ACCS ARM Design Contest 2014

Welcome to the Blog on the ARM Student Design Contest 2014.

ACCS in association with ARM University Program has launched the Student Design Contest on IoT at ADCOM 2014 in a joint bid to create innovative solutions in the IoT space for overcoming day-to-day challenges in areas such as agriculture, energy, education, healthcare, transportation and communication, to name a few. IoT is a hot area for experimentation and prototyping.

This contest revolves around around either the ARM® Cortex®-M0+ processor based Freedom board (FRDM KL25Z) or the ARM® Cortex®-M3 based mbed board (NXP LPC1768).

The 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ based Freedom Board (FRDM KL25Z) is built around ARM’s most power-efficient processor, the ARM Cortex-M0+. It is the perfect for students interested in the up and coming areas of study and research, such as sensor motes for wireless-sensor networks (WSNs) and wearable computing. The board features an on-board tricolor (RGB) LED and an on-board 3-axis accelerometer. The on-board connectors compatible with off-the-shelf Arduino shields neatly augment the board’s capabilities. Even so, with just a breadboard, jumper wires and standalone components, the board indeed makes possible prototyping of systems simple and inexpensive for beginners. Last, but not least, the board’s mbed application programming interface (API) allows rapid prototyping of complex sensor systems with the same Freedom board.

The 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 based mbed Board (LPC 1768) is the mbed board, with the 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 running at 96 MHz, 512KB FLASH and 32KB RAM. It is a powerhouse of capabilities with interfaces such as Ethernet, CAN, USB Host and Device, UART, RS-232, I2C, SPI, ADC, DAC, PWM, Analog I/O, Digital I/O and much more. With a small DIP form-factor for prototyping with breadboards, jumper wires and standalone components, it provides experienced embedded developers a powerful and productive platform for building proof-of-concepts. What is more is that, for beginners, the mbed board even provides the simplest and most accessible prototyping solution to get projects built with the backing of online libraries, cookbook, resources and support from the mbed forum and Q&A corner.

The mbed API website (links below) for either board provides all the details, such as the board’s overview, pin-out diagram with pin functionality, pin names, onboard peripheral information, features/interfaces, firmware for using the mbed API and getting started with the board using the mbed API.

Freedom Board: https://mbed.org/platforms/KL25Z/
mbed Board: https://mbed.org/handbook/mbed-NXP-LPC1768-Getting-Started

If you have any questions on the Boards or if you have any specific queries, please post your questions here. This blog is monitored by ACCS and ARM.