ARM's new IoT mbed products could bring 8-week battery life to wearables

At ARM TechCon 2015, ARM is unveiling a number of new mbed IoT Device Platform products. Designed to make it easier to deploy IoT devices on a large scale, developers will be able to use mbed Device Connector to build cloud-integrated web apps.

There's also a new build of the mbed OS Technology Preview and together these technologies can be used to connect and securely manage IoT devices. Two new reference designs for industry and wearables have also been released.

Key to speeding up IoT uptake is the decision to make mbed Device Connector available free of charge. Developers can work with up to 100 devices and 10,000 events per hour without having to pay a penny. ARM says that this will be enough for businesses to try out IoT options with minimal costs before considering how to go about scaling things up.

Krisztian Flautner, general manager of IoT business at ARM said:

ARM mbed partners now have access to the fundamental building blocks to develop and securely deploy IoT devices at any scale. Since the launch of the mbed IoT Device Platform last year, we have focused our efforts on providing the mbed Partnership with the tools to scale deployments from a single cloud-connected sensor to a host of more intricate devices that enterprise-grade IoT solutions demand.

ARM also has two new design reference platforms for developers to try out. While the mbed Smart City Reference Design uses Sub-GHz 6LoWPAN & CoAP mesh network protocols for industrial apps and infrastructure monitoring, the average consumer will likely be more interested in the potential of the mbed Wearable Reference Design. ARM says that this has been used to drive an "efficient wrist-based connected device capable of delivering a fully interactive user-experience while achieving a battery life of around eight weeks".