Home Innovation Technologies: ADSmartIO™

Now that web-based and client-server applications are pushing intelligence into smart, 32-bit low power systems, another level of distributed intelligence is opening up. ADSmartIO technology was created by Applied Data Systems based on years of expertise in low-power, high performance applications.  It is a behind-the-scenes, platform-based I/O system that supports technology changes, even legacy features, quickly and seamlessly.

The ADSmartIO system is a full package that contains hardware and software, including driver code. It consists of an 8-bit microcontroller interfacing through a serial SPI bus to a 32-bit RISC subsystem with Freescale i.MX, Intel IXP, or Marvell PXA processors. The controller contains a range of configurable I/O options which are accessible through a header on the embedded board.  Configurations run across various programming environments such as Linux, Java, and C++.  ADSmartIO is verified for operation in several system power modes including sleep, important conditions for low-power RISC computing.   From the software side, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provide access to all ADSmartIO functionality. These APIs are controlled through microcode which is loaded onto the operating system. 

ADSmartIO's array of functions includes:

• Better power management
• Control of backlights and LCDs
• More serial ports
• Special serial ports- e.g. non-ASCCI protocols
• Measurement of voltages, temperatures and status
• Specialty operations for devices
• Watchdog activity timer for main CPU
• Credit Card mag-stripe reader
• Keyboard Scanning
• Pulse Train Encoder
• You Choose!

The real effort in developing a good ADSmartIO implementation is to design and verify it for operation in the device’s high and low power modes that make low power computing so useful, and to integrate the microcode with the OS and extended API. You get a clean API to the special hardware function you want. That is Application Ready!

For a white paper about ADSmartIO, click here.

To learn more about ADSmartIO™, contact us.