3
October 2013
Product News,
Technical Articles
& more about:
Chips & Components
Tools & Software
Boards & Modules
V
IEWPOINT
Dear Readers,
do you remember – 1969 the ARPANET was created as a
project of the Advanced Research Project Agency a part of
the US department of Defence and developed since then in
various steps to the Internet, we all use nowadays in our
daily lives. And there is no end in sight – the development is
still going on and even accelerating. One reason is the
growing use of intelligent embedded systems in nearly every
device which makes these devices “smart” what also means
they can connect to the Internet. In the article “Requirements
for realizing the Internet of Things” (page 8) the author
states that that almost all manufactured goods now include
an embedded processor (typically a microcontroller, or MCU),
along with user interfaces, that can add programmability
and deterministic command and control functionality. The
electrification of the world and the pervasiveness of embedded
processing are the keys to making objects smart. After a
device becomes smart through the integration of embedded
processing, the next logical step is remote communication with the smart device to help make
life easier.
Communication capability and remote manual control leads to the next step … how do I
automate things and, based on my settings and with sophisticated cloud-based processing, make
things happen without my intervention? That is the ultimate goal of some IoT applications, and
these capabilities can then enable a new class of services that make life easier for their users. For
the network, sophisticated cloud-based processing requires a new generation of communications
processors and building secure networks that keep up with demand, while simultaneously
reducing energy consumption and cost of equipment. This will require all kinds of innovations,
well beyond the improvements Moore’s law can deliver.
The new technologies which will introduce smart machine-to-machine (M2M) communication
are the high-speed 4G wireless standard and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Together, these
technologies will enable designers to create a world in which smart devices could offer a new
level of M2M services. The possibilities include: a smart phone which could receive an alert and
location message when its owners car is stolen; a camera which could communicate with a GPS
device to suggest local beauty spots; a fridge which could text a reminder to buy more butter; au-
tomatic uploading of data from a personal health monitoring device to a GP; and a machine
which could send an alert when it needs to be repaired. These, and so many more applications,
will all be enabled by smart M2M communications.
One of these applications is called Industry 4.0: This term refers to the fourth industrial
revolution. The first industrial revolution was the mechanization of production using water and
steam power. It was followed by the second industrial revolution which introduced mass
production with the help of electric power, followed by the digital revolution, the use of
electronics and IT to further automate production. Characteristic for industrial production in
an Industry 4.0 environment are the strong customization of products under the conditions of
high flexibilized (mass-) production. The required automation technology is improved by the
introduction of methods of self-optimization, self-configuration, self-diagnosis, cognition and
intelligent support of workers in their increasingly complex work. The totally connected
industry 4.0 is nowadays just in the initial state – in contrast to the ubiquitous private use of the
Internet via social networks – but it will evolve.
Therefore enjoy your social networks in the meantime.
Yours sincerely
Wolfgang Patelay
Editor
