43rd Design Automation Conference

DAC is coming July 24-28 to San Francisco, CA. The largest EDA and design event of the year! Plan to attend technical sessions, panels, and MEGa (Multimedia, Entertainment and Games) sessions. Plus, visit over 240 companies on the exhibit floor. Strike technology gold at DAC. Register today!

Microsoft's forray into the embedded systems space celebrated a major milestone with the recent ten year anniversary of Windows CE, the company's 'hard' real-time operating system. At its annual developers convention, Microsoft Embedded Developers' Conference (MEDC), the Redmond giant announced a 'beta' edition of Windows CE 6.0 with two new key features:

1. tighter tools integration into the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005, as Platform Builder now becomes a 'plug in' to Visual Studio - thus broadening the developer community for CE; and
2. support for 32,000 simultaneous processes (up from just 32), each of which run in a 2GB virtual memory address space - thus allowing far more than most devices need.

With support for x86, ARM, MIPS, and SH, CE is Microsoft's solution for devices that need 'hard' real-time, and the company's strategy is to 'seed' the embedded market with inexpensive development tools, 120 day RTOS copies, a cool developers conference and more.

The third party ecosystem around Microsoft Windows (both CE and XP embedded) merits serious attention. One product that hasn't garned high press attention is the .NET Micro Framework. Don't miss Digi International's announcement that it will offer support for the framework on its industry-leading line of wired and wireless embedded modules. The goal is to bring Microsoft software into very small, very cost-sensitive products. Check out the release here as well as the 'Smart Personal Objects Technology' (SPOT), of which this is a part.

Another cool technology comes from Tenasys, a leader in combining Windows XP Embedded with true real-time performance. The goal is to take advantage of Intel's Core Duo dual processor technology in order to run both Windows XP and INtime 3.0 for the best of the desktop and real-time worlds. Full information here.

A final example of the ecosystem is Intrinsyc, a company that works with CE attempting to make it easier as a development platform for wireless computing, telematics, industrial automation and remote monitoring on the Xscale platform. Intrinsyc announced its Cerf™Board 270 for Microsoft® Windows CE.NET 5.0, here. And InHand Electronics built upon Intel's Monahans (Xscale) architecture to enhance low power performance on Windows CE devices. Release here.

(conference, 4 stars) - 6/4/2006, Chicago

GlobalComm 2006
Where the entire buying/selling chain converges to create the next-generation global communications marketplace and summit. Where global communications drives global commerce. And where you need to be to connect with the industry leaders who are delivering the very latest solutions and technologies to enable the next-gen networks and services that will move your business forward faster.

(conference, 4 stars) - 6/5/2006, Rosemont

ZigBee Alliance Developers' Conference
The ZigBee Developers' Conference will allow developers to delve into the technology behind the specification. Work directly with the experts to gain knowledge and get a jump on your competition to implement ZigBee wireless sensor networks. Compare certified platforms side-by-side, try out the transceivers, microcontrollers, network stacks and developer tools without paying several thousand dollars for each of the evaluation kits.

(seminar, 4 stars) - 6/14/2006, San Jose

High-Speed Interconnects - Free Seminar
Join the Linley Group in San Jose for a Linley Tech seminar on High-Speed Interconnects. The program will kick off with a technology and market overview by Jag Bolaria, senior analyst with The Linley Group. The morning session will address board-level interconnects, while the afternoon session will concentrate on system-level interconnects. The seminar wraps up with a panel on interconnect trends. Afterward, join us...

(conference, 4 stars) - 6/27/2006, Warwickshire

Profibus Users Conference
Immerse yourself in PROFIBUS at Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire, an impressive conference centre close to Birmingham International Airport and within easy reach of the M6, M1 and M42! Following the undoubted success of the 2004 and 2005 Conferences, PROFIBUS UK is delighted to announce that it will be presenting another in 2006.