The Week In Review: Design/IoT

Embedded

Mentor Graphics released a new version of their Nucleus RTOS with a focus on high-performance IoT and wearable applications. Updates include support for Dynamic Linking and Loading (DLL) capabilities in Cortex-M based cores; the ability for developers to reconfigure, update, and provision connected embedded devices that utilize cloud-based remote software services; and TI WiLink 8 module support for 2.4 and 5GHz dual-band throughput, Wi-Fi 802.11 capabilities, and dual-mode Bluetooth and BTLE.

Deals

NXP boasted a slew of deals this week. The global smart home market will reach $71 billion by 2018, according to Juniper Research, and China is expected to account for 32% of it. Xiaomi aims to grab a share of that with a smart home suite, and chose NXP’s ZigBee microcontrollers to connect its components. Qualcomm has an eye on IoT as well, and will integrate NXP’s NFC and embedded secure element chipsets across a range of Snapdragon processor based platforms. NXP’s secure element was also selected by Samsung to provide data protection and encryption for the Galaxy S6’s mobile payment system in China.

ARM and Enea showcased the first ARM-based reference platform for Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization (OPNFV) at the NFV World Congress in San Jose this week. Also featured was a virtual set-top box (vSTB) reference platform by ARM, Applied Micro and server software developer Netzyn which utilizes network functions virtualization (NFV) to potentially reduce network operator costs.

Conexant optimized their speech and voice processing software for Cadence’s Tensilica HiFi DSP family. The software specializes in noise suppression with a blind source separation technology that uses spatial representation of target speech and noise sources to reduce interference.

Numbers

Ansys released first quarter financials with GAAP revenue of $217.8 million and non-GAAP revenue of $218.4 million, both up 1% from Q1 2014. “We saw solid execution in North America and Asia-Pacific with 11% and 9% revenue growth in constant currency, respectively. As expected, we continued to be negatively impacted in Europe by the combination of the uncertain macroeconomic environment, stiff currency headwinds and slower than planned sales capacity expansion, with revenue growth year-over-year of 5% in constant currency,” said President and CEO Jim Cashman. Recurring revenue made up 76% of the first quarter’s revenue.