Author: Gareth Halfacree

Gareth Halfacree is a technology journalist and technical author best known for his work on the Raspberry Pi User Guide and an upcoming book covering the BBC’s micro:bit project. A keen open source advocate and RISC-V fan, Gareth is responsible for curating our fortnightly community round-up posts.

OSHCamp 2017 Videos Now Available

We’re pleased to announce that talks from the Open Source Hardware Camp (OSHCamp) 2017 are now available on the AB Open YouTube channel, covering topics from the RISC-V instruction set and machine learning for embedded systems through to the BBC micro:bit and garden automation. Recorded during OSHCamp 2017, the annual… Read More

Open-Source LoRa Stik Hits Crowd Supply

Steven Osborn, of Oregon-based Third Venture Inc, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a low-cost USB-connected LoRa transceiver: the LoRa Stik. “In 2013 I worked on a solution for vineyard owners to monitor wine grapes. Back then we were using expensive and not very robust xBee radios and had poor… Read More

Leti Boasts of LoRa, NB-IoT-Beating LPWA-CB Tests

CEA Tech research institute Leti has announced a new low-power wide-area (LPWA) standard, based on a novel approach to the physical layer called Turbo Frequency-Shift Keying (Turbo-FSK), which it claims outperforms both LoRa and NB-IoT implementations. “Leti’s Turbo-FSK receiver performs close to the Shannon limit, which is the maximum rate… Read More

OnChip, SiFive Announce New RISC-V Microcontroller Cores

RISC-V pioneers OnChip and SiFive have separately announced new microcontroller chip designs, taking aim at the low-power sensor market with their own takes on the open architecture. In a message to social networking service Twitter, OnChip revealed a RISC-V microcontroller design described as having always-on features, three power states… Read More

Researchers Unveil Performance-Boosting OLC Network Architecture

Researchers at Brunel University London have announced a novel architecture for software defined networks (SDN), dubbed Open-Level Control (OLC), which they claim will help networks deal with the growing volume of messaging from Internet of Things (IoT) devices over the coming decades. “We believe we have developed the best discovery… Read More

OpenPiton Research Processor Reaches Release 7

The team behind the OpenPiton Open Source Research Processor project has announced Release 7, bringing with it a range of improvements designed to make it easier to implement. Built on top of the open-source OpenSPARC processor, created in 2006 when Sun Microsystems released RTL code for its UltraSPARC T1 processor,… Read More

ON Semiconductor Launches IoT Development Kit

ON Semiconductor has announced the launch of the Internet of Things (IoT) Development Kit (IDK), a development board ecosystem designed to make prototyping and test as rapid as possible. “ON Semiconductor recognised early on that something needed to be done about the disjointed situation that exists between the hardware and… Read More

The Things Network/Digital Catapult Wireless Network Graphic

The Things Network, Digital Catapult Join for UK’s Largest LoRaWAN Network

Community wireless organisation The Things Network and the Digital Catapult UK technology innovation centre have announced a partnership to launch the nation’s largest free-to-use LoRaWAN wireless network. “UK innovators can now deploy LoRaWAN solutions more seamlessly across the region and fuel further collaboration to benefit the UK economy,” claims The… Read More

CRU: York’s LoRaWAN Plan, HiFive Unleashed Unleashed, and More

First unveiled back at FOSDEM, the SiFive HiFive Unleashed Linux-compatible RISC-V development board heralds an exciting time in the world of free and open source silicon – and AB Open’s Andrew Back has been working with one. “It’s great that we now have a Linux capable development board for 64-bit… Read More

York Minster, by Wikimedia Commons user MatzeTrier

City of York to Launch Open-Access LoRaWAN Network

The City of York Council has announced a deal with Pinacl to launch a LoRaWAN network, which it pledges will be open access and available for Internet of Things (IoT) entrepreneurs and tinkerers to use. Pinacl, which entered into a managed service contract with the Council in 2009 and has… Read More

Cypress, Semtech Announce Two-Chip LoRaWAN Module

Cypress Semiconductor and Semtech Corporation have announced their collaboration on a new, two-chip module combining a microcontroller with a long-range low-power LoRaWAN radio, to first appear in the Onethinx Core. “With its long range and low power capabilities in a compact footprint, Semtech’s LoRa Technology is ideal for vertical applications,”… Read More

Jeff Dorsch on the Importance of Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing

Semiconductor Engineering’s Jeff Dorsch has penned a piece on hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation and testing, positioning it as having “a growing role” in the world of embedded system design. “Embedded electronics are showing up nearly everywhere these days, in cars, smart appliances, medical devices—even fighter jets. Making sure those real-time embedded… Read More