009 by admin.

Posted in Video, Just for Fun, PIC, Microchip | Print | 1 Comment »