The rapid expansion of the IoT market is being driven by companies who are either augmenting existing product lines with IoT functionality, or building innovative solutions for new market segments. In many instances these companies have neither the time or resources available to design on-board solutions from the ground up utilizing the full capabilities of a particular communications protocol, nor the expertise to obtain the necessary RF certification required in different geographies. To resolve this, they are turning to module manufacturers to provide the pre-verified functionality needed to give their products a solid technical foundation.

The electronics industry has quickly reacted to this new demand for modules, especially in the category of host-less modules featuring an onboard microprocessor and built in connectivity functionality. With so many vendors and modules to choose from, selecting the most suitable module vendor with the right experience and scale to support the company’s specific requirements has become a significant barrier to entry.

Additionally, due to the range of connectivity options utilized in IoT, finding a cross platform software solution with professional development tools is also problematic. Product developers often repeat costly software development programs when developing product families that must support a range of connectivity standards.

As an IoT-centric operating system capable of running on any Arm Cortex-M based product, Mbed OS is the right platform to address the development portability challenge.

Introducing Mbed Enabled Modules

To further bolster this position, we have expanded the Mbed Enabled program to include production modules pre-verified to support Mbed OS and associated connectivity protocols. The program provides product developers with a simple entry point to the marketplace, where they can find mass production quality modules running high quality open source software and supporting a diverse suite of connectivity drivers and protocols.

The Mbed Enabled Module program is being launched in February 2018 during Embedded World and Mobile World Congress, where, along with our lead partners we will exhibit a range of mass production modules. For a list of modules currently available, please visit os.mbed.com/modules.

To learn more about our Mbed Enabled Module program, be sure to visit us at the Arm booth (Hall 4-140) at Embedded World between February 27th to March 1st in Nuremburg, Germany.