Launch hardware chosen for embedded internet

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 5, 2001

Livedevices products and infrastructure services, targeting very low-cost (sub-$5) computing hardware, make it economically viable to connect many millions of appliances to the Internet

Northern Real-Time Applications (NRTA) has launched a new Internet infrastructure division, LiveDevices, making low cost Internet connectivity a reality.

LiveDevices, which aims to put a billion devices on the Internet, is introducing its new embedded Internet software products with Microchip Technology as a strategic partner.

From VCRs to automobiles, LiveDevices products and infrastructure services, targeting the very low-cost (sub $5) computing hardware, makes it economically viable to connect many millions of appliances to the Internet and meet the needs of high-volume OEMs.

"Very low-cost embedded computing hardware is the kind of limited computing electronics used today in vending machines, car dashboards, alarm panels, heating control systems, and so on.

Therefore LiveDevices new ultra-efficient real-time kernel and TCP/IP Internet protocol software stack provides tremendous opportunities for this highly constrained hardware," said Charlie Edgington, Chief Executive Officer, NRTA.

"LiveDevices provides engineers with a compelling solution for Internet connectivity," said Sumit Mitra, Microchip's Vice President of Systems.

"Microchip's powerful PIC18CXXX family offers high performance at a low cost--meeting the design requirements of the LiveDevices project." LiveDevices also plans to provide server resources to allow organisations to outsource the collation and presentation of the mass of information that will flow from the hundreds of millions of client devices.

"We needed to offer our customers TCP/IP Internet connectivity on a platform that is widely applicable for cost-constrained, high-volume applications.

Microchip's leading position in this area means that our embedded software, running on PICMicro microcontrollers, is a highly cost-effective solution for volume Internet applications.

This opens the gates to mass production of Internet-connected devices, fulfilling our mission to put a billion devices on the Internet," stated Dr Ken Tindell, Chief Technology Officer of LiveDevices.