At CEATEC Japan, Microsoft shared its vision on how Windows for IoT helps device builders of all sizes quickly create the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
The announcement of new products were made by Ian LeGrow / Partner Director, Intelligent Edge Operating Systems.
The Windows for IoT delivers a scalable family of operating systems as the foundation for building intelligent edge devices. This includes:
- Windows 10 IoT Core is built for small-footprint smart devices, while still offering the manageability and security expected from Windows, and along with Windows 10 IoT Core Services ensures long-term OS support and services for managing Over-the-Air (OTA) device updates and device health.
- Windows 10 IoT Enterprise This full-featured edition of Windows 10 IoT delivers enterprise manageability and locked-down capabilities for fixed-function smart devices.
- Windows Server IoT 2019 Windows Server IoT is for the most demanding edge-computing workloads, for connecting, storing and analysing data from large databases of connected applications, networks and Web services.
At CEATEC Japan Microsoft announced the general availability of the Windows 10 IoT Core Board Support Packages for the NXP i.MX family of processors, including i.MX6, i.MX7, i.MX 8M and i.MX 8M Mini application processor families. NXP is a leader in highly secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications and bringing NXP i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core together provides device builders with additional choices for building secure, commercial-grade, connected devices.
Jeff Miles, Vice President of Business Development, Secure IoT Edge to Cloud Products at NXP, was quoted as saying, “With this addition, NXP customers now have access to industry-leading edge-computing solutions, from i.MX 6 to i.MX 7 and i.MX 8M across Windows 10 IoT Core for advanced industrial and IoT applications, harnessing the full power of Azure in their intelligent edge products.”
During the keynote Ian also shared a brand-new solution from Smart Tower based on the combination of Windows 10 IoT Core, NXP, and Azure IoT. The solution is designed to improve reliability and reduce downtime for critical public infrastructure, such as cell towers or electricity distribution networks.
Smart Tower designed the solution to take full advantage of Edge processing, creating a sensor module attached to the tower and a ground control unit that analyses the health of the tower in real time, supporting high latency or disconnected scenarios.
Industry-leading ML at the edge: New Windows ML Container
The new Windows ML container, available today as an insider preview, is specifically designed for delivering AI-inferencing workloads built using the Windows ML API. Windows ML container gives businesses a fast and agile platform to build enterprise-grade IoT solutions. It combines the advanced features of Windows with the security of the Windows 10 IoT platform and the manageability of the Azure IoT Edge service.
Windows ML containers provide hosted AI workloads with hardware acceleration and direct access to the host’s peripheral devices. Hosted workloads can use sensors or cameras connected using USB, I2C, SPI or GPIO. Hardware acceleration is available using any DirectX 12- capable GPU or Microsoft Compute Driver Model-compliant ASICs attached to the host.
By optimizing the container specifically for AI workloads, the on-disk size of the container is approximately 350 MB, significantly smaller than any other GPU-enabled inferencing container in the market. With this smaller size, customers can manage Windows ML containers more easily and at lower cost. Here’s more on the Windows ML container Insider Preview.
Introducing SQL Server IoT 2019: Data storage and analytics on Windows for IoT
Ian wrote on the blog that the SQL Server has been available for embedded usage for many years. Now they were introducing SQL Server IoT 2019, which is the binary equivalent to SQL Server 2019 and will be licensed through the OEM channel and is specifically designed for dedicated-use, server-class edge appliances running application software. Coupled with Windows Server IoT 2019, Microsoft SQL Server IoT 2019 will provide a “comprehensive database platform for mission-critical data analytics and unmatched scalability, industry-leading performance and security and intelligence over all your data.”
Image Credit: Microsoft