Intel announces Internet of Things Platform

December 10, 2014 | 11:46

Tags: #doug-davis #edison #embedded #internet-of-things #iot #quark

Companies: #galileo #intel

Intel has confirmed its headlong rush into the burgeoning 'Internet of Things' market with the launch of its own platform standard, which combines gateway, connectivity and security components on an Intel hardware backbone.

Intel has been showing its desire to take on industry giant ARM in the embedded and mobile spaces for some time, and over the last year has been concentrating heavily on releasing more power-efficient chip designs specifically for this purpose. Its efforts culminated in the Quark, an ultra-low-power embedded part which offers x86 compatibility - albeit using the ageing 32-bit Pentium microarchitecture implementation, complete with uncorrected F00F bug still present.

Its latest announcement shows that it is now turning up the heat and attempting to become the one-stop-shop for the Internet of Things. The Intel Internet of Things Platform, to give its new product range its full title, is designed to turn Intel into a single-vendor solution for IoT projects. 'With this platform we are continuing to expand our IoT product family beyond silicon with enhancements to our pre-integrated solutions that make IoT more accessible to solution providers,' crowed Doug Davis, vice president and general manager of Intel's new Internet of Things Group. 'IoT is a rapidly growing market but faces scalability hurdles. By simplifying the development process and making it easier to deploy new solutions that address market needs, we can help accelerate innovation.'

The Intel IoT Platform isn't a single product, but rather an umbrella which covers several of the company's exiting efforts. Its software subsidiary Wind River has been tapped for edge-management connectivity and security, which is provided over the company's Quark-based IoT Gateway hardware. Intel's cloud analytics support is being extended to cover both the IoT Gateway and the company's maker-themed Galileo and more professional Edison development boards, while wholly-owned subsidiary McAfee and the internal Intel Security group are providing security infrastructure for the platform.

The IoT is expected to be a major growth area in the coming years, but competition for market share is tough. A lack of standards is not a problem for the IoT, but rather it suffers from too many standards - all of which compete with one another. Whether Intel can leverage its success in the desktop, laptop and server markets into making its new IoT Platform the One True Standard remains to be seen, but with x86 a bit-player in the market compared to rival architectures like ARM and MIPS it certainly looks like the company will have a fight on its hands.
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