IBM is all set to unveil a new software dev. kit that would facilitate spur sensor management in various systems, devices, and products. The company claims that they’re aiming to enable internet-of-things, which would be next to a dream come true.
Everything will be bundled under the label Mote Runner, which will be a freely downloadable package, and more info on this product will be revealed at the 2010 Sensors Expo.
Mote Runner moniker refers to wireless sensors, and the creator of the micro sensor systems; MEMSIC, will not incorporate the Mote Runner on IRIS sensor as well. When you compare IBM’s efforts in establishing an internet of things, you will see that several similar efforts have been made in past, and the telecom companies have specifically seen development of wireless enabled devices as a market with terrific potential. The machine-to-machine technology make add spice to the growth of wireless sector, which was earlier considered to be almost saturated; but, things indeed look quite different than they were, just a few months back.
It looks like IBM is planning to target the bigger sector, and believes that low-cost sensors used for monitoring business systems, networks, and buildings. Mote Runner will be an ideal pick for all kinds of management tasks ranging from monitoring buildings, down to elderly members at home. Of course, this would mean that Mote Runner will find extensive use in health care, agriculture, weather monitoring, and many more fields, making it a vital player in decision making systems.
Taking a look at the Mote Runner program in detail; it is a low-footprint platform created as bundled software by IBM Research, and it can inter-link Java and other standard languages with sensor VMs.
It is developed with Web dashboard based on Eclipse, and it works on a simulation environment. Mote Runner has been designed by keeping power consumption and computing resource in mind, and it promises to deliver the goodies with extremely low power consumption, and it works on an 8-bit processor, 64 KB flash memory, and hardly 8 KB of RAM.
Indeed, these specs pretty much remind you of the PC OS requirements in the 1970s, and definitely don’t sound like the requirements of a modern computing program. So, full credit must be given to IBM for developing such an excellent software, which will not be capable of delivering the goodies, but also being light on resources as well as power consumption.
You can expect to hear more about the Mote Runner in a few days time, as IBM plans on releasing this officially into the global markets. And, you can be rest assured that Mote Runner will hit hundreds of thousands of downloads, and become a popular choice in the market within a matter of few days, given the fact that it will be made available totally free of cost. Probably, IBM might be planning on releasing a demo version early on, and selling the fully functional version once the product creates a good hold on the market.
