Circuit Cellar, The Magazine for Computer Applications, has announced the winners of the WIZnet iEthernet Design Contest. The contest challenged engineers around the globe to design unique, optimized and creative embedded projects that could be made Ethernet-ready with WIZnet’s W5100 chip solution. The winners list, along with complete project documentation, can be found at www.circuitcellar.com/
The W5100 chips, which were sampled to contest participants along with WIZnet’s WIZ810MJ evaluation boards, offer embedded MAC and PHY, and TCP/IP implementation without an OS. These features contributed to an overwhelming interest from potential contest participants, many of whom were delaying Ethernet applications for myriad reasons ranging from cost to forced complexity given existing products at their disposal.
“I certainly didn’t know what to expect with this particular design contest,” said Sean Donnelly, Publisher of Circuit Cellar. “Up until this point, most of Circuit Cellar’s design contests had been sponsored by very well-known MCU vendors and tool suppliers. WIZnet, on the contrary, was a fairly young Ethernet company based in Korea. Their brand and product line were relatively unknown. Yet the need was there. Within a very short period, we had participants lined up from 77 countries. Everyone wanted a shot at this one – some simply for the sake of the competition;
The theme of “simplification”
“When the design contest introduced the WIZnet module, it was instantly clear that it would greatly simplify [my] design. With the WIZnet module, I could keep the parts count down and not waste scarce flash memory on networking code,” noted Thomas Bereiter, who placed First in the competition.
Second Place winner James Blackwell acknowledged, “The WIZnet modules really simplified the design of my system without sacrificing any usability. I plan on using them in future projects as well.”
This sentiment was underscored by others like Fourth Place winner Clemens Valens. “The W5100 allowed me to use simple hardware to build my project. I was actually looking into some kind of FPGA solution when this one came along. No need to sacrifice half of your processor power for a TCP/IP stack,” said Valens.
Along with the posted projects available through www.circuitcellar.com, WIZnet will be displaying a number of the physical contest entries at their booth at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, April 15, 2008.
About WIZnet:
WIZnet Inc., based in Korea, is a privately held fabless semiconductor company, founded in 1998. Its US subsidiary, iinChip Inc. was incorporated in 2000 in Palo Alto, CA.
WIZnet is a unique hardwired Internet connectivity solution provider. WIZnet's core technology, TOP (TCP/IP Offload Platform), is market-proven ASSP and silicon-proven IP for custom ASIC, which best fits OS-less device and is compatible with any Embedded OS. TOP is a fully hardwired TCP/IP algorithm, which guarantees line speed by on-the-fly processing architecture that is independent of CPU. TOP eliminates CPU overhead by offloading TCP/IP processing and hence enhances overall system performance especially in multimedia streaming applications.
TOP ASSP has been adopted worldwide both in OS-less devices including DVR, MP3, Remote Control and OS-based devices including STB and DTV. It provides higher performance and stability than software internet connectivity solutions.
WIZnet produces various chip-oriented application modules and evaluation boards as well as fully hardwired TCP/IP chip. WIZnet works with many high quality Resellers and Distributors around the world to provide its international customers with the best service possible.
www.wiznet.co.kr/
About Circuit Cellar:
Circuit Cellar is the premier source of practical technical information for designers and builders of computer hardware and software applications. Circuit Cellar enhances the electronic design skills of its readers by offering creative solutions and unique applications through complete projects, practical tutorials, and useful design techniques. Circuit Cellar is the only magazine serving the microcomputer market that is focused on the needs of hands-on designers, engineers, and programmers of microcomputer hardware and software. Articles in the pages of Circuit Cellar are written by engineers, for engineers. They give readers practical information that can be used immediately to develop or improve working computer applications.
For a trial issue, visit www.circuitcellar.com/
