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RISC-V is coming to the internet of things |
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By Stacey Higginbotham |
Fans of this newsletter know I'm a major chip nerd. I started my tech career as a semiconductor reporter, and for the last seven or eight years I've been closely watching RISC-V, an open source chip architecture. The RISC-V architecture, which was developed a decade ago at UC Berkeley, competes with both that of Arm and the x86 architecture from Intel.
Already companies such as Nvidia, Western Digital, Samsung, and Alibaba have been building silicon based on RISC-V for their own internal use. But in the wake of Nvidia's failed takeover of Arm, a lot of companies took a look at RISC-V and began developing their own strategies around this instruction set, making it a soon-to-be competitor to Arm and Intel. However, it's not quite ready to take the IoT world by storm just yet. |
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— Soon, we'll see more RISC-V chips on boards. |
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Just last week, SiFive, a company that builds RISC-V cores and licenses them out to other businesses that don't want to tackle that much chip engineering, raised a fifth round of funding that valued it at $2.5 billion. Even more interesting were the companies that were involved in the funding, which included the venture capital divisions of both Intel and Qualcomm.
Intel, long a jealous defender of its x86 architecture as the best and only option for computing, has softened its stance as it has lost ground to Nvidia on the AI side and Arm in mobile and IoT. Now, as it seeks to regain relevance, Intel is embracing the manufacturing of others' chips and other architectures.
Meanwhile, Arm for the last few years has been adjusting its business model to account for the threat of RISC-V, including making it cheaper and easier for startups and research groups to license Arm cores. The potential for a lower-cost instruction set has led at least one chip startup to try RISC-V, but I don't know how prevalent that threat really is. And it may be that Arm's planned acquisition by Nvidia helped push companies to look at RISC-V as an alternative as they worried that Arm might get purchased by a potential competitor.
Chris Jones, vice president of products at SiFive, said the company has fielded a lot of inquiries from worried customers. He also said that RISC-V has a lot of potential room to grow in the IoT sector, especially because the current market is so fragmented with different architectures such as Tensilica, Arm, and others. "Customers are getting a little tired of complex [instruction sets]," he said. "It's frustrating to switch tools and development environments based on the bit they are programming."
The chip shortage is also driving some embedded clients to reduce complexity in the types of chips and instruction sets used, since having a few parts can make it easier to swap available chips in and out of a design.
In the IoT word, Jones said the focus so far is on machine learning workloads, some embedded chips, and chips for sensors, especially those requiring some small bit of processing for localized machine learning. As an example, Renesas, this month launched its first 64-bit RISC-V processor for the embedded market. The chip is designed for IoT edge computing in gateways for dedicated security systems, solar inverters, or other jobs.
In some ways, these dedicated gateways and specialized sensors are a perfect place for RISC-V chips because right now there's no broad software development effort for RISC-V yet. Moreover, without broad software support for RISC-V, every application running on a RISC-V processor needs specialized software, something most users of embedded computers are used to building.
By contrast, developers who work on servers or general purpose computing are used to working on software platforms or programming languages designed to run on x86 or Arm machines. For RISC-V to really take off, we'll need a software effort that helps adapt popular applications and code for RISC-V.
We saw similar efforts when Arm created Linaro to build compatible software for server applications ahead of its move into the server market, and most recently when Apple built its own chips on the Arm architecture and rewrote its software to run on the new M1 chips.
I expect we'll see similar software efforts that will support bringing RISC-V to more generic IoT use cases. But we're not there yet. |
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Aurduino goes pro with Linux and a big chip on its latest board |
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This week, Arduino launched the Pro Portenta X8, the most massively powered Arduino board yet, with a quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor along with a variety of MCUs and the ability to run Linux. This is a big step for Arduino, which bills itself as an open source hardware and software company that makes systems on modules and has traditionally been popular in the maker and hobbyist space, as a way to bring small bits of computing power together to power lights, servos, and sensors.
In 2020, the group launched its Portenta H7 board with an eye toward enticing hardware developers to build production-ready devices using the Arduino hardware and software. With the launch, it was following a similar map laid out by the folks behind Raspberry Pi, which has gone from being a cheap computer for makers to a fully powered computer that can fit in many jobs, including medical devices and production hardware. Notably, the Pi moved downmarket last year with the Pi Pico, which put it in direct competition with Arduino's systems that rely on MCUs. |
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— The new Arduino Pro Portenta X8 will be available in mid-April of this year. Image courtesy of Arduino. |
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With the Pro Portenta X8, Arduino is entering a crowded market with plenty of modules aimed at providing computing power, wireless connectivity, and a standardized layout for sensors and other attachments that make it easy to cobble together a working computer board for specialized hardware. But it has also signed a deal with Foundries.io to provide a comprehensive level of security, which is a fairly unusual move.
Foundries.io provides an OS that can sit on a device and run in the cloud and that ensures basic security features for embedded hardware. Because traditional embedded devices are super fragmented, with different architectures and operating systems, and are designed into machines that should last for decades instead of a few years, securing them is tough.
With the partnership between Arduino and Foundries.io the new Portenta board has the ability to support secured over-the-air updates, continuous integration testing in the cloud, and the ability to roll out and roll back software deployed to containers running on the device.
This level of security service will be provided to anyone using the Arduino Portenta X8. If they want to change or customize it, they can work out a deal with Foundries.io. There's a lot to like with this announcement, because by creating this partnership Arduino is putting a security model at the forefront of its industrial platform that will adapt to the needs of the device, which itself is connected from the get-go and designed for the long haul.
Today, most connected devices rely on a secure element and whatever strategies the product team has put in place for maintaining its security over time. That requires a dedicated security team for the device and assurances from the chip and module providers. Foundries.io not only takes on the role of securing the device for its lifetime, it goes beyond using a secure element, assuming the responsibility for dynamic security over the life of the device.
Arduino is paying for this level of security for users of its Portenta X8 board, but Foundries.io has found several customers eager to adapt to this type of dynamic security model. Foundries.io CEO Ian Drew said the company has grown its sales by 30% quarter over quarter. So with this announcement, Arduino is ready to go pro and Foundries.io gets another customer to bet on its new type of IoT security model. |
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Episode 364: Speed queens and Matter dreams |
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A week after the CSA said that the Matter smart home interoperability standard would be delayed we get a chance to talk about why the standard is delayed until fall, and what it means for consumers and smart home device makers. We then share Omdia data on how much ownership of different smart home devices has grown in the last year and explain what new design and privacy tweaks are coming to the Google Home app. In security-oriented news we share how radar might keep secured spaces clear of people and the latest CISA and FBI alert for infrastructure companies and satellite companies worried about cyberattacks. We then showcase how a new factory 5G network in Lexington, Kentucky deploying a private 5G network might signal the actual beginnings of 5G adoption in other manufacturing settings. In other wireless news, I reviewed the Eero Pro 6E routers mostly because I’m excited about 1,200 MHz of new spectrum for Wi-Fi. Finally, we answer a listener question about the Level Home locks and if they might get support for Apple’s HomeKey.
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— Omdia chart showing adoption of various smart home gadgets in the last year. |
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Our guest this week is Alex Hawkinson, CEO of BrightAI. Hawkinson is likely familiar to listeners as the founder and former CEO of SmartThings, the smart home platform purchased by Samsung. At his latest company, Hawkinson is continuing to try to add intelligence to the world by taking sensor data and turning it into insights. Only this time, he's trying to tackle the challenge with more AI and an enterprise focus. We talk about what BrightAI is trying to do and how it ties back to Hawkinson's history at SmartThings. He explains how BrightAI client CSC Serviceworks uses the internet of things to modernize its operations, leading to a 10% to 20% growth in revenue. The case study is impressive, as is the vision of helping lots of older companies retrofit their operations with connected sensors and AI. Enjoy the show.
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Is Wi-Fi 6E needed for the smart home? |
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— I tested out Eero's new routers, which are capable of using the new 6GHz spectrum available for Wi-Fi. These Eero Pro 6E Wi-Fi devices are the latest high-end routers from Eero, which is owned by Amazon. They aren't as fast as some of the competition, but rather than speeds I focused on whether the average smart home needs 6E-capable routers today. The answer is not yet. |
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News of the Week |
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Why isn't 5G happening in factories yet? This week on the podcast, Kevin asked why we have seen so much hype but so few deployments around 5G for manufacturing. I blamed it on the fact that Release 17 of the 3GPP standard was just finalized, so we can finally get network equipment and end devices to the market that are optimized for manufacturing use cases. Here's Phil Skipper, director of IoT strategy at Vodafone going into that, and all of the other reasons. It's a good interview. (Enterprise IoT Insights) — Stacey Higginbotham
Amazon shares plans for Alexa to become even more helpful: Would you ask Alexa to help plan your vacation? Not today, but perhaps in the future the digital assistant could handle such a task. That's the gist of this article in which an Amazon SVP and the head scientist for Alexa walks the reporter through Amazon's plans for "ambient intelligence." There's nothing new here and nothing about the amount of computing and input data needed to make Alexa capable of this advancement, but if you want to see where Amazon wants us to think Alexa can go, it's useful. (Fortune) — Stacey Higginbotham
Sensorbee chooses Piera System's chip for more accurate air quality measurements: Sensorbee AB will put Piera's chip on its outdoor air quality monitors for smart city deployments. I wrote about Piera in the past because its technology allows it to accurately measure air quality particles as opposed to estimating them, and this seems like an increasingly important thing to do given the health consequences of both indoor and outdoor pollution. Plus, I love new sensing technology. (Piera Systems) — Stacey Higginbotham
Lexmark adds edge AI functions to its Optra platform: Lexmark introduced its Optra software last year and this week it launched Optra AI Edge, which lets its customers run their AI models closer to where the data is generated. This reduces latency, can lower costs, and also can help with data privacy — all things enterprises are keen on. Optra is built from Lexmark's decades of managing millions of connected printers for clients, and after talking to them, it's clear they have an understanding of the basics needs for an IoT platform. With this launch, we'll see how Lexmark handles more complexity. (Lexmark) — Stacey Higginbotham
Snap wants to read your mind: I’m still not sold on the promise of AR/VR, but even I have to admit this is pretty wild. Snap this week acquired NextMind for an undisclosed amount. What does NextMind bring to the table? The company produces a $400 headband that lets you control computing interfaces with your mind using machine learning. Aside from the Snap Spectacles, which got people a little more comfortable wearing camera-equipped glasses, Snap has made a string of acquisitions in this space. In the past year, it bought two companies related to AR display technology. (The Verge) — Kevin C. Tofel
Nvidia’s new robotic product is a big AI brain: There's good news for robot makers that need more brain capacity in their hardware. At its Nvidia GTC event this week, Nvidia unveiled a $1,999 computing box that puts up to 275 trillion operations per second in a mechanical cranium. Yeah, 12-core ARM Cortex-A78AE processors paired with Nvidia’s GPUs will do that. This is the top-tier developer kit configuration. For those with a smaller budget, there are $399 and $1,599 options that are obviously less capable but still great for building a brain. (Engadget) — Kevin C. Tofel
TinyMobileRobots has marked up a million sports fields: Speaking of robots, have you heard of TinyMobileRobots out of Denmark? The company focuses on automating one thing, and does it really well. The little robots (they’re too big for me to call them “tiny”) can mark appropriate lines on roads and athletic fields. And this week, the company dropped chalk lines on its one-millionth field. That’s a big number, but you’re still probably asking how big of a deal that is. According to the company, its robots have eliminated 1.6 million hours of manual labor, equating to a cost savings of $102.5 million. And those aren’t tiny numbers. (TinyMobileRobots) — Kevin C. Tofel
Arm might be worth more than Nvidia was paying: It comes as no surprise that after Nvidia failed to acquire Arm, Arm decided to go public. What is a surprise, at least to me, is that Arm may be worth up to 50% more in an IPO than what Nvidia was hoping to pay for it. That’s the word on the street, anyway. Instead of the $40 billion it would have received from Nvidia, an Arm IPO might value the company at $60 billion. Regardless of the valuation, a public offering is in everyone’s best interest compared to a purchase. With its chip architecture designs used in thousands of products from so many connected product brands, all that power shouldn’t be centralized within a single chip designer like Nvidia. (Reuters) — Kevin C. Tofel
Yet another Helium LoRa device is coming soon: If you’ve been waiting for your very own Helium hotspot like I have, there’s now a new option. Pycom is offering one with a price of €275, or roughly $302. That’s less expensive than the €375 hotspot I ordered from Nebra more than a year ago, and I don’t even have it yet. Since Pycom is using Raspberry Pi boards for the compute power, I’m sure these will be limited and hard to get as well. The company says it plans to ship the first batch of its Pycom miners in June. In addition to earning Helium tokens by deploying this LoRa hotspot, you can also use it with certified tracking devices. Pycom is happy to sell you one for an additional fee. (Pycom) — Kevin C. Tofel
Want to customize LED light strings? There’s an app for that! Most smart home owners that have LED lights typically use the manufacturer's mobile app to customize and control them. I don’t blame you if you fall into this camp. But what if you want to build your custom LED string project with an Arduino board? Well, now there is a simple low-code/no-code method for that. I stumbled onto a web app that makes it easy to pick your LED colors and layouts. You can build your addressable LED design in Google Sheets, paste the content into the LED Mapper, and it spits out the Arduino code that makes your lighting your own. (Hackaday) — Kevin C. Tofel
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