- FlowCloud to enable IoT development on a range of low-cost MIPS development boards
- chipKIT™ WiFire with MIPS-based 32-bit PIC32 MCU available from Digilent Inc.
- Unique FlowCloud Getting Started app for Android and iOS speeds development even further
SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 22, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) is making its innovative FlowCloud technology available to developers, including the maker community, hobbyists and students, to speed application development for the Internet of Things (IoT). FlowCloud support will be available on several low-cost development boards with MIPS CPUs across a range of operating systems.
The first board with FlowCloud support is the new chipKIT™ WiFire from Digilent Inc. The chipKIT WiFire board is a development platform that uses Microchip's 32-bit PIC32MZ microcontroller (MCU) with a MIPS microAptiv CPU, giving users an MCU solution for IoT deployment. Imagination and partners will deploy FlowCloud support for other MIPS-based Android/Linux development boards in the near future.
With FlowCloud, users can construct solutions for a wide range of applications, including security, personal and professional health monitoring, energy management, cloud-based systems for content delivery and much more. FlowCloud technology minimizes the resources required to make a product fully connected, bringing together people, devices and services in a platform for easily building connected applications and businesses.
Says Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing, Imagination: "Imagination provides complete IP solutions and comprehensive platforms that speed development time for our customers, their customers and developers. FlowCloud is a unique and powerful offering for developers and the industry, and is proven and mature, having already deployed in volume. The new work we are doing with low-cost MIPS-based development boards extends the FlowCloud ecosystem and makes the platform far more accessible to developers."
New chipKIT WiFire board with FlowCloud
Users can start prototyping faster with this newest addition to the Arduino™ compatible chipKIT ecosystem, built by Digilent Inc. Based on Microchip Technology's MIPS-based 32-bit PIC32 MCUs, the wide range of chipKIT development boards are designed to get projects up and running in minimum time. Most chipKIT platforms are hardware compatible with many existing Arduino shields, and existing code examples and reference materials are easily migrated. This gives the user a large base of options they can utilize in the development process.
The chipKIT WiFire is only available through Digilent Inc. It builds on the previous chipKIT development boards with a significant processor performance increase over the previous generation, via Microchip's latest PIC32MZ MCU, which includes a MIPS microAptiv CPU core from Imagination. microAptiv is a highly-efficient, compact, real-time embedded processor core with the microMIPS code compression instruction set architecture and DSP instructions.
Rod Drake, director of Microchip's MCU32 Division, says: "Every day, more and more embedded systems are adding Internet connectivity, and the new chipKIT WiFire with our latest high-performance PIC32MZ MCU, which utilizes the microAptiv core, provides an ideal platform for IoT development. The PIC32MZ and MPLAB® Harmony software framework were designed for high-end, next-generation embedded applications that require high levels of performance, memory and advanced-peripheral integration. The addition of FlowCloud provides even more value for IoT and cloud applications."
Says Clint Cole, president, Digilent: "The chipKIT development platforms were the first to make 32-bit capability available to the Arduino community. Now, the growing chipKIT ecosystem has achieved a new level of innovation with the most advanced 32-bit, MIPS-based MCUs from Microchip, together with the ground-breaking FlowCloud technology from Imagination. It will be very exciting to see what developers can do with the exciting new chipKIT WiFire platform."
New app accelerates development
Getting started with FlowCloud development is quick and easy. Once a user has the development board and associated software, they just visit the FlowCloud Developer site at http://flow.imgtec.com/developers or directly download the FlowCloud Getting Started app for their mobile device. The FlowCloud Getting Started app is available for Android and iOS, and can be used for the easy setup of connectivity, configuration and other communications with the development board. An intuitive user interface makes embedded IoT development easier than ever. A user's FlowCloud account is free-of-charge and allows up to five connected devices.
Availability
Users can get started with FlowCloud for the chipKIT WiFire at http://flow.imgtec.com/wifire. Visit http://imgtec.com/flowcloud/ or contact info@imgtec.com for more information.
The chipKIT WiFire is priced at $79 (U.S.), and can be ordered today from Digilent at www.digilentinc.com/wifire.
About FlowCloud
FlowCloud technology has been engineered by Imagination to optimize device to cloud connectivity for embedded IoT applications. It provides a comprehensive, application-independent underlying platform that enables rapid construction and management of machine-to-machine and man-to-machine connected services. It is designed to address the needs of emerging IoT and cloud-connected devices. At the heart of FlowCloud are a set of modular infrastructure capabilities and underlying services that provide building blocks to accelerate deployment of cloud based applications. The infrastructure also provides secure asynchronous messaging and end-to-end connection establishment.
The baseline FlowCloud service includes registration, authentication, association, security, notifications, updates and remote control. Optional plug-ins to accelerate time to market include FlowTalk (VoIP), FlowFunds (payments), and others.
About Imagination Technologies
Imagination is a global technology leader whose products touch the lives of billions of people across the globe. The company's broad range of silicon IP (intellectual property) includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems on Chips) that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its unique software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination's licensees include many of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world's most iconic products. See: www.imgtec.com.
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