Intel Capital pumps $72M into AI, <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>, cloud and silicon startups, $115M invested so far in 2018
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Intel Capital pumps $72M into AI, IoT, cloud and silicon startups, $115M invested so far in 2018

Intel  Capital,  the investment arm of the computer processor giant, is today announcing $72 million in funding for the 12 newest startups to enter its portfolio, bringing the total invested so far this year to $115 million. Announced at the company’s global summit currently underway in southern California, investments in this latest tranche cover artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud services, and silicon. A detailed list is below.Other notable news from the event included a new deal between the NBA and Intel Capital to work on more collaborations in delivering sports content, an area where Intel has already been working for years; and the news that Intel has now invested $125 million in startups headed by minorities, women and other under-represented groups as part of its Diversity Initiative. The mark was reached 2.5 years ahead of schedule, it said.The range of categories of the startups that Intel is investing in is a mark of how the company continues to back ideas that it views as central to its future business — and specifically where it hopes its processors will play a central role, such as AI, IoT and cloud. Investing in silicon startups, meanwhile, is a sign of how Intel is also focusing on businesses that are working in an area that’s close to the company’s own DNA.It’s hasn’t been a completely smooth road. Intel became a huge presence in the world of IT and early rise of desktop and laptop computers many years ago with its advances in PC processors, but its fortunes changed with the shift to mobile, which saw the emergence of a new wave of chip companies and designs for smaller and faster devices. Mobile is area that Intel itself acknowledged it largely missed out.Later years have seen still other issues hit the company. For example, the Spectre security flaw (fixes for which are still being rolled out). And some of the business lines where Intel was hoping to make a mark have not panned out as it hoped they would. Just last month, Intel shut down development of its Vaunt smart glasses and reportedlythe entirety of its new devices group.The investments that Intel Capital makes, in contrast, are a fresher and more optimistic aspect of the company’s operations: they represent hopes and possibilities that still have everything to play for. And given that, on balance, things like AI and cloud services still have a long way to go before being truly ubiquitous, there remains a lot of opportunity for Intel.“These innovative companies reflect Intel’s strategic focus as a data leader,” said Wendell Brooks, Intel senior vice president and president of Intel Capital, in a statement. “They’re helping shape the future of artificial intelligence, the future of the cloud and the Internet of Things, and the future of silicon. These are critical areas of technology as the world becomes increasingly connected and smart.”Intel Capital since 1991 has put $12.3 billion into 1,530 companies covering everything from autonomous driving to virtual reality and e-commerce and says that more than 660 of these startups have gone public or been acquired. Intel has organised its investment announcements thematically before: last October, it announced $60 million in 15 big data startups.Here’s a rundown of the investments getting announced today. Unless otherwise noted, the startups are based around Silicon Valley:Avaamo is a deep learning startup that builds conversational interfaces based on neural networks to address problems in enterprises — part of the wave of startups that are focusing on non-consumer conversational AI solutions.Fictiv has built a “virtual manufacturing platform” to design, develop and deliver physical products, linking companies that want to build products with manufacturers who can help them. This is a problem that has foxed many a startup (notable failures have included Factorli out of Las Vegas), and it will be interesting to see if newer advances will make the challenges here surmoutable.Gamalon from Cambridge, MA, says it has built a machine learning platform to “teaches computers actual ideas.” Its so-called Idea Learning technology is able to order free-form data like chat transcripts and surveys into something that a computer can read, making the data more actionable. More from Ron here.Reconova out of Xiamen, China is focusing on problems in visual perception in areas like retail, smart home and intelligent security.Syntiant is an Irvine, CA-based AI semiconductor company that is working on ways of placing neural decision making on chips themselves to speed up processing and reduce battery consumption — a key challenge as computing devices move more information to the cloud and keep getting smaller. Target devices include mobile phones, wearable devices, smart sensors and drones.Alauda out of China is a container-based cloud services provider focusing on enterprise platform-as-a-service solutions. “Alauda serves organizations undergoing digital transformation across a number of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, aviation, energy and automotive,” Intel said.CloudGenix is a software-defined wide-area network startup, addressing an important area as more businesses take their networks and data into the cloud and look for cost savings. Intel says its customers use its broadband solutions to run unified communications and data center applications to remote offices, cutting costs by 70 percent and seeing big speed and reliability improvements.Espressif Systems, also based in China, is a fabless semiconductor company, with its system-on-a-chip focused on IoT solutions.VenueNext is a “smart venue” platform to deliver various services to visitors’ smartphones, providing analytics and more to the facility providing the services. Hospitals, sports stadiums and others are among its customers.Lyncean Technologies is nearly 18 years old (founded in 2001) and has been working on something called Compact Light Source (CLS), which Intel describes as a miniature synchrotron X-ray source, which can be used for either extremely detailed large X-rays or very microscopic ones. This has both medical and security applications, making it a very timely business.Movellus “develops semiconductor technologies that enable digital tools to automatically create and implement functionality previously achievable only with custom analog design.” Its main focus is creating more efficient approaches to designing analog circuits for systems on chips, needed for AI and other applications.SiFive makes “market-ready processor core IP based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture,” founded by the inventors of RISC-V and led by a team of industry veterans.
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Release time：2018-05-10 00:00 reading：1066 Continue reading>>
<span style='color:red'>IoT</span> Boosting Semiconductor Manufacturers
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IoT Boosting Semiconductor Manufacturers

After years of promise, the Internet of Things is finally helping manufacturers shift more chipsWith signs of softness in the smartphone market, chipmakers have been relying on a boost from another area of considerable focus in recent years: the Internet of Things.We've been hearing for years that the Internet of Things is the Next Big Thing, and we've been conditioned to take bold predictions about trillions of devices and tens of billions of dollars in IC revenue with a grain — or more — of salt.So far, a number of chipmakers have reported softening demand for chips in smartphones, notably TSMC in its quarterly report last month. Still, fears about the smartphone market — and Apple's iPhone in particular — didn't stop Apple from reporting solid results for the first calendar quarter of this year, including sales of iPhone X that were better than had been feared.While the smartphone story may or may not catch up with chip vendors as the year drags on, one thing that is abundantly clear from the first quarter results that have been announced so far is that the lift of IoT on semiconductor sales is accelerating. A number of firms have given credit to IoT for increasing sales, including Intel, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Cypress Semiconductor and Silicon Labs, to name just a few."Over the last several years, these companies have reorganized to assign entire divisions to IoT platforms," said Tom Hackenberg, a principal analyst for embedded processors at IHS Markit. "That's the reason you are hearing so much more about IoT driving earnings."IC Insights projects that total semiconductor sales for IoT system functions will be worth about $24.5 billion this year, up from about $21.3 billion last year. The market research firm is currently in the process of updating its forecast for IoT chip sales, but last year's estimates have the market growing to $31.1 billion by 2020."Weakness in smartphone growth has definitely caused IC leaders in handsets to step up their efforts to serve Internet of Things," said Rob Lineback, senior market research analyst at IC Insights, in an email exchange with EE Times.One challenge to defining the market opportunity for chipmakers in IoT is IoT itself. It's not a market, as much as a capability. As Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO of Cypress, put it, when Cypress sells connectivity chips to carmakers s for connected cars, those devices are still sold into the automotive market, not a separate market altogether."Everyone has been defining IoT and throwing numbers out there to make their exposure look very big and cool," El-Khoury told EE Times. "I look at IoT as a capability, not a market all by itself."Largely for this reason, El-Khoury said its tough to pin down exactly what the impact of IoT is on Cypress's business. IoT is one of three areas of focus — along with automotive and industrial — in El-Khoury's "Cypress 3.0" strategy for the company unveiled when he took over last year. As the example El-Khoury used above illustrates, there is plenty of overlap in these areas. Still, suffice it to say, Cypress sells microcontrollers and memory for that are going into a lot of IoT-related products."We are a monster player in IoT across the board,"  El-Khoury said.One measure of IoT's impact within Cypress is the company's connectivity business, which grew 47 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, El-Khoury said.Silicon Labs, meanwhile, already derives nearly 50 percent of its sales from the company's IoT business, which posted 17 percent year-over-year growth in the first quarter.Tyson Tuttle, Silicon Labs' president and CEO, told EE Times that that percentage is only going to grow over time. Tuttle expects the company's IoT business to be worth around $500 million this year, a number that is "just scratching the surface," he said.Ultimately, though, Tuttle believes the promise of the IoT won't be realized until the market moves from a fragmented mess of proprietary protocols, technologies and products to a more cohesive model where devices communicate with one and another and up to the cloud more seamlessly. That's the primary reason that Silicon Labs has beefed up its offerings with a number of recent acquisitions, including the $240 million acquisition of Z-Wave, which closed last month."There are things that need to come together for the markets to really take off," Tuttle said. "In the end, we need to start to design things with the end user in mind.""We are just at the start of this whole thing," El-Khoury said. "As more and more technology gets introduced, more and more things can get connected."
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Release time：2018-05-07 00:00 reading：1326 Continue reading>>
Rolls-Royce invests in Startupbootcamp <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>
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Rolls-Royce invests in Startupbootcamp IoT

Rolls-Royce has become a sponsor of Startupbootcamp IoT, a three-month growth programme that will help up to 10 Internet of Things (IoT) startups validate, build and grow their business.The participating start-ups will be selected and mentored by R2 Data Labs, the data innovation catalyst inside Rolls-Royce.Startupbootcamp is a leading startup growth programme and over 80% of the 500 participating businesses it has help are still thriving. Rolls-Royce is the main sponsor of the London-based Startupbootcamp IoT, one of 21 programmes running globally. Ten prospects will be selected from global applicants from a wide range of IoT focus areas – from Smart Energy and Manufacturing, to VR and AR applications for industrial business.According to Caroline Gorski, Director for Global Ecosystem and Partnerships for R2 Data Labs: “We believe our own data innovation is made exponentially more powerful by working within a rich ecosystem of data technology innovators. So this sponsorship of Startupbootcamp and the potential to share in the energy and inventiveness of these IoT startups, goes to the heart of our collaborative digital strategy.”Participating startups will be given access to a broad base of business and technical mentors, hardware professionals, corporate sponsors, and exposure to over 400 potential investors, customers and partners at the demo day. Free office space with a fast-prototyping lab is also provided. Through workshops, one-to-one sessions and events, Startupbootcamp’s aim is to get each startup to market quicker and help them secure follow-on funding.The intensive nature of Startupbootcamp is designed to achieve the equivalent of a year’s development and progress for each startup – but over just three months.“The accelerated concept behind Startupbootcamp is also something we really associate with,” added Caroline Gorski. “Our extensive programme of R2 Data Labs data innovation cells operates in a similar way, working in 90-day sprints to explore and realise value from data for Rolls-Royce and its customers.”Raph Crouan, Founder and Managing Director of Startupbootcamp IoT, said: “Our aim is to make the journey of building a connected hardware startup clearer, shorter, and more successful for entrepreneurs. Having access to the advanced analytics and cutting-edge engineering capability of Rolls-Royce will be a huge benefit to our startups.”Neil Crockett, Chief Digital Officer for Rolls-Royce and Head of R2 Data Labs said: “I’m really happy Rolls-Royce can be part of the great work being done by Startupbootcamp. There should be a win-win here. On the one hand, our role is to be a useful industrial sounding board for the startups. While on the other, we can tap into their exciting thinking and potential in a way that accelerates our data innovation – both for our customers and to find new efficiencies internally.”R2 Data Labs already partners with Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft. This sponsorship follows the recently announced partnership agreements with IoT Tribe North and Seraphim Space Camp Accelerator, two leading accelerators for tech start-ups.
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Release time：2018-04-27 00:00 reading：1486 Continue reading>>
Microsoft, MediaTek Team on <span style='color:red'>IoT</span> SoC
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Microsoft, MediaTek Team on IoT SoC

　　MediaTek is working with Microsoft to deliver this year the first Azure Sphere chip, the MT3620 that the partners expect to drive IoT innovation with built-in security and connectivity.　　Azure Sphere is designed for highly secured, connected MCU-powered devices at a price that the companies expect will make enterprise-class security affordable for an array of cloud-connected gadgets.　　MediaTek and Microsoft have worked together to develop a specialized chipset with a Wi-Fi connected controller built around a processor designed to run Azure Sphere’s IoT operating system that includes support for Microsoft’s latest security protocols. The chipsets will be sold as part of the Azure Sphere solution, enabling customers to connect their MCU-powered products and devices with protection and security provided by Microsoft.　　"Microsoft had a vision we also believed in. Bringing trust and security into IoT solutions from chip to cloud, to make connected devices practical to sell and manage for businesses and consumers," said Jerry Yu, a MediaTek vice president, in a press statement.　　MediaTek is the reference chip partner for the Azure Sphere Partner Program.　　Cost and Security　　The partners expect a significant drop in the cost of connectivity will allow billions of MCU-powered devices, from household appliances and health monitors to children’s toys and industrial equipment to become IoT devices.　　Yet each connection is vulnerable to attacks. IoT won’t become a mass market until devices, data and cloud are secure. That’s the fundamental problem the two companies aim to solve with their latest project.　　With more than 9 billion microcontroller-powered devices entering the market annually, Microsoft and MediaTek see as critical the need to ensure every connected device, regardless of price point, has the highest level of security embedded.　　"In the next decade we’ll see the democratization of connectivity to billions of devices,” said Microsoft Managing Director Galen Hunt. "Azure Sphere brings together the best of Microsoft’s expertise in cloud, software, and silicon - resulting in a unique approach to security that starts in the silicon and extends to the cloud."　　The MediaTek MT3620 is the first Azure Sphere-certified chip, which the companies expect will be the foundation for a new generation of secure intelligent edge devices and solutions.　　With Azure Sphere, Microsoft aims to build a new ecosystem, consisting of silicon vendors, ODMs and OEMs from a broad range of industries.　　Recognizing the opportunities and risks associated with the growing number of IoT devices and applications, a group of companies have banded together to ensure that security standards are developed and upheld, according to Microsoft.　　MediaTek is now sampling chips with lead customers and expects to ramp production by the third quarter of 2018.
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Release time：2018-04-18 00:00 reading：1260 Continue reading>>
Qualcomm Brings AI, Vision Processing to <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>
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Qualcomm Brings AI, Vision Processing to IoT

　　After surpassing $1 billion in IoT revenue in FY2017, Qualcomm is announcing new product families purpose-built for IoT applications. The company began by announcing a new family of IoT chipsets, the QCS603 and QCS605, along with software and reference designs, all dubbed the Qualcomm Vision Intelligence Platform. The platform brings the image and artificial intelligence (AI) processing capabilities found on its Snapdragon chipsets for premium smartphones to a wide range of consumer and industrial applications.　　With the transition from connected devices to intelligent devices, there is a push to bring AI processing from the cloud to the devices we use, commonly referred to as the “edge” or “edge devices” referring to the edge of the network. Bringing AI to the edge reduces cloud and connectivity bandwidth requirements while increasing security and system performance. Vision plus AI processing have become critical elements in autonomous cars and many other applications that require local processing. The new Qualcomm Vision Intelligence Platform seeks to bring similar functionality to applications that are constrained by size, thermal limits, and/or battery life.　　The new QCS chipsets and other elements of the platform will leverage the latest technology from Qualcomm. The chipsets will leverage the same kind of AI processing solution in the latest Snapdragon 845 smartphone processors called the Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE). The AIE takes advantage of the heterogeneous chip architecture that that combines the Kryo 300 CPU cores, Hexagon 685 Vector Processor, and Adreno 615 GPU into a single system-on-chip. In addition, the Vision Intelligence Platform includes an integrated Spectra 270 ISP that supports dual-16 MP image sensors. The platform also includes other image technologies to improve the overall image performance, including staggered HDR, advanced electronic image stabilization, dewarp, de-noise, chromatic aberration correction, and motion compensated temporal filters.　　The platform also supports audio functions, including noise and echo cancellation, that can be used for user interface, natural language processing, and speech recognition. This includes support for Qualcomm’s 3D Audio Suite, Aqstic Audio Technologies, and aptX Audio technologies.　　The QCS605 includes two gold Kryo CPU cores based on the Arm Cortex-A75 and six silver Kryo CPU cores based on the Arm Cortex-A55. The QCS603 includes two gold Kryo CPU cores and two silver Kryo CPU cores. The chipsets also feature an integrated display processor capable of up to WQHD resolution touch display with hardware accelerated composition, 3D overlays, and support for the major graphics APIs including OpenGL, OpenCL, and Vulkan. For connectivity, the chipsets feature integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and GPS. The chipsets are also being produced on leading-edge 10nm process node.　　If this all sounds familiar to the industry leading mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 845, it is. Qualcomm claims that the QCS chipset performance is not be the same as its flagship Snapdragon offering, but it is close and optimize for the requirements and cost-effectiveness needed in IoT. The 6xx nomenclature has no relation to the performance levels of the Snapdragon family. The company intends the QCS chipset family to be a separate product line with its own features, performance levels, and nomenclature.　　The chipset, however, is only half of the solution. Qualcomm will also be providing the usual evaluation boards and reference designs, in conjunction with software. The software includes a Neural Processing Engine Software Development Kit (SDK) and libraries and tools optimized for the leading AI frameworks, including TensorFlow, Caffe 2, and Open Neural Network Exchange. The platform also supports Android Neural Networks API, Qualcomm’s Hexagon Neural Network library, and several third-party AI image recognition and detection solutions from SenseTime, Pilot.ai, and MM Solutions.　　The QCS605 powerhouse is capable of handling dual image streams - a 5.7k stream at 30 fps or 4k stream at 60 fps and a secondary 1080p stream at 60 fps that can be used for data analytics. In terms of AI inference processing, the QCS605 is capable of 2.1 tera-operations per second (TOPS). The QCS603 supports a 4k and 1080p stream at 30 fps. The ISP is also optimized for low light environments.　　Qualcomm is targeting the platform for a wide range of applications, including sports, VR, security, and 360-degree cameras; industrial and consumer robots; and smart displays. However, the list of IoT applications that are likely to leverage vision and AI is almost endless. For industrial applications, Qualcomm will also support extended lifecycles. The QCS605 and QCS603 are sampling now. In addition, a QCS605-based VR 360 camera reference design is available from Altek.　　The new QCS Vision Intelligence Platform demonstrates how mobile technology continues to drive innovation in other segments and why leadership in mobile technology is critical for any company hoping to compete in the Intelligence of “Things” era.
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Release time：2018-04-16 00:00 reading：1215 Continue reading>>
Siemens Buys Agilion to Boost <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>
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Siemens Buys Agilion to Boost IoT

　　Siemens has acquired German wireless location solutions developer Agilion GmbH to boost its real-time location systems (RTLS) offering in the ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency spectrum for factory automation and automated guided vehicles (AGVs).　　Targeting applications like smart factories and logistics, RTLS enables precise monitoring of the production process and a transparent material flow. Real-time data made available using RTLS about the location and status of assets forms the basis for networking involved players and logistical processes along the value chain. This allows users to continuously and automatically compare the position of every production asset with the 3D model (or digital twin) of the product or production environment. Evaluation and combination of this digital twin with other information — for instance, using apps in the company’s IoT operating system, MindSphere — permit dynamic optimization of production and logistics processes.　　"By acquiring Agilion, we’ll be in a position to also offer real-time locating solutions straight away," said Herbert Wegmann, head of Siemens’ industrial communication and identification business segment.　　Wegmann added: "RTLS is an essential key technology and a new step on the road toward flexible automation in production — for instance, by providing dynamic self-organizing production concepts in the assembly of large-scale products. Real-time locating also enables the safe, efficient use of collaborative mobile robots."　　Agilion GmbH was established in 2004 and has a workforce of 60 at its location in Chemnitz, Germany. It now becomes a fully owned subsidiary of Siemens and integrated into the Process Industries and Drives Division’s industrial communication and identification business. The parties did not disclose the purchase price.　　Siemens says that in the smart factory of the future, RTLS will supply the essential foundation for the use of intelligent production units, involving the cooperation of different production facilities such as transport vehicles and mobile robots with machines and plants. At the same time, the actual location of a machine or robot will become a variable factor, meaning that an autonomously controlled, highly efficient work flow can be organized only with knowledge of the current spatial configuration of the factory.　　UWB-based RTLS solutions permit a complete production floor and thousands of assets to be equipped, taking RTLS technology out of the niche role that it currently occupies and making it available to serve as the infrastructure for multiple applications. In an RTLS implementation, active transponders are attached to toolholders, tools, AGVs, robots, and other products. These transponders can be automatically located within fractions of a second and their position transmitted to the control systems. The use over the UWB spectrum means that the low transmission level prevents them from interfering with other systems but in a comparatively large frequency spectrum (3–7 GHz). This enables high locating precision.　　The active transponders emit a radio signal at defined intervals, which is received by at least three anchors, each synchronized with the other. The anchors transmit the collected data together with the transponder ID number and the receiving time, measured with ultra-high accuracy, via a gateway to the locating server. This software calculates the position of each transponder using time difference of arrival (TDOA). Accuracy is increased using flanking measures such as automatic correlation of RTLS position data with the 3D model of the product and production environment stored in the digital twin.　　The use of UWB and TDOA allows the accuracy of RTLS systems to be increased to within just a few centimeters in production environments. Using TDOA also helps significantly extend the life of transponder batteries, providing the assurance of reliable function over several years. Using UWB, transponders can also be equipped with a data interface and combined, for instance, with the robot controller, making the location information available not only over the higher-level system but also directly to the robot itself with only a negligible delay.
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Release time：2018-04-12 00:00 reading：2254 Continue reading>>
Security Model Targets Industrial <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>
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Security Model Targets Industrial IoT

　　The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) rolled out its next step in an effort to deliver guidelines for securing the IoT in business settings. A new white paper lays out a process for companies to define and deliver levels of security appropriate for their situations.　　The so-called security maturity model follows a security framework that the IIC rolled out in late 2016. The trade group, formed in 2014, will now turn its focus to delivering a document on best practices and a set of industry profiles.　　A handful of companies now provide IoT security audits, but “we realized there were gaps to determine what’s the right level of security for your solution — there were guidelines missing,” said Ron Zahavi, who co-authored the white paper and chairs an IIC security committee.　　“We were interested in driving this because our clients … started asking us a couple of years ago how to tell if their systems are secure,” said Zahavi, who is also chief strategist for Azure IoT standards at Microsoft.　　The white paper lays out a flexible process with variations for different industries, risk profiles, and implementations using products from different companies.　　This summer, the IIC aims to release a practitioner’s guide to IoT security. It aims to be a comprehensive overview of best practices with detailed examples of real use cases.　　In addition, the IIC is reaching out to other industry groups to create security profiles specific to manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and other sectors. “We hope there will be a library of best practices that these industry groups will maintain,” he said.
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Release time：2018-04-10 00:00 reading：1009 Continue reading>>
Microsoft to make $5bn investment into <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>
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Microsoft to make $5bn investment into IoT

　　Microsoft has announced it will invest $5 billion in the IoT over the next 4 years in an effort to ‘give every customer the ability to transform their businesses, and the world at large, with connected solutions’.　　The company claims that it’s been investing in IoT before the term was even coined, and is now planning to dedicate ‘even more’ resources to research and innovation in IoT, which it says is ‘evolving to be the new intelligent edge’.　　According to Microsoft, it’s seeing the increased adoption and exponential growth that analysts have been forecasting for years, and apparently, it’s ‘only just getting started’.　　A.T. Kearney predicts IoT will lead to a $1.9 trillion productivity increase and $177 billion in reduced costs by 2020. Microsoft believes this effect will be pervasive, from connected homes and cars, to manufacturers, smart cities and utilities—and everything in between.　　This increased investment will support continued innovation in its technology platform, Microsoft adds, and the company intends to continue research and development in key areas. This includes securing IoT, creating development tools and intelligent services for IoT and the edge, and investments to grow its partner ecosystem.　　Microsoft says that companies such as Steelcase, Kohler, Chevron, United Technologies and Johnson Controls are all already innovating with its IoT platform, launching products, solutions and services that ‘transform’ their business.　　With each of these new implementations, Microsoft says that it’s witnessing a ‘unique transformation’, along with gaining insight into how both customers and partners overcome the specific challenges of building an IoT solution that harnesses massive amounts of data.　　Although Microsoft is looking to spend $5 billion, it hasn’t given specifics on this spend, which is understandable. The company appears to be waiting to see what will happen in the next 4 years with this intelligent edge and what will be a worthwhile investment.
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Release time：2018-04-09 00:00 reading：1153 Continue reading>>
<span style='color:red'>IoT</span> Diversity Challenges ROI
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IoT Diversity Challenges ROI

　　There’s plenty of growth ahead for the Internet of Things, but the market’s fragmented nature can make it hard to find the return on investment, said a market watcher with a new report on low power wide area (LPWA) networks　　“It’s not just one product like a smartphone, its hundreds of different products, and the trick is creating enough products to meet demand,” said Mareca Hatler, director of research for ON World Inc.　　Overall the market researcher expects revenues for LPWA systems and services to reach $56 billion by 2022. But the market is fragmented with users in some stage of exploring or deploying more than 40 unique IoT applications just for LPWA nets.　　ON World’s latest report projects the Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) version of LTE and the 900 MHz LoRa network will take leading roles in LPWA over the next few years. One of their chief rivals, Sigfox, will trail, in part a victim of the demand for unique designs.　　“Sigfox has millions of subscriber devices, but its challenge is getting enough devices to meet demand — it’s a product availability problem,” she said.　　The problem of needing to customize designs for IoT deployments is a challenge all vendors face. But some feel it more than others.　　“One advantage for LoRa is it has a bigger ecosystem with more products. There are dozens of LoRa modules and gateways, Sigfox has a handful,” Hatler said.　　Today, two thirds of LPWA network operators are unlicensed ones such as LoRa and Sigfox, but cellular carriers are ramping their NB-IoT plans quickly. As a result, NB-IoT will make up more than half of 1.3 billion LPWA nodes OnWorld forecasts will be deployed by 2025.　　“NB-IoT has the advantage in the next five to seven years. The question is only how fast it will happen. The network operators have so much scale they can offer disruptive pricing,” Hatler said, noting Deutsche Telecom will charge just $12 per NB-IoT node for ten years or 500 MBytes.　　Carriers will drive wide availability as well as price. In addition, they can also offer good quality of service and as much as 5x more bandwidth than unlicensed LPWA nets, she said.　　Carriers in China were quick to jump on NB-IoT. U.S. carriers rolled out a higher bandwidth LTE-M option first because it only required a software upgrade to their LTE networks. But in the last several months they have announced aggressive plans for NB-IoT, which typically requires carriers install some new hardware.　　“The operators are not saying anything about the costs of the NB-IoT upgrades, but they are making them — some will even support LoRa as a complement that allows users to have their own private networks,” she said,　　Among its attractions, LoRa is an open specification with a relatively large number of supporters. In addition, it supports asset tracking, locating devices within about 100 meters without the need for GPS.　　All the LPWA nets will increasingly compete with existing Bluetooth, WiFi and Zigbee networks, especially in uses such as metering and smart buildings, she said. The LPWA options typically support longer ranges and battery life times although they typically are lower in bandwidth.　　“NB-IoT could take some share from existing wireless mesh nets. The market is big enough to support a wide variety of users and apps, but more and more we’ll see head-to-head competition,” Hatler said.
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Release time：2018-04-04 00:00 reading：1032 Continue reading>>
What's Needed to Secure the Industrial <span style='color:red'>IoT</span>
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What's Needed to Secure the Industrial IoT

　　Industrial security and cybersecurity — not just security for the more consumer-focused Internet of Things — is a growing problem with not many comprehensive, concrete solutions.　　In the factory, there are multiple questions to be considered for industrial IoT (IIoT) networks, such as what kinds of security tech to implement and where, and which threats it should address. Several industry groups have already proposed multi-layered approaches, frameworks and sets of controls for securing devices and assets in IIoT networks, and some technology for protecting connected devices and networks already exists.　　According to the Global ICS and IIoT Risk Report by operational technology (OT) security firm CyberX, one-third of the OT networks whose processes are controlled by industrial control systems (ICS) are exposed to the public internet. Half lack anti-virus protection and more than half use easily hackable plain-text passwords in their control networks. More than three-quarters run obsolete Windows systems like XP and 2000 that are unsupported with security patches, while 82 percent run well-known remote access management protocols, making it easier to access and manipulate network equipment. Twenty percent have wireless access points, which can be compromised in multiple ways, including the KRACK WPA2 vulnerability in most Wi-Fi networks, discovered last October.　　Using CyberX's proprietary network traffic analysis algorithms, the report analyzed production traffic from 375 OT networks in multiple sectors including pharmaceuticals, chemicals and manufacturing.　　Last September, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published last a manufacturing profile providing details for implementing its Cybersecurity Framework in the plant. Also last year, the agency published a draft revision of its SP 800-53 Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations, focused on how public and private sector organizations can maintain security and privacy in interconnected systems and devices such as their IoT and IIoT networks. Although the controls were developed for use by the federal government, industry organizations are also adopting them.　　According to the draft revision, they are intended not just for IoT and IIoT or information security, but for protecting all kinds of computing platforms including mobile, cloud and industrial control systems.　　The non-profit Center for Internet Security (CIS) hosts the CIS Controls, a prioritized list of key actions that organizations can take to protect their networks. Referenced in NIST's Cybersecurity Framework, they are considered a leading cybersecurity approach. Last year, CIS added an implementation guide for small and medium-sized enterprises.　　Aimed more specifically at the IIoT, the Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF) was developed last year by the public-private Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) to begin creating industry consensus for securing IIoT systems. It's based on the consortium's Industrial Internet Reference Architecture, a standards-based architectural template and methodology to provide a common framework and concepts for IIoT system architects.　　The IISF separates security evaluation into several factors, including endpoints, communications, management systems and supply chains for the system's elements. It includes best practices and discussions of existing standards, regulations, and guidelines for IIoT security and cybersecurity.　　Last October, the IIC also released the Industrial IoT Analytics Framework, containing instructions for system architects for mapping analytics to IIoT machine and process data.　　Given that the processes implemented within OT, ICS, and SCADA environments are essentially a form of communication, factories should be deploying solutions capable of visualizing and monitoring these communications, said Matt Morris, vice president of strategy and products for NexDefense, a provider of industrial and IIoT cybersecurity software solutions. These solutions are usually deployed near the network edge by connecting into either a mirror port on managed switches, or via network taps for unmanaged switches.　　"These systems will primarily be implemented on-premise, within the enterprise environment, and ideally implemented system- or network-wide, but may follow along with the criticality of the assets they protect," said Morris. They should also be capable of being deployed retroactively into existing environments to continue the useful life of high-value assets, yet provide high levels of visibility and awareness.　　Most mature solutions offer software-only options, hardware options, or combinations to match the flexibility required, and can detect hundreds or more types of risks and threats. Some, such as NexDefense's Integrity, can visualize and detect a broader range of risks beyond security threats, such as design flaws, misconfigurations, and system failures, said Morris.　　IIoT security does require specialized software and hardware, and ultimately, security needs to be designed in, said Alan Grau, president and founder of Icon Labs, a provider of security solutions for embedded IoT and edge devices including industrial control devices. Adding security later results in implementation compromises, which are often responsible for vulnerabilities hackers can exploit. Solutions like Icon Labs' Floodgate Security Framework allow security to be designed into embedded devices themselves. Management of IIoT security should be implemented either on-premise or in the cloud, depending on the specific deployment, and integrated with IT security management, he said.　　Market Research firm IDC divides security technology for the IoT and IIoT into four buckets: IoT devices and sensors, network, cloud, and physical security, said Abhi Dugar, IDC's research director for IoT security and the report's author.　　The largest by far at about 70 percent is physical security, like alarm systems and physical access management, because these products are based on legacy technology that's already in place. This is also the slowest-growing category. The other three are much smaller and total about 30 percent combined. The largest is devices and sensors, followed by cloud products and network products. For the 2017 to 2021 forecast period, all three are expected to grow in the 13 to 16 percent CAGR range, with devices and sensors growing the fastest at 16.1 percent.
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