This year's embedded world in Nuremberg was dominated, as was to be expected, by the Internet of Things. But the show also saw a growing acceptance that security, as an issue, needed to be taken far more seriously.
Robert Day, vp of sales and marketing, Lynx Software Technologies agreed. "There has certainly been a tendency for security to be seen as an afterthought; a 'bolt on' to embedded designs. The next generation of connected embedded systems will need to have enhanced security, especially when controlling critical infrastructure."
Lynx therefore took the opportunity to announce that its LynxOS 7.0 RTOS and LynxSecure separation kernel hypervisor were moving to new ARM based processors, which would see military grade security applied to the protection of ARM based embedded designs addressing IoT markets.
According to Lynx, its LynxOS 7.0 will be migrated initially to the ARM Cortex-A series of processor cores, enabling designers to use features such as access control lists, audit, quotas, local trusted path, account management, and OpenPAM to enhance improved levels of security.
These capabilities mean security can be designed into a connected embedded device, rather than being added as an afterthought. As a result IoT edge and gateway devices can be deemed 'secure by design', according to Lynx.
The company also announced the LynxSecure separation kernel hypervisor. This provides strict isolation on a single hardware platform, separating memory, CPU and devices without the need of a 'helper' operating system, commonly found in hypervisors.
Building on the security theme, ARM launched the ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit – Ethernet Edition to channel data from Internet connected devices directly into IBM's Bluemix cloud platform. By combining ARM's secure sensor environment with cloud-based analytics, mobile and application resources from IBM faster prototyping of new smart products and value-added services was promised.
According to Krisztian Flautner, general manager of ARM's IoT business: "By securely embedding intelligence and connectivity into devices from the outset, we will be able to create cloud-connected products that are far more capable than today."
Elsewhere, Altera announced a collaboration with Mentor Graphics to provide developers with access to Vista virtual platforms that support Altera's SoC FPGA portfolio, including its 14nm Stratix 10 SoCs, which feature a 64bit quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor. These advanced SoC virtual platforms are intended to accelerate embedded software development across the entire product life cycle.
"Virtual prototyping is a proven methodology for software development and providing customers with a comprehensive set of SoC virtual platforms will help reduce their development time while cutting development costs," explained Joerg Bertholdt, Altera's director of embedded software marketing.
LDRA revealed that it was collaborating with Texas Instruments to provide automated unit testing capabilities as part of TI's new SafeTI Compliance Support Packages for TI's Hercules MCU software components.
SafeTI CSPs will help TI customers to comply with functional safety standards and reduce verification and validation efforts.
Cortus, a specialist in low power, silicon efficient, 32bit processor IP, was able to unveil three new software partners, enabling its APS architecture to be used in a broader range of embedded and Internet of Things applications.
The ports include a dual IPv4/v6 stack from Oryx Embedded, secure point to point connection software from Nabto and an IDE and real time operating system from Blunk Microsystems.
"For a company like Cortus, it's great to see a growing number of embedded software vendors supporting our APS architecture," said Roddy Urquhart, vice president of sales and marketing. "These ports, along with the recently announced port of Micrium uC/OSIII, offer Cortus licensees a broadening range of capabilities for connected intelligent devices and an enhanced choice of IDE, middleware and RTOS."
Author
Neil Tyler
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk