手机芯片霸主ARM公司的下一个征服目标：物联网

    林利集团（The Linley Group）首席分析师林利•葛文那普表示：“我认为ARM将在物联网中扮演重要角色。该公司已经为低成本、低功率的应用提供了很多好技术。”

    对ARM有利的是，该公司拥有大量合作伙伴。葛文那普表示：“这是一个需要大量创新才能撬开的新市场。ARM及其合作伙伴在这方面有优势。”

    不过，ARM也可能面临它在自己主宰的智能手机市场不曾遇到的挑战。葛文那普指出，“所有智能手机想要运行的软件都大同小异。”而物联网设备可能不一样。“举例来说，在物联网中，我认为我们不会看到在灯泡上运行的应用。这一领域将更具多样性，其它公司将有更多机会参与其中。”

    这些公司中就包括英特尔（Intel）。作为领先的微处理器公司，英特尔加大物联网技术的研发力度，专门成立物联网事业部，下设部门分别致力于零售、运输、制造和工业应用，以及智能家居和建筑等行业的研发工作。

    英特尔物联网部门副总裁埃里克•弗里表示：“我们认为物联网是一个巨大的转型机遇。根据我们的预测，未来将出现数以十亿计的智能联网设备，究其根本，这些设备将把各种企业和工业环境的数据带入云端，从而将启动大量的业务转型。”

    弗里称，英特尔的夸克（Quark）、凌动（Atom）、酷睿（Core）和至强（Xeon）等微处理器系列都将在物联网中发挥各自的作用。他补充道，英特尔还在努力提升安全和标准——该公司策划建立了工业互联网联盟（Industrial Internet Consortium）——并塑造围绕这项主题的公共政策。

    “我们才触及表面”

    当然，ARM也非常想确定行业标准。该公司宣称，其芯片设计不仅能启动物联网设备，还能避免它所说的“筒仓网（Internet of Silos）”，即产生的数据无法由各家服务供应商共享。

    弗格森表示：“显然，我们整个行业需要上下一心，审视所有设备是如何互联，并合理地传达信息。除安全性外，我们还必须制定标准。”

    出于这一目的，ARM一直深度参与6LoWPAN等技术规范的确定，后者涉及低功率设备网络、如今盛行的互联网协议以及约束应用协议（CoAP，一项专门针对简单电子设备的互联网协议）之间的互操作性，他说。

    高德纳公司（Gartner）调研总监阿方索•韦罗萨称：“我认为他们对所有半导体公司而言都是一大助力。物联网需要低功率以及调动各种程序员的能力。ARM提供了一门公用语言。”

    韦罗萨称，微芯片、软件和“很好的生态系统”三管齐下，ARM将继续打造物联网不断提升的标准和架构。

    弗格森表示：“很多人都认为，物联网不过就是智能冰箱和烤面包机。事实上，更大的商机在于如何改善人们的生活。而说到好的技术能有何作为，我们的研究还停留在表面。”(财富中文网)

    译者：项航

    Working in the company’s favor: a wide array of partners. “This being a new market, it will require a lot of innovation to get started,” Gwennap said. “ARM and its partners have a leg up.”

    Still, ARM may confront challenges that it wouldn’t otherwise face in the smartphone market it dominates. “All smartphones want to run pretty much the same software,” Gwennap said. Internet of Things devices may not work the same way. “In the IoT, I don’t think we’ll see apps running on a lightbulb, for example. There will be more diversity there, and more opportunity for other companies to play a role.”

    One of those companies: Intel. The leading microprocessor company has been ramping up its efforts for the Internet of Things, including establishing an IoT subgroup with sectors devoted to retail, transportation, manufacturing and industrial applications, and smart homes and buildings.

    “We believe the IoT is a huge transformational opportunity,” said Eric Free, a vice president within Intel’s Internet of Things subgroup. “We expect there will be billions and billions of intelligent connected devices that will essentially bring data from a variety of business and industrial environments into the cloud and unlock a ton of business transformations.”

    Intel’s Quark, Atom, Core, and Xeon lines of microprocessors are each playing a role in the Internet of Things, Free said. The company is also working to promote security and standards—it helped found the Industrial Internet Consortium—and shape public policy around the topic, he added.

    ‘We’re only just scratching the surface’

    ARM is also concerned about standardization, of course. The company pitches its chip designs as a way not only to enable Internet of Things devices, but also as a way to avoid what it calls the “Internet of Silos,” where data is created but not shared among service providers.

    “Clearly what we need to do as an industry across verticals is look at how all these things connect together and communicate information in a sensible way,” Ferguson said. “Besides security, we have to work on standards.”

    Toward that end, ARM has been heavily involved in efforts such as 6LoWPAN, which concerns the interoperability of networks of low-power devices and today’s dominant Internet protocol, and the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), an Internet protocol tailored to simple electronics, he said.

    “I think they are being a fantastic enabler to all the semiconductor companies,” said Alfonso Velosa III, a research director with Gartner. “The Internet of Things requires low power and an ability to enable a broad variety of programmers. ARM has provided a common language.”

    With a three-pronged approach—microchips, software, and “a very good ecosystem,” Velosa said—ARM will continue to shape the evolving standards and architecture of the Internet of Things.

    “A lot of people think the Internet of Things is just smart refrigerators and toasters,” Ferguson said. “The bigger opportunity is, how do you improve people’s lives? We’re only just scratching the surface on what technology for good can do.”