CIE Components in Electronics
Cortus, a technology company in low-power, silicon-efficient, 32-bit processor IP, and Nabto, a Peer-to-Peer (p2p) software company, have announced the availability of the uNabto communication platform on Cortus’ APS processor cores. uNabto is a low-bandwidth Web server protocol that runs on any Cortus APS core and employs a new approach to bypassing firewalls and providing GUI-based Internet access to a wide range of embedded applications—using only 16 KB of Flash and less than 1 kB of RAM. uNabto running on Cortus APS cores with the Cortus Ethernet 10/100 MAC enables “Skype-like” connectivity from systems-on-chip (SoC) to browsers on mobile phones, PCs and to big data systems.
“Creating remote user access to the ‘Internet of Things’ has never been easier,” said Carsten Rhod Gregersen, CEO at Nabto. “By combining Cortus’ processor cores and Ethernet MAC with the uNabto Web server software, a simple, autonomous and highly scalable end-user experience is achieved. The Nabto platform enables the transmission and rendering of both local and remote data directly from a Cortus-based SoC to a browser on any PC or smart phone, speeding time-to-market without the complexity and cost of a high-end network solution.”
The resource-constrained nature of embedded devices was not designed for Web browsing. Using traditional Web technology, it is costly and difficult to reach an embedded SoC device located behind a firewall; not to mention serving and transmitting large graphics files while rendering HTML to a browser. Nabto enables lightweight remote access through its patent-pending fusion of HTTP and VoIP technologies. The end result is that the complexity of serving large-footprint data is moved from the SoC processor core to the remote user’s Nabto browser plug-in. This Cortus-based Nabto solution brings SoCs for “Internet of Things” one step closer, as the value gained from remote Web access now matches the cost to implement it.
“Developers of SoCs with embedded processors are looking for lightweight, silicon-efficient design solutions,” said Mr. Michael Chapman, CEO and president of Cortus, “Nabto’s lightweight p2p software with a small firmware footprint perfectly complements Cortus minimalist processor cores.” He added, “Cortus APS cores, with low power and good code density are an excellent choice for SoCs requiring P2M or M2M connectivity with Nabto.”
Cortus licenses a range of low power, silicon efficient, 32-bit processor cores supporting a range computational performance and supporting different system complexity. The cores start from entry-level 32-bit cores suitable for upgrading 8-bit cores to cores supporting caches, co-processors and symmetric multiprocessing systems. They share the simple vectored interrupt structure, which ensures rapid, real time interrupt response, with low software overhead.
All APS processor cores interface to Cortus’ peripherals including Ethernet 10/100 MAC, USB 2.0 Device and USB 2.0 OTG via the efficient APS bus. The Ethernet MAC allows the chosen physical interface to be connected using either the Medium Independent Interface (MII) or Reduced Medium Independent Interface (RMII). Flexible memory interfaces with two independent DMA channels enable system design to ensure low CPU overhead reception and transmission without any danger of frames being lost. Address filtering enables a single interface to respond to multiple MAC addresses.
