<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
There is quite a lot happening with the ESP8266 on this front. These
low cost wifi are powered by an advanced mcu/SoC running at 85mhz
with a full tcpip stack. They are very powerful little
microcontrollers in their own right with @12 gpio's available. <br>
<br>
There is a new development toolchain called Sming that is worth a
look. It is an Eclipse based Arduino IDE, using normal Arduino code
to program the ESP8266 Tensilica chip. These boards have been hard
to use, mainly because the tools/compiler for these new mini-SoC
chips. Sming looks promising. Finally something useable which
compiles compact enough code to fit on these little boards.<br>
<br>
The ESP8266 looks like the leading technology for the whole IoT
movement. Sming, I understand, will soon have full MQTT support as
well which is a lightweight messaging protocol that piggybacks on
tcpip. MQTT is looks to be, currently, the de-facto IoT standard
protocol.<br>
<br>
<i>"MQTT is a machine-to-machine (M2M)/"Internet of Things"
connectivity protocol. It was designed as an extremely lightweight
publish/subscribe messaging transport. It is useful for
connections with remote locations where a small code footprint is
required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium. "<br>
<br>
</i>Of coarse, a full Oberon based "Oberonnet of things" is most
interesting too. The new Oberon soft core processor Chris Burrows is
working on for Astrobe should be able to fit nicely on an Ice40
miniature form factor FPGA. It will enable us to fit Oberon onto a
4mm x 4mm chip that costs < $7. A purely native SCC.Mod based
"Iot mini board" sure would be nice, huh? Instead of the Nrf24l01
have an ICE40 FPGA board (plus oscillator, components necessary) run
the network/IoT on this dedicated "Oberon soft core". At 4mm x 4mm
it could be even smaller than the Nrf24l01. <br>
<br>
We do need a way to interface to the standard IoT world. The ESP8266
will give us a good bridge to communicate with the outside. <br>
<br>
</body>
</html>