Spotlight on Embedded – November 2023

Welcome to the November issue of the Avnet Embedded Spotlight. It’s been an exciting month with Avnet CEO Phil Gallagher cutting the ribbon on our new, purpose-built global technology campus in Freiburg, Germany. It was a pleasure to host customers, partners and colleagues from Avnet, Avnet Integrated, Avnet Silica, Avnet Abacus and EBV Elektronik for our opening ceremony.

We’re sharing some information from our Embedded Software Sessions, that you can catch up on via the Insights section of our website, or via the links below. Plus, this month to celebrate the opening of Freiburg, we’re focusing on our global campuses – getting you to market faster, better, stronger wherever in the world you are.

Just a reminder that you can catch up on previous back issues of the Spotlight, on our website, here.

Let’s dive into the holiday season…

News

Avnet Opens Technology Campus in Southern Germany

State-of-the art hub for compute, display, system and server assembly serving OEMs worldwide

The new facility offers design, manufacturing and integration of new purpose-built solutions, utilizing compute and display building blocks for customers serving IoT edge and data center markets. Products manufactured at the campus are typically for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) customers.

The campus comprises 8,000 square meters (86,000 square feet) of manufacturing space to transform or fully customize compute-based solutions, such as medical equipment, infotainment systems, industrial control systems, and IT appliances.

Solution complexity ranges from handheld appliances to full IT rack integration. It also includes design and engineering labs with 7,000 square meters (75,000 square feet) of logistics warehouse, offices and co-working space 3,000 square meters (30,000 square feet).

“The new Freiburg campus represents our strategy to increase our presence in Europe and diversify the locations of electronics manufacturing around the world,” said Avnet EMEA President Mario Orlandi. “The addition and scale of this campus allows us to not only design and manufacture compute systems but to also deliver them worldwide through Avnet’s global logistics operations.”

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PDLC: The ‘useful’ glass that is for more than just interiors

PDLC stands for ‘Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals’. When you engineer PDLC into glass (or even a self-adhesive film that can be affixed to glass) it becomes much more interesting than its name initially indicates. Some people refer to it as ‘smart glass’. We disagree because it doesn’t make glass smart – but it does make it useful.
In its essence, it is a photoelectric film that stays transparent only when an AC voltage is applied to it.

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‘Write once, deploy anywhere’: the architecture of SimpleSwitch™

SimpleSwitch is divided into three parts: Software Development Kit (SDK), Base images and the container registry. The SDK will be the only thing you need to install on your computer. It contains all libraries, compilers and tooling that you’ll need to cross-compile projects and deploy them on our SMARC modules.

Using the SDK, developing embedded software becomes as easy as developing a smartphone application. The SimpleSwitch SDK is available for i.MX8, Intel, and QEMU.

For those unfamiliar with QEMU, it is a virtual machine that comes with SimpleSwitch and replicates hardware interfaces and software frameworks which are identical to our SMARC modules. It’s an extremely convenient and cost-effective way of developing software in large teams, where it is not possible to provide a piece of hardware for each engineer. Instead, each can work on a virtual machine and undertake the development as they would on the SMARC module.

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Software development problems solved with SimpleSwitch™

It’s a problem all too familiar to software developers. Beginning a project with a poorly defined feature set and working in parallel with a hardware team who wants to select a module right from the start, so they can develop their carrier board. But how can you make the right choice so early in the process, when you’re not even sure what you’re going to develop?

These are precisely the problems we wanted to solve when we created SimpleSwitch. With it, you can prototype an application at speed with the most common frameworks, such as Python, QT or Flutter. We provide a virtual machine that shares the same hardware interfaces as the modules your hardware team has on order. Check out Embedded Software Sessions, Episode 1, to find out more

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COM Express module family with AMD Ryzen Embedded R2000 processors

The development of modern industrial products in different markets can be significantly optimized by using standardized computer-on-modules (COMs). The flexible standard modules provide the desired processor technology with scalable compute, graphics and video performance.

Avnet Embedded offers a comprehensive portfolio of module families that comply with the widely used COM Express standard. In addition to module families based on Intel® Core™ or Intel® Atom® processors, modules with AMD Ryzen™ Embedded processors are also offered. With the renewed expansion of the product range, new markets can be opened up and customers can continue to receive comprehensive support over the entire lifetime of their product.

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Products Highlights

MSC OSM-SF-IMX93

The MSC OSM-SF-IMX93 is based on the new OSM 1.1 standard (Size-S) “Small” for completely machine-processible, low-cost embedded computer modules during soldering, assembly and testing. Highly scalable and equipped with i.MX 93 Applications Processors manufactured by NXP.

The processors integrate ARM Cortex-A55 cores, bringing performance and energy efficiency to Linux-based edge applications and the ARM Ethos-U65 microNPU. This enables developers to create more capable, cost-effective and energy-efficient machine learning (ML) applications. The i.MX 93 processors deliver advanced security with integrated EdgeLock secure enclave and an efficient 2D graphics processing unit (GPU).

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Focus on: Our Facilities

Avnet Embedded’s technology campuses make us stand out from the crowd.

Our design teams, project managers, customer service managers, product designers and engineers are based on the same sites as our manufacturing and assembly lines. Avnet Embedded boasts world-class manufacturing and assembly processes using the latest technology and logistics methods to enable high precision, efficiency and security for our customers.

Customers are always impressed when they visit our campuses. If you want to understand why, you can request a live tour through the contact form, which can be conducted either in real life or via state-of-the-art virtual technology.

Our facilities are all fully certified with the relevant ISO certifications, and environmental and ethical standards. You can take a look at our new Freiburg campus here.

If you want to get your embedded solution to market better, faster and stronger, then talk to our experts.

Let’s talk!

Partner view

A global partnership with Advantech

Founded in 1983 and an Avnet partner since 2001, Advantech is a leader in providing trusted and innovative embedded and automation products and solutions.
In conjunction with Advantech, we are proud to offer global services and a wide range of products including:

Industrial motherboards
Single board computers (SBC)
Embedded systems
AI solutions

Our partnership supplies embedded solutions for many markets worldwide. Some of those markets are Industrial Automation, Retail, Healthcare, Transportation Systems and Communications.

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All the AMD Technology from Avnet Embedded

If you’re looking for solutions with AMD, Avnet Embedded has got you covered.

With a range of motherboards, processors and the Mini-ITX series, AMD has solutions for embedded products across a range of industries and markets.

AMD can provide a competitive edge for AI products, data centre, business computing and gaming systems through their range of processors, graphics and software including the RyzenTM range.

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The latest and greatest motherboards with Kontron

Kontron is a renowned supplier of industrial products (modules, system-on-modules, motherboards), embedded systems, software solutions and ODM/EMS services.

With the acquisition of Fujitsu’s OEM motherboard business in mid-2019, Kontron now also has a leading and innovative role in industrial motherboards – designed and made in Germany.

Kontron relies on its long-standing partner Avnet Embedded, among others, for the distribution of these motherboards as well as extensive accessories.

Peter Hoser, Vice President Product Center Boards: “Avnet Embedded has in-depth technical know-how, very good design-in support and many years of experience in the development and production of industrial systems. We appreciate this very much and look forward to many more years of good cooperation as well as exciting projects.”

Learn More

Remember that you can now sign up to get the Spotlight here, and you can view all the back issues of Spotlight here.

Subscribe here to get your own copy of the monthly Avnet Embedded Spotlight

Talk to the experts!

Let us know about your product or your challenge and our team will get in touch to discuss how we can help.

Let’s Talk

Spotlight on Embedded – November 2023

News

Avnet Opens Technology Campus in Southern Germany

PDLC: The ‘useful’ glass that is for more than just interiors

‘Write once, deploy anywhere’: the architecture of SimpleSwitch™

Software development problems solved with SimpleSwitch™

COM Express module family with AMD Ryzen Embedded R2000 processors

Products Highlights

MSC OSM-SF-IMX93

Focus on: Our Facilities

Partner view

A global partnership with Advantech

All the AMD Technology from Avnet Embedded

The latest and greatest motherboards with Kontron

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Talk to the experts!