Avnet Releases New Development Platform Featuring Analog Devices Blackfin Processor and Microsoft .NET Micro Framework

The Analog Devices BF518F FMC Development Kit offers hardware/software design engineers the flexibility they need by providing an I/O mezzanine card, electrically compatible with the FMC VITA57 specification. This feature enables the connection to FMC carrier cards and facilitates the development of applications using the Analog Devices BF518F Blackfin processor with field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). The result is a modular, convenient development platform ideal for integrating hard-wired control applications with a flexible and familiar software environment and network connectivity for industrial automation and smart energy management applications.

Designers today are challenged to integrate software and hardware components without extending design cycles or incurring additional development costs, said Stephen Daly, Director, DSP and Embedded Processors Channel Marketing, Analog Devices. Working collaboratively with Avnet and Microsoft to provide a seamlessly integrated development platform, we're enabling designers to achieve significant time and cost efficiencies while taking advantage of Blackfin's renowned performance and power attributes. The BF518F FMC Development Kit exemplifies ADI and Avnet's ongoing strategy to provide designers with the reference designs/boards and comprehensive support that they need to get to market quickly.

”Programmer productivity and time to market are key areas of focus for all of us. This unique development environment put together by Avnet and Analog Devices offers the hardware power and flexibility to address a full range of applications,” said Colin Miller, Product Unit Manager, Microsoft. “By enabling the .NET Micro Framework on this board, the developers now have access to modern programming models and tools (including Visual Studio) that have made the desktop environment so productive while maintaining the access to the underlying hardware that is needed. The virtualization of the hardware ‘future proofs’ the applications so that work done on these development platforms can migrate easily to the eventual products.”

“Embedded devices continue to become a more common part of the larger design solution. Integrating technologies such as the BF518F FMC Development Kit into applications gives designers the capabilities and enhancements they need, without having to acquire a new set of skills and tools for different parts of the solution,” said Jeff Ittel, senior vice president of business development and marketing for Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas. “Integrating the .NET Micro Framework into embedded development gives customers the capabilities they need to help speed their time to market and cut cost.”