Today more and more of us are adjusting our home’s thermostat with our smart phones, or turning on our porch lights from the office. Local utilities are even starting to adjust our household temperatures during peak usage hours.
The market for Android IoT devices continues to grow as people demand intelligent devices that can securely talk to each other. Yet the cost for design engineers to successfully bring these IoT devices to market can be unpredictable. Beyond product functionality, designers must address security concerns and build connectivity into each of their products.
Today, as Google unveils its Android Things platform, NXP is announcing two Android Things-compatible IoT development platforms based on our i.MX 6UltraLite applications processor. The new Android Things Google software combined with our NXP hardware will accelerate product development, help companies better predict development costs and provide Google-managed security for emerging products.
The development platforms will allow designers to take their new products and embed IoT connectivity — all without having to write or rewrite any code. This will save money and time for developers and companies.
Android Things is not just an embedded operating system, but a platform that will enable companies to offer other services from Google such as Google Play Services, Weave and Cloud Vision. Developing a product based on Android Things will enable companies to not only shorten development time but also to uniquely position compelling products that offer a range of tightly integrated features.
Security is always a challenge for developers designing IoT products. As soon as a device is connected to the cloud or another device, it has the potential to be hacked. Security prevention and management can be daunting for both independent developers and device manufacturers. Up until now, security had to be coded into the software and built into the hardware platform of a new product. Manual security updates were required regularly and it was expensive to manage and difficult to control costs. The new Android Things platform greatly reduces these labor-intensive processes by providing Google-managed security updates, end-point analytics, crash reporting and a hardened hardware platform.
Two development platforms, the PICO-iMX 6UL board from TechNexion and the Argon i.MX 6UL board from VVDN Technologies are available immediately, the Murata IoT Development Platform from Murata Electronics will be available soon. All three platforms are based on the NXP i.MX 6UL processor a high- performance, ultra-efficient processor based on the ARM® Cortex®–A7 core, which operates at speeds up to 696 MHz. Support will be available via the Android community however, in addition, NXP, as an early Google board partner, has built up a dedicated team, which will be a highly valuable resource to our customers.
As a global leader in the embedded market, we see boundless opportunities with Android Things. We are excited to play such a role in making the jobs of IoT device manufacturers and software developers easier. The faster and more cost-effective it becomes to build IoT products, the more innovation we will see across the market, and ultimately – in our own homes.
The Android Things compatible boards are available today. For more information, please visit Android Developers and NXP AndroidThings
Pico i.MX6 UL SOM
Pico i.MX6 UL Dev Kit
Argon i.MX 6UL SOM
Argon i.MX 6UL Dev Kit
Robert Thompson is Global Director i.MX Ecosystem. He focuses on developing the ecosystem to enable customers to get to market as fast and competitively as possible. Robert is an industry expert in consumer electronics with over 20 years of experience in diverse regions, including Europe, Brazil and the US.
