ASUS announced the Padfone

If pads and phones are the fastest growing categories in consumer tech, surely a Padfone would be the ultimate combo? That's what ASUS thinks, and it's just introduced its smartphone device that comes with a tablet it can dock into. Display switching is done dynamically, so that reading emails or browsing the web on the fone portion expands itself seamlessly once it's connected into the pad.

Marvell Announces the 88EM8801, the World’s First Dual-String Smart LED Controller Chip

 

Marvell is currently sampling the 88EM8801 and the evaluation boards to key OEMs.

Marvell announced the 88EM8801, the world’s first dual-string smart LED controller chip, which uses the company’s unique power technology to enable superior lighting performance. Using high-levels of integration and advanced mixed-signal technology, Marvell is able to pack high-end lighting features into a single chip that would otherwise require multiple driver chips, a micro-controller and many discrete components to implement. The on-chip intelligent digital controls and ultra-small form factor of the Marvell® new 88EM8801 chip enables customers to introduce superior lighting features and controls into mainstream professional and consumer lighting products, such as down lights, Zhaga-compliant LED modules, PAR lamps, AR lamps, A19 lamps and MR bulbs.

The 88EM8801 is the first offering in the new Marvell 8800 LED lighting controller family, which offers intelligent digital controls to drastically reduce system design complexity and the engineering effort required to implement high-end lighting features. The unique current tuning capability of the new 8800 series enables the use of loosely binned, lower-cost LEDs to deliver uniform light output and constant color temperature during the manufacturing process and throughout the long lifespan of the LED lamps themselves. Additionally, the 8800 family leverages intelligent pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming controller circuitry and other digital controls to achieve deep dimming levels up to 0.1 percent.

The intelligence of the 88EM8801 chip significantly enhances light quality while reducing LED component expenses, which accounts for up to 60 percent of the total cost of typical LED light bulbs. Leveraging Marvell’s dual-string driver technology, the 88EM8801 offers an unparalleled solution for mixing and controlling different color LED strings to achieve high color rendering index (CRI) and high lumens per watt. Lastly, the 8801 solution delivers up to 95 percent efficiency while providing an on-chip communication interface for wireless lighting controls.

Embedded Web Server Controlling Garage Door

Here's a demo of anEmbedded Ethernet Web Server
making it possible to open and close my garage garage door
using an internet connected PC, or mobile device with internet connectivity
(in this case a Sony Playstation Portable).

The PC connection lags a little, maybe because it's using Wndows 7
with a version of Internet Explorer known to have issues with the server.

The Embedded SD card web server is a project from Silicon Chip magazine
(Australia).
The LCD display and driver chip add-on is my own design and programming.
Some source code modification was required to have the chip provide a pulse
output rather than toggled outputs.
This was achieved by altering the server code to output a flag with the serial
data burst sent to the LCD driver chip that includes the time of day.
The LCD driver chip sees this, and then it provides the pulse output to a relay
(seen on an external prototype PCB). The relay triggers the garage door opener.

VIA QuadCore processor combines low-cost and low-power with 'adaptive overclocking'

Computex is coming up fast and with it we're expecting a slew of new gear. The event will also mark the first public showing of VIA's new x86 quad-core processors aptly named, QuadCore (pictured above center next to a Nano X2). The new procs are manufactured using 40nm processes and combine four Isaiah cores on two dies resulting in a Thermal Design Power of 27.5 watts. That low TDP allows VIA to make the nebulous claim that its first QuadCore L4700 processor is 21 percent more energy efficient than its nearest competitor while offering "awesome" multitasking and multimedia playback performance. Initially available at 1.2+GHz, the 64-bit native processor features adaptive overclocking (think Intel Turbo Boost) for dynamic clock adjustments up to 1.46GHz, a 4MB L2 cache, and 1333MHz front-side bus. Oh, and the QuadCores will be pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Eden, C7, Nano E-Series, and Eden X2 processors when they begin shipping in bulk in Q3. We'll bring you more on these supposed low-cost procs when we see them demoed first hand in Taipei starting May 31st. Until then, click through for the full press release or hit up the more coverage links below for an in-depth preview.

GRASP Lab quadrocopters learn to follow the leader and fly in formation

The University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Lab has already recklessly taught its autonomous quadrocopters to move in packs, fly through hoops and build things on their own, and it's now for some reason decided to teach them yet another trick they'll surely use against us one day. As you can see in the video above, the quadrocopters are now able to take cues from a leader and fly in formation. What's more, they can even continue with the formation if one loses communication and falls out of the pack, which the researchers note is key to the success of any swarm. Isn't that reassuring?