ARM mbed OS is an open source embedded operating system for IoT for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers that can be used to power smart cities, smart homes and wearables. mbed OS accelerates the time to market by providing a core operating system, robust security foundations, standards based communication capabilities, and drivers for sensors, I/O devices and connectivity. mbed OS is built as a modular, configurable software stack to readily customize it to devices being developed for, and reduce memory requirements by excluding unnecessary software components. mbed OS forms the client-side portion of the mbed IoT Device Platform on microcontrollers, and is designed to work in concert with mbed Device Connector, mbed Device Server, and mbed Client. Together this platform delivers comprehensive IoT solutions.
Category: ARM TechCon
Richard York, VP Embedded Marketing at ARM
Richard York is responsible for the embedded segment marketing at ARM which covers markets including automotive, microcontrollers, HDD/SSD and smart analogue.
Mentor Graphics Customized IoT Gateway platform
Mentor Graphics announced end to end IoT system developer kit with software and hardware reference design. The reference design can be customized to meet specific gateway requirements for various business applications. The gateway platform includes data collection, storage with different connectivity options like Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB. The gateway uses Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 processor.
Wind River IoT Helix Lab Cloud, Rocket and Qt VxWorks 7
Wind River is an Intel company that develops embedded systems solutions for aerospace and healthcare. The company’s highlights include the Helix Lab Cloud platform for virtual laboratory management and test automation and Rocket, a free OS meant to be used on MCUs demonstrated on an ARM K64F MCU. They also showcase a working home healthcare system utilizing VxWorks 7 and Qt release 551 (for the UI) such that health test data is monitored, captured, uploaded onto the cloud and displayed.
Bluetooth dice by u-blox
U-Blox is a Swiss based semiconductor company supplying positioning and wireless semiconductors and modules for automotive, industrial and consumer markets. It provides Narrow band IoT connection to connect the device directly with cloud using ARM mbed. In this Video, the U-Blox dice sense their number when you roll them and sends it to a nearby gateway using Bluetooth, that gateway sends the data to cloud for making it ready to display in browser.
OpenEPC Portable 4G network on Rasbary Pi
Dragos Vingarzan Co-founder and CTO of OpenEPC presents their low power Mobile core network running seamlessly on Raspberry Pi with 2G, 3G and 4G LTE voice and data capability to run a small network at remote island or for disaster relief area. With OpenEPC now it’s easy to make small footprint of Mobile Network in rural and remote location. In the video they are showing an Mobile Network of 4G LTE compatible running on Rasbary Pi powered by Broadcom BCM2836 Quad-core ARM Cortex A7 at 900Mhz.
For more information see http://www.openepc.com
Toradex shows Freescale i.MX7, Windows 10 IoT Core on ARM
Toradex shows their upcoming Freescale i.MX7 based System on Module (SOM). The module is pin compatible with the existing Toradex Colibri Modules based on i.MX6, Vybrid, PXA and Nvidia Tegra. The i.MX7 is a heterogeneous asymmetric multicore system including a Dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 and a ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller for real-time. The Toradex computer module will be available at the official i.MX7 launch early next year. Also first time in public, Toradex shows Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Core on an ARM based SOM which is designed to be used directly in volume. The module is based on a Nvidia Tegra 3 which is pin compatible with the I.MX7 and provides a fully HW accelerated DirectX driver.
Robot Development Kit using Hardkernel ODROID-C1+, VU7 display, ODROID-XU4
Bo Lechnowsky of ameriDroid.com shows the fully-programmable robot kit based on the ODROID-C1+ and controllable through the web. We then moved on to an 8-inch tablet kit for the ODROID-C1+ which includes case, multi-touch screen and battery for less than $100 due to be available this December. After this, we looked at a new 7-inch tablet-style multi-touch display from ODROID called the VU7 that allows attaching an ODROID-C1+ to the backside providing an expandable tablet-like solution for low cost. The ODROID-XU4 was discussed, an Exynos-5422 octa-core ARM Cortex-A15 at 2.0GHz and ARM Cortex-A7 at 1.4GHz ARM board with 2GB LPDDR3 on-board, USB3.0/2.0 ports and gigabit Ethernet along with removable eMMC and microSD storage options. An ODROID-C1+ was shown which is a low-cost but powerful AmLogic S805 quad-core ARM Cortex-A5 at 1.5GHz ARM board with 1GB LPDDR3 on-board with USB2.0 ports and gigabit Ethernet, also with the removable eMMC/microSD storage options. We then moved on to a display from a partner company, Withrobot.com, that showed real-time bar- and QR-code reading from three cameras simultanously through one USB3.0 port on an ODROID-XU4 and a 5MP standalone USB camera processed by OpenCV on an ODROID-XU4. In the background was an ODROID-C1+ with a HiFi Shield and a VU7 streaming high-quality audio to a stereo running Rune Audio. Volumio is also available for this platform. Both distributions are controllable by a smartphone or tablet from anywhere.
You can order these and read more about it at:
http://ameridroid.com
http://odroid.com
ARM mbed Smartwatch reference design with 2 months battery life
ARM shows their open source hardware and software Smartwatch reference design with 2 months battery life runs mbed OS on a Silicon Labs EFM32 Giant Gecko ARM Cortex-M3 SoC and memory LCD, it also have an ARM Cortex-M0 for Bluetooth and an ARM Cortex-M4 for the fingerprint sensor. GPS, NFC, 9-axis sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer), ambient light sensor, capacitive sliders for UI scrolling, buttons and more are on the flexible PCB. The power consumption is around 70microAmps with the animation running on the memory LCD, the battery life should be about 2 month on a compact and light 160mAh battery. ARM is building open source experimental smart wearables to explore the potential of ARM in wearables and IoT, to encourage device makers to use all the latest ARM technologies in combination with innovative display technologies and sensors to to create better concepts, to better use technologies to try to contribute to and improve the internet of things and the wearables market. Some goals for better Wearables can be to last months on a battery, to connect and interact with all devices seamlessly, to enable new forms of trusted interactions and ultimately aim to fade in to the background. These advances are to be integrated into ARM’s open source mbed OS, there might be subsets of mbed OS, less is needed on the Bluetooth chip for example than on the microcontroller of the Smartwatch or other IoT device.
Developing this mbed OS Smartwatch reference design gives ARM the opportunity to get first-hand experience of the realities of building complete and complex physical products – the mechanical design, electronics, software and taking it all through the production process. ARM has taken a complete design from concept through to manufacturing a few hundred working units thus far, and learned a huge amount. This may inspire and encourage device makers to advance and innovate faster to make the Smartwatch market a success.
BBC micro:bit on ARM’s 25 year birthday
1 million 11 year olds in the UK will receive the BBC microbit when they come back to school after the Christmas holiday in January 2016, they can use it to get started with programming and hacking with hardware. BBC micro:bit runs on Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 16MHz 32bit ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller, Freescale Kinetis KL26Z – 48 MHz ARM Cortex-M0+ core, that includes a full-speed USB 2.0 On-The-Go (OTG) controller, used as a communication interface between USB and main Nordic microcontroller, Freescale MMA8652 3-axis accelerometer sensor,
Freescale MAG3110 3-axis magnetometer sensor to act as a compass and metal detector, 25 LED lights in a 5×5 array and Bluetooth technology, it is given for free to every child in year 7 or equivalent across the UK. You can read more about BBC micro:bit here.
IBM Internet of Things Foundation, cloud IoT data analysis from ARM mbed 2.0 MultiTech mdot device
IBM Internet of Things Foundation is a fully managed, cloud-hosted service that makes it simple to derive value from Internet of Things (IoT) devices, be it a sensor, a gateway or something else. Using IBM’s recipes, it can get connected and start sending data securely up to the cloud using the open, lightweight MQTT messaging protocol. From there, setup and managing the IoT devices using online dashboard or IBM’s secure APIs, so that IoT apps can access live and historical data fast. Users can easily start creating applications using device data, within IBM Bluemix platform, another cloud or own servers.
In this video, the dashboard displays an example of some of the analytics which can be calculated using IBM IoT Foundation, such as the impact analysis from the live hits on the hard hat which are then displayed on Bluemix, IBMs cloud infrastructure. This platform allows a “one-stop-shop” for a device developer to get started and make use of the sensor data and connected devices, immediately.
IoT and Wearables Hardware Incubator: Eric Klein of Lemnos Labs
Eric Klein, Partner at Lemnos Labs, a San Francisco based Hardware Incubator, is looking for IoT and Wearables entrepreneurs making new IoT and Wearables designed to change behaviors, to affect change, which he says is the key to unlocking the Internet of Things and really useful Wearables, he encourages startups to have clinical psychologists on staff, like coaches with science degrees, to design devices that can help people grow and get stronger.
MediaTek Labs LinkIt One development board demos
MediaTek MT2502 based LinkIt $59 ONE development board demos, including a Weather Station IoT demo which acquires temerature, humidity and pressure data from sensors and then visualizes the data on the MediaTek Cloud Sandbox. A Bike Tracker demo utilizes GNSS features to acquire the position of a bike in real time. The data is then uploaded to the EON real-time dashboard over a GPRS connection using the PubNub LinkIt ONE library support. The EON real-time dashboard provides a visualization of the data on a map.
You can find out more about MediaTek LinkIt here:
Get Started with AWS IoT Services on the LinkIt™ ONE Development Platform: If you have purchased the MediaTek LinkIt™ ONE and Grove IoT Starter Kit Powered by AWS or want to get started with the Amazon IoT cloud using the LinkIt ONE development board, this guide will get you started.
API reference: All the details you need to discover the full range of features you can add to your sketches.
Documentation & Tutorials: In addition to the developer’s guide you can find handy documents such as the LinkIt ONE pin-out diagram, reference design and product briefs on this page. There is also a growing list of tutorials on using specific classes of the API and building full proofs-of-concept.
This document provides you with detailed information on the LinkIt ONE development board, LinkIt ONE SDK tools and an introduction to the LinkIt ONE API.
Projects: Find inspiration in LinkIt ONE projects created by MediaTek Labs maker and developer community.
FAQ: Get answers to the most common technical and business questions about the LinkIt ONE development platform.
Forums: Discover answers to technical questions and, once you have registered your MediaTek Labs account, pose questions to MediaTek LinkIt technical gurus and exchange views with the Labs community.
Partner Connect: When you’re ready to take your projects beyond a proof-of-concept, check out MediaTek’s suggested partners that can help with everything from product design to cloud service.
AMD Huskyboard 96boards Enterprise Edition, SoftIron Overdrive 3000
AMD Huskyboard 96boards Enterprise Edition available soon and the SoftIron Overdrive 3000 ARMv8 64bit server board. AMD also shows what they are doing for NFV Network Function Virtualization, developing solutions to power advanced networking.
ARM Cortex-A35
ARM announces that 50% of the Smartphones sold in 2015 are 64bit already. This is a phenomenal success for ARM’s 64bit deployment. At ARM TechCon 2015, ARM announces ARM Cortex-A35, an upgrade for ARM Cortex-A7 which is currently the most popular ARM Cortex-A core shipping in most of the current low-end to mid-range Smartphones, at 10% lower power consumption, ARM Cortex-A35 brings up to 40% higher performance compared to ARM Cortex-A7! This will bring 64bit to even more Smartphones for the entry-level to mid-range markets starting before the end of 2016. ARM Mali-470 is a good power efficient GPU to use with ARM Cortex-A35, and it can be used in big.LITTLE configurations together with ARM Cortex-A72, ARM Cortex-A57 or ARM Cortex-A53.
James McNiven, General Manager, ARM CPU Group
James McNiven talks about running ARM’s CPU team, managing the engineering, the marketing and operations to deliver the ARM CPUs to ARM’s partners around the world.
ARM IoT Security Strategy in ARMv8-M
Milosch Meriac, ARM IoT Security Engineer, talks about the strategy ARM is working on to make Internet of Things secure. ARM is convinced that many IoT security problems can be solved with standardised building blocks. ARM is developing the uVisor, a self-contained software hypervisor that creates independent secure domains on ARM Cortex-M3 and M4 microcontrollers (M0+ will follow). Its function is to increase resilience against malware and to protect secrets from leaking even among different modules of the same application. The uVisor is one of these basic building blocks – complementary to other important blocks like robust communication stacks, safe firmware updates and secure crypto libraries. The design philosophy of uVisor is to provide hardware-enforced compartments (sandboxes) for individual code blocks by limiting access to memories and peripherals using the existing hardware security features of the Cortex-M microcontrollers. Breaking the established flat security model of microcontrollers into compartmentalised building blocks results in high security levels, as the reach of flaws or external attacks can be limited to less sensitive function blocks. A basic example of uVisor is preventing unauthorised access to flash memory from faulty or compromised code. This not only prevents malware from getting resident on the device, but also enables protection of device secrets like cryptographic keys. Services built on top of ARM’s security layer can safely depend on an unclonable trusted identity, secure access to internet services and benefit from encryption key protection.
https://github.com/ARMmbed/uvisor (uVisor documentation and sources)
https://github.com/ARMmbed/uvisor-lib/blob/master/DOCUMENTATION.md (API docs)
https://github.com/ARMmbed/uvisor-lib (integration in ARMmbed)
Slideshow Milosch Meriac presented at ARM TechCon: Resilient IoT Security The end of flat security models
ARM Mali-470
ARM Mali-470 is the newest Mali-400 family GPU by ARM, it is the most energy efficient GPU from ARM, it supports the latest Android versions, optimized to extend battery life for wearables and Android Wear.
Nathan Brookwood assesses whether 64bit ARM servers can take 25% of the market by 2020
Nathan Brookwood has been following the microprocessor and SoC markets since 1995. He has been involved in the high technology industry since his days at Univac, where he had the opportunity to walk inside the central processor of an early mainframe system. He presently serves as the research fellow at Insight 64, an organization he founded in 1998 to monitor and report on the computer industry’s transition from 32-bit to 64-bit platforms. You can contact Nathan Brookwood at Nathan@Insight64.com
4K content with HDR coming from 20th Century Fox
Danny Kaye of 20th Century Fox talks about how his studio and Hollywood are bringing 4K HDR movie content to people in the near future and it has already started. Talking about the Vidity 4K HDR DRM solution running on ARM TrustZone devices, like TV Boxes, the 4K HDR TVs themselves, running on Western Digital Hard Drives and Sandisk SSDs, soon consumers will be able to watch hundreds of movies on their 4K HDR TVs, using streaming, downloading or plugging the physical hard drives to the USB port of the 4K TV.
