当今最热门的技术主题是物联网(IoT)。
谈论物联网不再仅仅被降级为科技出版物。
物联网被用于指从会议和行业团体到出版物和营销热门话题的所有内容。
主流媒体现在定期讨论这个问题。
物联网是上周在拉斯维加斯举行的消费电子展(CES)的主要主题 - 这是电子行业的首要展会。
物联网到底是什么?
为什么它给我们提供了机会?
1999年在宝洁公司(Procter and Gamble)担任凯文·阿什顿(Kevin Ashton)时,这个词本身就被广泛认可。技术专家凯文(Kevin)继续共同创立麻省理工学院的自动识别中心。
在最简单的形式中,物联网用于描述数十亿个通过不同类型的传感器收集“数据”并通过处理这些数据来实现“智能”和智能决策的互连事物。
智能手表,健身带和其他可穿戴设备等消费类电子产品立即浮现在脑海中。
但是,物联网远不止于此。
它可以是汽车,工业设备和医疗设备。
根据定义,物联网具有广泛的适用性,很难明确定义。
这就是为什么你会看到关于它可以包含的内容的无数定义的原因。
我们认为,物联网可分为4个重点应用领域,用于重点投资:汽车,医疗,无线和工业。
在这些广泛的垂直行业中,有一些子类别是物联网的一部分 - 如下图所示。
其中一些子类别也相当广泛,需要进一步定义。
例如,根据我们的定义,工业自动化包括工厂自动化,机器视觉,POS终端等。
Smart Homes包括在上周的CES中展示的一些“Connected Home”设备 - 恒温器,火灾和烟雾探测器,智能电器,智能锁(如英特尔CEO的演示)等。
物联网正在迅速发展和发展。
与此同时,它正面临着一些严峻的挑战。
由于一系列重大技术进步,这种增长正在形成。
摩尔定律以及低成本半导体组件的可用性,这些组件可实现物联网及其关键构建模块 - 传感器,连接和处理;
无线覆盖和智能手机无处不在,可以利用这种覆盖范围,大大简化对这个网络世界的访问;
最后,先进的大数据工具,使智能决策成为可能。
至于挑战,缺乏标准 - 或者更确切地说,缺乏多数人采用的标准 - 以及收集的数据的安全性/隐私性是两个更严重的标准。
前者是一个主要问题,因为许多不同的玩家都希望自己成为物联网的主要守门人,并且正在争相推出他们自己的版本。
例如,已经有很多不同的通信标准可用。
我们认为,由于最终应用的广度和范围,将需要不同类型的标准。
但是,除非大多数物联网设备采用标准,否则互操作性仍将是一个问题。
尽管存在这些挑战,我们相信物联网将很快成为我们日常生活中不可或缺的一部分。
这将为像我们这样的半导体公司带来巨大的机遇。
现在IoT如何改变您的日常生活?
那么2年后呢?
请继续关注我们如何努力让安森美半导体在这个领域取得胜利的更多博客文章。
以上来自于谷歌翻译
以下为原文
The hottest technology topic of the day is the Internet of Things (IoT). Talk about the IoT is no longer relegated to tech publications alone. IoT is being used to refer to everything from conferences and industry groups to publications and marketing buzz. The mainstream media talks about it on a regular basis now. IoT was a dominant theme at the Consumer Electronics show (CES) held last week in Las Vegas – the premier show for the electronics industry.
So what exactly is the IoT? And why does it present an opportunity for us??
The term itself is widely credited to have been coined by Kevin Ashton while at Procter and Gamble in 1999. Kevin, a technologist, went on to co-found MIT’s Auto-ID center. In its simplest form, IoT is used to describe billions of inter-connected things that collect “data” through different kinds of sensors and the processing of this data to enable “smart” and intelligent decisions.
Consumer electronics such as smart watches, exercise bands and other wearables come to mind immediately. But, the IoT is much more than that. It can be cars, industrial equipment, and medical devices. By definition, the IoT has enormous breadth of applicability and is very hard to clearly define. This is the reason why you see a whole myriad of definitions on what this can encompass. In our view, the IoT can be divided into 4 key application areas for focused investments: Automotive, Medical, Wireless and Industrial. Within each of these broad verticals, there are sub-categories that are part of the IoT – as per the figure below. Several of these sub-categories are also pretty broad and need further definitions. For instance, Industrial Automation, per our definition, includes factory automation, machine vision, POS terminals and others. Smart Homes includes a number of “Connected Home” devices showcased during last week’s CES – thermostats, fire and smoke detectors, Smart Appliances, Smart Locks (like the demo by Intel CEO), etc.
The IoT is evolving and developing rapidly. At the same time, it is facing some serious challenges. The growth is coming about due to a number of significant technological advancements coming together. Moore’s law and by extension the availability of low cost semiconductor components that enable the IoT and its key building blocks – sensors, connectivity and processing; the ubiquity of wireless coverage and smartphones to utilize this coverage and greatly simplify access to this networked universe; and finally, advanced big data tools that make possible intelligent decision making.
As for the challenges, lack of standards – or more precisely, the lack of standards adopted by the majority – and the security/privacy of the data being collected are two of the more serious. The former is a major issue since many different players want to establish themselves as the primary gatekeeper for the IoT and are jostling to push their own version. There are already quite a few different communication standards available, for instance. And it is our view that there will be different kinds of standards needed due to the sheer breadth and scope of end applications. However, unless the majority of IoT devices adopt a standard, interoperability will remain an issue.
Despite these challenges, we believe that the IoT will become an integral part of our everyday lives very quickly. And this will present a tremendous opportunity for semiconductor companies like ours.
How is the IoT changing your daily life now? And what about 2 years from now??
Stay tuned for more blog posts on how we are working to position ON Semiconductor to win in this arena.
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