Last week ARM released a platform which bridged the gap between full processors and low end microcontrollers for IoT (internet of things) applications. Now it has done the same for the operating system.
The UK processor IP firm has upgraded its mbed embedded software platform to provide a new kind of operating system, which sits between full smart OSs like Android and the ultra-low footprint real time OSs of the conventional embedded sector. This mirrors the company’s launch of a high end member of its Cortex-M microcontroller family, which aims to combine the very low power of real time embedded chips with some of the functionality of a microprocessor.
This middle territory is also targeted by Intel’s Quark SoC and other chip designs, and will be important for IoT products such as gateways, which require more intelligence and processing power than traditional embedded gadgets.
The new mBed OS provides client-side software which aims to provide more functionality than a traditional real time OS (RTOS), but in very low power and footprint. On the server side, it provides cloud-based management and security for all the connected ‘things’. That element of the platform could run on any processor, including Intel servers, and so in theory could the client portion, though ARM stressed that the software is only free for its Cortex-M chips (and there will be unspecified royalties for large-scale or public cloud deployments).
ARM not only aims to add more functionality to a Cortex M-class microcontroller, but also provide a common platform which could become a de facto standard. The fragmentation of the embedded market among many real time OSs will hold back developers and limit the growth of a harmonized ecosystem, argues ARM – the kind of claims being made by many drivers of would-be standards up and down the IoT stack, such as Qualcomm’s AllJoyn for peer-to-peer discovery, or Google’s Thread for connectivity.
Most of the work to drive the IoT towards a single OS has been done on the higher performance devices, with Android the prime contender for intelligence connected devices like wearables and smart home appliances. But a host of RTOSs exist in the M2M world, which is now morphing in some areas into the fully connected IoT. One of them, it is always worth remembering, belongs to Intel, via its acquisition of Wind River, with its VxWorks RTOS and its real time Linux implementations.
ARM increasingly aims to build on its power in mobile processor IP by adding more and more software functionality and seeking to create a standard silicon/software platform which it controls. Security has been an important focus of this strategy, and now it is greatly enhancing the role of its mBed tools.
The client software communicates back to the higher performance processors in a standardized way and the platform incorporates security, communication and device management. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6 and its chosen protocols are WiFi and Bluetooth, along with 6LoWPAN and its Google-driven derivative, Thread. ARM is a founder member of the Thread Alliance, and is throwing its weight behind that rather than ZigBee and other alternatives. It does target ZigBee via its 802.15.4 support, though that protocol is certainly given a side-line role, while another WPAN challenger, Z-Wave, is excluded altogether.
The operating system will be made available to ARM’s partners and developers in the fourth quarter, and should appear on products early next year. Existing M-class controllers can be upgraded to run the OS, if they have the capability.