COMPETITION TIME : Win a new xCORE-XA Dev Kit

All the latest news and announcements from XCore and XMOS.
User avatar
DavidW
Active Member
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:23 pm

COMPETITION TIME : Win a new xCORE-XA Dev Kit

Post by DavidW »

Win a xCORE-XA Dev Kit

Only announced a few days ago, the xCORE-XA Dev Kit is a brand new product from XMOS! We haven't even gotten these out to our sales channels yet but we're going to make one available for a lucky XCore Exchange Community member.

What is the xCORE-XA Dev Kit?

The new Dev kit allows embedded designers to develop, debug and prototype products based on the range of powerful xCORE-XA devices, which combine multiple deterministic 32-bit xCORE logical cores with an ARM Cortex M3 processor in a single device. xCORE-XA can be programmed in C with the exact set of interfaces and peripherals required for any design. In the same design, engineers can re-use existing ARM code and leverage the rich ARM ecosystem, including standard code libraries that can dramatically accelerate product design time.

The xCORE-XA I/O is fully routed to 0.1” pitch header connections, with each set including power, ground and reset, allowing maximum flexibility and easy prototype configuration. Power to the debuggers can be disabled so that the module can be used as part of a target system.Image

The xCORE-XA device at the heart of the development system is the XS1-XAU8A-10, featuring eight 32-bit processors (seven xCORE logical cores plus an ARM Cortex-M3 processor), 192KB SRAM, and 1024KB of Flash. The device includes a low energy USB interface, ultra low-energy peripherals and analog functions including ADC, DAC, op-amps and capacitive sensing comparators. Like all xCORE-XA devices, the XA-U8-1024 can make use of the wide range of xSOFTip software peripherals from XMOS’s growing library. The xCORE-XA architecture provides flexible energy management modes. It requires less than 1µA of current to run the integrated real-time clock and 32kHz peripherals, for fast turn-on and time-polled operation. In power-down mode, the device will draw less than 100nA and can wake-up from a GPIO or reset input. No other programmable SoC can achieve this level of low-energy performance.

How do I win it?

Due to the extremely limited availability at the moment, we only have 1 xCORE-XA Dev Kit to give away but we like to keep things simple so we're going to run the usual, tried and tested 'Project Idea' competition.

We want to see exciting ideas that will utilize both the xCORE and ARM cores, especially projects which will make for interesting technology demos and require minimal set-up and supervision.


What do i do now?

We recommend you learn as much as you can about the x-CORE XA Dev Kit as possible, here are a couple of resources to get you started:

xCORE-XA webpage
xCORE-XA Dev Kit Product Brief

Then submit your project ideas to this thread. You can submit as many ideas as you like but 'spamming' the same idea will not be allowed. Remember this is not a random selection. A member of the XMOS team will select the winning idea, so posting up 10 (near)identical projects will not increase your chances of being selected as the winner.

The competition will run until Tuesday 28th October and we will announce the winner soon after this date.

Good luck!


User avatar
DavidW
Active Member
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:23 pm

Post by DavidW »

T+C's :

1. The XMOS xCORE-XA Dev Kit Competition (the "Draw") is open to people aged 18 and over who complete the requirements of the rules.

2. Employees or agencies of XMOS Ltd ("XMOS", "We") its group companies or their family members, or anyone else connected with the Draw may not enter the Draw.

3. Entrants into the Draw shall be deemed to have accepted these Terms and Conditions.

4. By submitting any personal information you agree to receive emails from XMOS containing offers and developments that we think may interest you. You will be given the opportunity to unsubscribe on every communication that we send.

5. To enter the Draw you must reply to the competition thread with your project idea. No purchase is necessary. If you have any questions about how to enter or in connection with the Draw, please e-mail us at support@xmos.com with "xCORE-XA Competition" in the subject line.

6. N/A

7. XMOS accepts no responsibility for entries that are lost, delayed, misdirected or incomplete or cannot be delivered or entered for any technical or other reason. Proof of delivery of the entry is not proof of receipt by XMOS.

8. The closing date for the competition is 12:00 GMT on 28th October 2014. Entries received outside this time period may not be considered.

9. Incomplete entries may not be considered.

10. Judging will take place on 30th October 2014.

12. The winner will receive an XMOS xCORE-XA Development Kit.

13. XMOS accepts no responsibility for any costs associated with the prize and not specifically included in the prize.

14. Prize will be sent to the winner by post.

15. The name and country of the winner can be obtained after 30 October 2014 by sending a stamped addressed envelope to the following address: XMOS Ltd, Prudential Buildings, 11-19 Wine Street, Bristol BS1 2PH, UK.

16. The prize is non-exchangeable, non-transferable, and is not redeemable for cash or other prizes.

17. XMOS shall use and take care of any personal information you supply to it as described in its privacy policy, a copy of which can be seen at http://www.xmos.com/legal/terms, and in accordance with data protection legislation. By entering the Draw, you agree to the collection, retention, usage and distribution of your personal information in order to process and contact you about your Draw entry, and for the purposes outlined in paragraph 4 above.

18. XMOS accepts no responsibility for any damage, loss, liabilities, injury or disappointment incurred or suffered by you as a result of entering the Draw or accepting the prize. XMOS further disclaims liability for any injury or damage to your or any other person's computer relating to or resulting from participation in or downloading any materials in connection with the Draw. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall exclude the liability of XMOS for death, personal injury, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation as a result of its negligence.

19. XMOS reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, this Draw with or without prior notice if in its absolute discretion, it is deemed necessary, for any reason whatsoever. The decision of XMOS in all matters under its control is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.

20. XMOS shall not be liable for any failure to comply with its obligations where the failure is caused by something outside its reasonable control. Such circumstances shall include, but not be limited to, weather conditions, fire, flood, hurricane, strike, industrial dispute, war, hostilities, political unrest, riots, civil commotion, inevitable accidents, supervening legislation or any other circumstances amounting to force majeure.

21. The Draw will be governed by English law and entrants to the Draw submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

22. Promoter: XMOS Ltd, Prudential Buildings, 11-19 Wine Street, Bristol BS1 2PH, UK.
Unchyu2
Member++
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:40 am

Post by Unchyu2 »

Morning light alarm clock
Control a bunch of white LED's to light up in the morning (only on workdays) and some 7 segment displays to display the time. The whole project will be configurable from a web page throw the Wi-Fi module.
To turn the "alarm" off you need to get of from bed, go to the room's light switch and turn that on and off. There is no snooze button ;)
User avatar
pstnotpd
XCore Addict
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:47 am

Post by pstnotpd »

QUESTION (i.e. not a project idea)

Will we get any more documentation soon? It's rather difficult to asses feasibility of a project idea with the information available now.
User avatar
DavidW
Active Member
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:23 pm

Post by DavidW »

pstnotpd wrote:QUESTION (i.e. not a project idea)

Will we get any more documentation soon? It's rather difficult to asses feasibility of a project idea with the information available now.
There are also now a number of XA App notes available here (bottom of the page):

https://www.xmos.com/support/appnotes
User avatar
ahenshaw
Experienced Member
Posts: 96
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 8:55 pm

Post by ahenshaw »

High and low-level controller for Unmanned, Underwater Vehicle (UUV)
The XCORE-XA Dev Kit will be used as a replacement for an existing XMOS device controller and an Intel-based Pico motherboard that is currently in place in an experimental, man-portable micro-UUV.

Currently, the device uses an XMOS processor to manage a large number of sensors, comms, and controls in the UUV. The Intel-based processor manages the higher-level autonomous behaviors and communicates with the XMOS controller via ethernet.

The XCORE-XA module could handle both high and low-level control, while significantly reducing the complexity and size of the system.
Groundloop
Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:12 pm

Post by Groundloop »

As usual, I'd go for a modular system, this time again a home entertainment one. The idea is to have a basic streamer as the core that will be able to play various audio formats. Then, there comes the expandability option: network connectivity, phone/tablet connection, sd card reader or usb/NAS, LCD display - your call. And the swappable DAC modules come as a standard option. Consumer wise the whole point is the perfect customizable multimedia device and let the customesr build and upgrade upon their liking and according to their budget.
mintra
Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:28 pm

Post by mintra »

The tail wags the dog.

The application is sampling sensors connected to oil pipeline terminations, currently a micky mouse arm controller samples a limited number of sensors. Then all this data ends up is an microsoft SQL database, this is all duplicated, then linked to other monitoring systems.

I feel that the data captured to start with does not give full value to the post processing.

Hence I was looking at the xmos stuff (Thanks to Alan Woods presentation and workshop at wuthering bytes) but did not feel that everything would bear recoding.

Now the ARM stuff could be much the same, but I guess an increase the number of front end sensor processors with the other cores is handy.

If I got this I could play with it skunk works style then present a working solution to the end user, who seems happy just the way things are. But what do end users know.
MdeJong
New User
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:54 am

Post by MdeJong »

Hexapod Movement Controler,

I would like to redesign my Walking Hexapod with the use of the xCORE-XA Dev kit.

The ARM core will control the Robot movement (like Forward, backword, left right, turn, etc.)
The control GUI will be provided to the user as a web based control, accessed through a WLAN modul.
The sensor data (digital compass, angle sensor, etc) will be used for collision prevention and displayed on the GUI.

Each leg is build with 3 servos, the xCORE will receive a new 3D Position and the xCORE will calculate the movement of each segmnt of the leg.

Regard Mark,
User avatar
BBenj
Member++
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2013 3:00 pm

Post by BBenj »

Multi Mood Lights with IR/Ethernet Remote

Each xcore will controls a mood light made of RGB LEDs. A mood light can be a separate bloc, be part of a big light or ceiling light for example. Imagination is your limit! :-)

The ARM core will listen to IR commands from standard TV remote or Ethernet frames and tells cores which color they must set.
The ARM core can also measure the global lighting level (using photoresistors or some LEDs) to adjust mood lights intensity and turn on/off automatically (thanks power down mode!)

Cool stuff can also be easily made like slow changing colors, blinking, ambient lighting (based on (screen?) color or music using mic), movement detection (baby/kid night light?), etc...
Post Reply