The Week In Review: IoT

Government
Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting head of the Federal Trade Commission, said in an interview that she looks to manufacturers of Internet-connected devices to decide on best practices for the Internet of Things. Although the FTC has the legal authority to set regulations for a variety of industries, Ohlhausen said the commission is “not primarily a regulator,” in line with the new administration’s policy on deregulation. The Republican commissioner endorsed a voluntary set of IoT standards recommended by the Broadband Internet Technology Advisory Group.

Finance
New York-based Evrythng, a provider of IoT platforms, reported raising $24.8 million in a Series B round of private funding, which was led by Sway Ventures. Bloc Ventures and Generation Ventures also participated in the new round. The startup has raised more than $39 million in venture capital.

Products
At the embedded world 2017 conference in Nuremberg, Germany, NXP Semiconductors this week introduced the LS1028A QorIQ Layerscape system-on-a-chip device, which integrates time-sensitive networking capabilities based on IEEE 802.1 standards. The chip has 64-bit ARM Cortex v8 processor cores, an integrated 3D graphics processing unit and LCD controller, a four-port TSN switch, and two separate TSN Ethernet controllers. The SoC is meant for Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 applications. NXP also said it is using fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator technology to offer ultra-low-power, general-purpose application processors for the IoT and wearables. The chip company is currently sampling the i.MX 7ULP line of application processors to select customers, with wider availability of pre-production samples coming in the third quarter. Lastly, NXP unveiled the Modular IoT Framework for developing secure IoT applications. The framework is currently shipping for building automation and commercial lighting use cases.

ON Semiconductor introduced an IoT Development Kit at embedded world. The baseboard that comes with the kit features the company’s NCS36510 system-on-a-chip device with a low-power 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 core running ARM’s mbed operating system. The IDK includes an Eclipse-based integrated development environment.

Texas Instruments introduced the CC3220 SimpleLink Wi-Fi microcontroller, a dual-core chip that connects to a dedicated network processor with wireless support, namely Wi-Fi. The host processor has an ARM Cortex-M4 core. The chipmaker also brought out the CC3210 MCU, also linking with a wireless network processor.

Chirp and Unified Inbox said they would pair UIB’s UnificationEngine intelligent IoT messaging platform with Chirp’s data-over-audio technology. This is said to enable fast and secure onboarding of commercial, government, and residential IoT devices.

Maxim Integrated Products introduced the MAX17222 nanoPower boost regulator chip for longer battery life with consumer IoT devices and wearable electronics. IDC forecasts the wearable device market will have a compound annual growth rate of 18.4% in 2020.

Wind River has brought out Titanium Control, a software virtualization platform for Industrial IoT applications. Titanium Control is said to be a commercially deployable on-premise cloud infrastructure that virtualizes traditional physical subsystems with a platform based upon open-source standards, according to the Intel subsidiary.

Schneider Electric debuted the Micro Data Center Xpress range of connected products for building and deploying micro data centers at the network edge. The line is aimed at IoT and edge applications. Schneider next month will take orders for Micro DC Xpress in North America, France, and the U.K., widening out to the rest of Europe later this year.

Digi-Key Electronics, the distributor of electronic components, has added an Industrial Automation, Controls & Safety Product Selector page to its website, which also has an Internet of Things Product Selector page.

Market Research
The Insight Partners forecasts the worldwide health-care IoT market will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 21.2% over the next decade, increasing from $20.15 billion in 2015 to $135.87 billion by 2025. The IoT in Healthcare Market to 2025 report is available from the firm.