Upcoming ARM & Open-Silicon Webinar on Custom SOC’s for IoT

IoT products call for a higher level of system integration than ever before. Companies seeking to go to market now have a much higher bar in terms of size, power, reliability and manufacturability. The first IoT devices evolved from embedded development boards, like the groundbreaking Arduino. These were fine for prototypes or proof of concept, but are often clunky and not truly optimized platforms.

Product differentiation in IoT devices comes from a combination of software and hardware. It’s not necessary to look any further than Apple, Nike or Fitbit for examples of nicely integrated hardware and software. While it is good to see the pendulum swing back from the focus on software only businesses, a lot of people with ideas for new products do not have the background for dedicated hardware development.

Still, there are a lot of impressive things that can be done with productized processor chips such as the ARM Cortex M0 offered by many semiconductor companies. These can be combined with peripherals and sensors to build circuit boards. However, to really effectively compete in the market requires custom SOC development. Bringing the system onto a chip offers huge benefits, and ultimately a smaller BOM.

The good news is that there are readily available solutions for small and midsize companies needing the advantages that SOC’s offer IoT based products. Foremost among them is ARM’s initiative which has applied radical new business models to enable adoption of custom SOC’s. Still even with easier access to IP for product development and simplified business models the process of developing high quality silicon can be daunting, especially for companies predominantly focused on the software side.

To complete the needs of these IoT companies, there are turnkey ASIC development companies that can design and manufacture custom SoC’s. Open-Silicon is a leading vendor in this area and is going to host a webinar on March 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] at 8AM Pacific Time on the topic of how to revolutionize IoT product development by utilizing turnkey ASIC development. The moderator of this webinar will be Semiwiki’s own Daniel Nenni.

ARM is collaborating with Open-Silicon in offering this event. The first speaker will be ARM’s Cortex-M Product Manager Tim Menasveta. The products he oversees are a key component of low power IoT product development. He has deep experience in the embedded processor market in both development and management roles

Open-Silicon’s Senior Solutions Architect Pradeep Sukumaran will follow to talk in depth about the product development process that can be used by IoT product developers to smoothly incorporate custom silicon into their products.

While it might seem a leap to go from designing circuit boards using off the shelf parts to achieving highly integrated finished products using custom SOC’s, the speakers will review the business case in detail. They will also cover the range of available IP and SOC platforms to help jump start chip development. There will also be a discussion of the role played by turnkey ASIC developers in the product development process.

The information available in this webinar should be highly valuable to anyone developing IoT products, especially those looking for reduced overall product costs, higher reliability, lower power and product differentiation. It is especially interesting because of the participation of ARM and their partnership with Open-Silicon.

If you are interested in registering for this online webinar on March 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] at 8AM Pacific Time, there is more information available at this link.