The Internet of Things Gets a New OS
British processor powerhouse ARM Holdings, said last week that it intends to launch a new, low-power operating system that will manage web-connected devices and appliances using chips based on the company’s 32-bit Cortex-M microcontrollers.
The operating system, called mbed OS, is meant to resolve productivity problems that arise from fragmentation—where different devices in the so-called “Internet of things” (IoT) market run on a hodgepodge of different protocols. ARM is looking to consolidate those devices under a single software layer that’s simple, secure, and free for all manufacturers to use.
“Instead of having large teams spending years designing a product,” ARM vice president of research and development Kriztian Flautner told the BBC, “we’d like to turn that into months, so that you can take the [hardware] components, assemble the right ones, connect the device and focus on the problem you are solving and not the means to getting there.”