Evaluation kit for high-performance control systems

Built on the ARM Cortex-M7 architecture with integrated floating-point unit, the Atmel SAME70-Xplained Evaluation Kit for Atmel’s SAME70 general-purpose industrial / consumer microcontroller, is now available from Farnell element14. The SAME70-XPLD microcontroller evaluation board can be used with a wide range of extension boards which are integrated with Atmel Studio, Atmel Software Framework (ASF) drivers and demo code, support data streaming, and more. Additionally, the SAME70-XPLD evaluation board supports Arduino shields for further expansion. The kit is aimed at engineers upgrading / migrating from SAM4E microcontrollers, working on embedded designs for industrial control, consumer, or PC peripheral applications, or seeking a high-performance, general-purpose ARM Cortex-M7 MCU with large memory integration and integrated floating point DSP, running at up to 300MHz. Expected applications include lighting, industrial control, consumer, PC peripherals and robotics. Each extension board has standardized connectors and headers, and includes an Atmel CryptoAuthentication ID chip for unique identification upon connection with an Xplained MCU board. This information is used to present associated user guides, application notes, data sheets, and example code through Atmel Studio, thereby simplifying and enhancing the development experience. All Xplained kits include an on-board Embedded Debugger, and no external tools are necessary to program or debug the target microcontroller. The evaluation kit extends element14’s range of solutions for higher-end ARM Cortex-M devices, requiring real-time digital signal processing or fast numerical computation. It is supported by the Atmel Xplained ecosystem, which includes MCU evaluation boards, extension boards integrated with Atmel Studio, Atmel Software Framework (ASF) drivers and demo code, data streaming support, and other features facilitating full evaluation of the microcontroller. Farnell element14 is also launching the Atmel SmartConnect WILC1000 an extension board containing the Atmel ultra-low power IoT module specifically optimised for low power IoT applications. SmartConnect is a family of self-contained, low power and certified modules bringing wireless internet connectivity. An IEEE 802.11 b/g/n IOT link controller SoC, the WILC1000 is the ideal add-on to existing MCU solutions bringing WiFi through UART or SPI/SDIO-to-WiFi interface. The WILC1000 connects to any Atmel AVR or SMART MCU with minimal resource requirements, says the company.