Chip maker ARM partners with IBM to launch IoT starter kit

Chip maker ARM is partnering with IBM to launch its Internet of Things (IoT) mbed device platform as a starter kit with cloud support, that offers developer tools with cloud-based analytics.

ARM announced the mbed tool, which is primarily an operating system built around open standards last year. It aims to "bring internet protocols, security and standards-based manageability into one integrated tool" and make IoT deployment faster and easier and thus accelerate the creation of IoT-powered devices.

ARM launched the mbed IoT Starter Kit - Ethernet Edition yesterday to coincide with the opening of Embedded World in Nuremberg. With the partnership, ARM's mbed tool gets the ability to channel data from internet-connected devices directly into IBM's Bluemix cloud platform.

The IoT Starter Kit comes with an ARM mbed-enabled development board from Freescale, powered by an ARM Cortex-M4 based processor, together with a sensor IO application shield.

The kit also supports standards such as Bluetooth Smart, 2G, 3G, LTE and CDMA cellular technologies, Thread, WiFi, and 802.15.4/6LoWPAN along with TLS/DTLS, CoAP, HTTP, MQTT and Lightweight M2M.

In terms of software, the kit is designed to run on ARM's mbed OS, which in turn is designed to run on M4 chips.

It is the integration with IBM's cloud platform that makes it an IoT kit which can be programmed from within the company's IoT platform using a number of common programming languages, such as Java, Python and Ruby/Ruby on Rails.

However, if users who are not programmers, can also use IBM's browser-based Node-RED service, a simple, visual, browser-based platform that allows users to "wire together" rules to control their IoT device's behaviour.

According to Zach Shelby, ARM's VP of marketing for Internet of Things, the company had been talking with a number of white goods manufacturers to see how this could be incorporated into their devices. He added, however that it was also suitable for "hobbyists and garage entrepreneurs" as well.

According to Shelby, who quoted an unnamed analyst, by 2018, over 50 per cent of all IoT applications would be from start-ups that were only being founded now, or did not  even exist yet.

He added that meant cool new companies based in London and Cambridge and all around the UK would be inventing the cool new solutions that would be out there, the company's job was to create the platform for these people to go out and create the new devices and new services.