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ARM - it's not just for cell phones anymore. That was very much in evidence at the recent ARM DevCon.

The ARM7 in particular is becoming popular in broad industrial applications. STMicroelectronics, for example, introduced a family of ARM-based microcontrollers, the STR730F series, that is specifically designed to address the emerging demand for high-performance, cost-effective and off-the-shelf 32-bit microcontrollers optimised for industrial applications (here). Philips Semiconductor also made an ARM7 announcement, three new additions to its popular LPC2000 microcontroller (MCU) family: the LPC2101, the LPC2102 and the LPC2103. Release here.

New microprocessers are great, but better yet are practical 'hands-on' seminars, evaluation kits, and other ways designers can explore the ARM7. Philips just concluded an ARM7 design contest, and Texas Instruments announced a very exciting $199 TMS470 System KickStart Kit, the TMS470 being a 32-bit RISC ARM7TDMI®-Based microcontroller. Details here. Plans are also underway for a worldwide seminar series on the TMS470, so stay tuned.

Security means different things to different people, and different applications need different approaches to the security problem. ARM, for example, is highlighting the TrustZone™ security embedded in its latest Cortex-A8 processor. Release here, followed by Wind River's announcement of supporting software technology, here.

For other software vendors, security means 'safety critical.' RTOS-leader Lynuxworks, for example, released a solution to provide IA-32 support for DO-178B certifiable solutions (here), and has just announced a seminar series on embedded security, here. That seminar is in partnership with Objective Interface Systems and Certicom, whose 'Certicom Security Architecture' consists of a portable, modular set of software cryptographic providers that offer FIPS 140-2 validation and meet NSA guidelines for ECC and security services like SSL, IPSec, PKI, DRM and Embedded Trust Services (ETS).

OIS just released PCSexpress, a secure high-performance communications middleware product that is integral to MILS (Multiple Independent Levels of Security), a foundational software architecture created to meet the gravest security threats to mission-critical systems.

Other security approaches build directly upon hardware support. Interniche, for instance, enhanced its TCP/IP product to take advantage of Freescale's ColdFire CryptoEngine technology, here. In these applications, security is meant as security against intrusion, and most of the solutions are related to data protection and encryption. Intoto and Tarari have thus introduced a joint hardware and software solution focused on network security and intrusion prevention, here.

Here are some good starting places on security for your embedded applications:

• The MILS Architecture for a Secure Global Information Grid
• Trusted Computing Group
• The First Book of Compression and Encryption
• Internet Security Tutorial
• Wireless Network Security

(conference, 5 stars) - 11/14/2005, Orange County

2005 Software Defined Radio Technical Conference
This technical conference and product exposition is focused on technology, standards, and business activity related to software defined radios. The conference will be held immediately prior to the November General Meeting of the Software Defined Radio Forum

(conference, 4 stars) - 11/19/2005, Worcester

DesignCon East
DesignCon East is an educational forum addressing the challenges facing electronic design and semiconductor engineers in the Eastern region of the United States. Building on the established quality and success of DesignCon, the annual Silicon Valley-based conference serving thousands of design professionals, DesignCon East serves to provide solutions that attendees can implement immediately in their designs

(conference, 4 stars) - 12/6/2005, San Jose

AdvancedTCA Summit
With the cooperation of CompactPCI and AdvancedTCA Systems Magazine and RTC Magazine, and the endorsement of PICMG, leading are sponsoring a three-day summit on AdvancedTCA. Join them in San Jose in December to learn more.