IoT

The world should consider ways to limit data growth on the internet to prevent run-away energy consumption and help limit carbon emissions, say leading computer scientists. Researchers from Lancaster University argue that the growth of remote digital sensors and devices connected to the IoT has the potential to bring unprecedented and almost unlimited rises in energy consumed by smart technologies.

It has been announced that eWBM achieved first-pass silicon success for its MS1000 microcontroller with embedded security using Synopsys' DesignWare tRoot Secure Hardware Root of Trust, True Random Number Generator (TRNG), and Security Protocol Accelerator IP. The IP enables the implementation of a wide range of hardware-enforced security functions that help protect IoT devices against evolving threats and secure sensitive data such as encryption...

Application ready and easily customisable for rapid field deployment, congatec has introduced its highly flexible IoT gateway system. The gateway offers extreme levels of flexibility in terms of processing performance and software integration, able to host up to eight wireless antennas that can be connected to three mini PCI Express slots and six internal USB based slots for wireless and wired connectivity modules.

Smart home automation has a lot of discussion focused on the interface and the technology; however it sometimes is far too easy to lose touch with the wider agenda and opportunities from developments around a smart grid. Legrand’s Richard Hayward comments and explains what smart means and the role technology can play in our future homes.

Texas Instruments explain its G3/PRIME data concentrator options for use in smart grid applications. Today’s Automatic Meter Reading (AMR)/Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems using power line communication (PLC) technology are network-based. 

A $9.4 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) could lead to development of a technique for wirelessly monitoring IoT devices for malicious software – without affecting the operation of the ubiquitous but low-power equipment. The technique will rely on receiving and analysing side-channel signals, electromagnetic emissions that are produced unintentionally by the electronic devices as they execute progr...

An online competition has been introduced as part of a collaboration between Intel and London-based Hardware Academy to help IoT developers to bring their ideas to life. The new partnership will look for exciting new IoT projects that are developed and built on Intel technology. 

To help industry better understand the deluge of intelligent devices and systems setting the energy sector alight, EU Automation has produced a concise one page guide about smart technology. Smart technologies are currently taking over both the consumer and industrial automation markets. In the energy sector, this has given birth to smart meters and significant developments towards smart cities running on even smarter grids.

Few companies can afford to have their operations halted by unexpected downtime, but for the energy grid potential power failures could plunge parts of, or entire, countries into darkness. The cost of ensuring that Britain can switch its lights back on, following a failure, has grown by £12m in the past year alone.

Early examples of the “potential” of the Internet of Things (IoT) patently failed to inspire enthusiasm worthy of (what has been rightly termed) the fourth industrial revolution. Prefixing everyday items with “smart” quickly became ubiquitous, with “smart” toasters and kettles negating the apparently now unacceptable effort of journeying far into one’s kitchen and manually flicking a switch.