MSC announce the availability of the Renesas Starter Kit for the RZ/A1 group of microprocessors, enabling a quick start into the development of cost-sensitive, compact Human Machine Interface applications. Launched in June 2013 with on chip SRAM of 3 MB, 5 MB or 10 MB, the RZ/A1 group of MPUs can drive displays up to 1280x768 pixels resolution without the need for external RAM.

The first two articles in this series covered aspects of smart meter design from the perspective of their operation within the consumer premises i.e. requirements for local displays and controls (part one) and sensing and measurement technology (part two). To be fair, given the topic is ‘smart meters’, much of what we’ve considered so far has been more about the transition from traditional power/gas/water metering technology, with electro-m...

As we saw in the first part of this series of articles, the replacement of traditional electricity, gas, water and other meters with smart meters is being driven by utility companies and governments for a variety of reasons. Lying behind this is the ‘ideal’ of conserving our use of natural resources through the intelligence that comes from having more immediate access to data along with the means to apply appropriate controls.

Utility companies and governments are committed to the inexorable deployment of smart meters for a whole variety of reasons. Governments typically see this as part of their “green” strategy in raising awareness of the need to conserve energy and other resources. Utility companies may see this as part of their corporate social responsibility but more likely they will have a much stronger commercial objective.

MSC Gleichmann is hosting a Lattice Semiconductor “@MachX02 Speed” seminar at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire on 21 November 2012. With a focus on the MachX02 family of non-volatile, infinitely reconfigurable, Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), this training event will address all aspects of hardware and software design, looking at the product line’s unique features and the development tools, reference designs and other sup...