Electronic Products looks back at the top products of 2020 as the year comes to a close. Interestingly, the majority of the 10 top products are either reference designs or development or evaluation kits. In comparison, only two development kits made the list in 2019.
The popularity of dev and demo kits could be a side-effect of more engineers working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Though it must be more complicated for hardware developers to work in a home office or lab.
Dev kits and reference designs enable engineers to not only test-drive new components and technologies but also to speed up their development time and time to market. Not surprising is the focus on industrial designs including an industrial-ready hardware platform that engineers can use at work or home to play with peripherals and sensors, an energy-efficient reference design and development kit for industrial IoT edge deployments, and power management IC reference designs aimed at developing turnkey power solutions for FPGAs and SoCs used in industrial and computing applications.
Two other development kits also among the top 10 include an evaluation kit for smart horticulture that addresses the challenges of deploying a scale and secure system, a cloud-agnostic, full-stack embedded turnkey development solutions that makes it easier to securely connect processors to any cloud, and a reference design that shows how loose-fit true wireless earbuds can achieve selective noise cancellation without sacrificing other features.
There was also one new introduction that could be considered either a development kit as it does aim to simplify development or a new component launch. It’s a new suite of security features for wireless system-on-chips (SoCs), delivering a combo of hardware and software, that protect IoT products from security threats.
The three new components among the top 10 introduction are an artificial intelligence (AI) chip, six-axis inertial measurement units (IMUs), and a solid-state far-UVC chip that claims to kill the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens without posing any harm to people.
The top 10 products are based on the highest page views in 2020, solely looking at new product introductions. Here are the top 10 most popular products of 2020.
Adlink rolls industrial-ready dev kit
Adlink has released the Industrial-Pi SMARC development kit, designed to reduce prototyping and development time.
Maxim’s first AI chip: A game-changer for battery-powered devices
Maxim Integrated has unveiled its first AI chip, which reduces energy consumption and latency by a factor of over 100, targeting battery-powered devices.
Reference design and dev kit tackle timing-critical smart factory applications
Arrow Electronics and Exor Embedded have developed an energy-efficient reference design and development kit for industrial IoT edge deployments.
Evaluation kit makes it easy to deploy smart horticulture system
The smart horticultural evaluation kit developed by Arrow in collaboration with Analog Devices, Silicon Labs, Osram, and Amphenol pre-solves challenges around sensing, power, signal conditioning, lighting control, and wireless communications.
Microchip launches cloud-agnostic embedded IoT solutions
Microchip’s embedded IoT solutions enable all of its MCUs and MPUs to be connected to any cloud using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and narrowband 5G technologies, enabling rapid prototyping.
TDK launches six-axis IMU with high accuracy
TDK has launched a high-performance six-axis MEMS IMU that integrates a three-axis gyroscope and a three-axis accelerometer in a 2.5 × 3 × 0.9-mm package for IoT, robotics, AR/VR, and wearable devices.
New security suite for wireless SoCs protects IoT products
Silicon Labs has released a new suite of security features for its wireless SoCs to protect IoT products from security threats.
PMIC reference designs solve power challenges for Xilinx FPGAs and SoCs
Renesas’s three PMIC reference designs deliver turnkey power solutions for Xilinx’s FPGA and SoCs used in a variety of industrial and computing applications.
Earbud demo kit delivers selective noise cancellation for augmented hearing
The ams Earbud Innovation Demo Kit delivers selective noise cancellation to loose-fit true wireless, previously achievable only on closed-fit earbuds.
Startup claims first solid-state far-UVC chip that neutralizes Coronavirus
NS Nanotech has claimed the first solid-state far-UVC chip that kills the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens without posing any threat to humans.
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