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Intel executives last month began to lay out the company’s strategy around the Internet of Things, including growing its new family of Quark chips and extending the capabilities in some of its Atom products.
Now, the giant chip maker is creating a new business unit specifically aimed at the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT Solutions Group will bring together Intel’s Intelligent Systems Group and Wind River software business and will address all elements of the burgeoning IoT space, from hardware and software to services, according to the company.
“This is the next step in the company’s ongoing activities supporting the proliferation of IoT implementations across the industry,” Intel spokesperson Krystal Temple said in an email. “Intel will deliver solutions for companies that are investing in technologies to both drive operating efficiencies and create new services by connecting devices to each other and the cloud to transform their businesses.”
The IoT refers to the rapidly growing number of intelligent appliances, systems and devices that are connecting to the Internet and each other, generating massive amounts of data that needs to be collected, stored and analyzed. A wide range of tech vendors—from Cisco Systems and IBM to low-power chip designer ARM—are building out strategies around IoT, a market that IDC analysts believe could hit $8.9 trillion by 2020.
Cisco on Oct. 29 announced its own IoT business unit.
Intel officials in October said the company’s IoT strategy will include not only arming the Quark X1000 and Atom E3800 systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) with such features as error-correcting code (ECC) memory and integrated security, but also gateways with integrated software from Wind River and Intel subsidiary McAfee.
The Quark SoC family was introduced by CEO Brian Krzanich in September. The chips will be a fifth the size of Atom and consume a tenth of the power, and will be aimed at the IoT and wearable computing devices, according to officials.
“Intel will deliver solutions for companies that are investing in technologies to both drive operating efficiencies and create new services by connecting devices to each other and the cloud to transform their businesses,” Temple said in her email.
Intel veteran Doug Davis, who had run Intel’s embedded business, will be vice president and general manager of the new IoT business unit. He will report to Krzanich and President Renee James.