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CSI-3. This allows an image sensor
to be connected to the application
processor. There is also a Display
Standard Interface, DSI, although this
will probably be less important since
only a few IoT devices are likely to
have true displays.
I believe that most IoT devices are
not going to contain dedicated SoCs,
by which I mean an SoC designed
just for that one IoT device. I haven't
seen all the teardowns but I think only
the Apple Watch has its own SoC of
the devices I listed above. The other
devices all contain general-purpose
SoCs with a microcontroller and on-
board memory, and perhaps wireless
interfaces such as Bluetooth. For
example, the fitness monitor torn
down at DesignCon contained an
Ambiq Apollo MCU with 512KB RAM,
along with a Dialog Semiconductor
Bluetooth chip. The key point is that
neither of these components were
created specially for this fitness
is going to be security. The problem
is that encryption is a power hog. It
is hard to have the extreme battery
life that everyone wants at the same
time as having secure communication
that cannot be hacked. It is notable,
I think, that the weak link that led to
Target having all those credit cards
stolen was nothing to do with their
financial systems but was a controller
in their air-conditioning system. There
are plenty of stories of being able
to inject malicious code into a Fitbit
through the Bluetooth link. Of course
having your Fitbit hacked is probably
not that big of a deal but you probably
don't want someone taking over your
thermostat or your refrigerator.
Power for things like encryption
can be reduced by building either
custom hardware or a specialized
cryptographic co-processor. For some
IoT devices this will probably be
enough. They spend most of their
time dormant and only need to power
up occasionally to check their sensors
and, perhaps, send and receive data
up into the cloud.
monitor. There are two problems with
designing a dedicated SoC, money
and time. An SoC is an expensive thing
to design, but in the early stage of a
market the important thing is to get
to market and see what the customer
wants and then iterate. "Throw mud
against the wall and see what sticks,"
as the saying goes. Of course if high-
volume markets appear, then it may
well make sense to design a dedicated
SoC. Although the up-front costs are
high, the unit costs are very low.
I think that the big challenge in IoT
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