Yesterday the IOTA Foundation announced its partnership with STMicroelectronics (ST) to enable its Internet of Things (IoT) technology on more devices. IOTA’s innovative blockchain, or rather a directed acyclic graph (DAG) or tangle, can now be used with ST’s electronics.
The IoT is, broadly, a network of connected smart devices which communicate with each other. The German-based IOTA foundation aims to develop blockchain technology for the IoT, which is scalable and thanks to the tangle structure, without fees.
Its new partnership with ST comes with software which allows immediate access to the tangle for those with ST components. The leading electronics firm produces products such as sensors, data converters, and semiconductors for their 100,000 clients worldwide. Swiss headquartered ST filed around 550 new patents last year alone and boasts a market cap of $15.8 billion.
The firm is best known for its ‘SM32’ family of microcontrollers (used for embedding processors in machinery and equipment), which are crucial for IoT devices. The new software released yesterday, the ‘X-CUBE-IOTA1’, is an expansion of existing software for the SM32 family.
The software means that that IOTA’s technology can be used with ST’s popular hardware and software, so companies can develop sensors, power regulators, audio devices and more which are IOTA enabled.
IOTA’s Director of Partner Management, Holger Köther, stated: “With specialized hardware playing such an integral role in the Internet of Things market adoption, it is exciting to work with such partners as ST to enhance IoT’s role as an innovation facilitator.”
“By enabling IOTA functionalities […], developers can now easily include IOTA features and capabilities in their IoT devices and create valuable applications using the STM32 Open Development Environment,” said Alessandro Cremonesi, STMicroelectronics VP System Research and Application.
The IOTA foundation has many blockchain projects on the go, including food traceability, car smart wallets with Jaguar Land Rover, and, announced two weeks ago, the Convergence Alliance. The alliance initiated by Outlier Ventures aims to combine AI, IoT, and blockchain for enterprise solutions and includes Jaguar as a founding member.
