>> ARM LAUNCHES CORTEX M7 - TARGETED FOR IOT

It is great to see more power coming to embedded solutions, but how much do we need?

ARM announced the release of the Cortex M7 - binary compatible with the existing Cortex-M series of processors specifically targeted for embedded solutions and the Internet of Things and the Wearable market. The specifications look impressive - but one must question exactly how much power is needed for IoT and is it worth sacrificing power consumption?

I am a fan of maximizing the capabilities of a device over simply just adding more CPU power and memory as it gives me great satisfaction to be able to say "yes, challenge complete!" when others simply don't even attempt to try or find it too difficult and opt for more power.

A good example was my challenge of getting RSA-1024 implemented on an 8bit CPU running at 16Mhz with only 2Kb of dynamic memory - I reported on that progress earlier on this blog. Imagine what you could achieve if you had optimized code available and more power?

I wonder how many die-hard programmers still exist these days?

The days of writing hand crafted assembly and squeezing every last bit of memory seems to be restricted to a limited few and is being replaced by bloated virtual machines and libraries that contain more than is needed and only moves developers away from the core technology.

It is great to see more and more focus on bringing power to the IoT at the processor level as it opens up so many additional opportunities to developers and product manufacturers. Early licensees of the processor include Atmel, Freescale and ST Microelectronics.