EETimes.

The Embedded Systems Conference (April 26-29, San Jose) may seem an unlikely place for designers with RF interests. After all, the "real" place for RF is at the IEEE MTT 2010 International Microwave Symposium, (aka MTTS), right?


Well, yes and no. There is no doubt that RF in all of its aspects is the undivided province of MTTS, can't argue with that. But there's a lot of smaller, vital, carefully focused RF in embedded products, too. In fact, the use of what I'll call "small" RF is becoming increasingly common in remote controls; dedicated single-purpose links; special-use applications; and more, to make embedded designs more practical and, in some cases, enable them.

Here's an example I just came across, the recently introduced Klipsch LightSpeaker. It is designed to allow home users to very quickly set up loudspeakers anywhere they have a recessed AC-lamp socket fixture (those overhead lights we see in so many places). It incorporates a 10W LED-based floodlight (claimed equivalent to 65W incandescent), a 20W digital-audio amplifier with DSP equalization, and a wireless 2.4 GHz link. You set up a music "base station" within 50 feet, establish the link, and you'll have 20W of sound from that speaker, with no audio or separate AC wiring needed. (A single base supports up to eight such units.) Pretty clever, and likely to appeal to homeowners and small stores, due to its simplicity.

This is just one example of how a very application-specific embedded design is using multiple disciplines and technologies: RF, processor(s), audio, power, LED and LED drivers, and more, to create a completely different kind of product. (I won't even get into all the personal medical instrumentation that is coming out, some with RF.) And you'll see many more of these at ESC, I suspect.