Watch an Embedded World 2015 demo of a Thread Stack mbed OS on an ARM Cortex-M using an Atmel 802.15.4 radio.
Seppo Takalo, ARM Senior Software Engineer, shares some the latest updates from Thread Stack, the native support for thread development built into ARM mbed OS. In the video below, Takalo shows off the integrated stack on an ARM Cortex-M using an Atmel 802.15.4 radio.
The fact that these MCUs are targeting highly-sophisticated connected car applications like infotainment and ADAS means that the journey toward bigger and more powerful chips is now inevitable.
The automotive industry has reached a new era marked by giant initiatives like infotainment, connected car and semi-autonomous vehicles. And, no one seems more excited than the MCU guys who have been a part and parcel of in-car electronics for the past two decades. However, the humble microcontroller is going through a profound makeover in itself in order to come to terms with the demands of the connected car environment.
Take Atmel Corporation, one of the top MCU suppliers, who has launched its SAM DA1 family of microcontrollers at Embedded World 2015 in Nuremberg, Germany. The automotive-grade ARM Cortex-M0+-based MCUs come with capacitive touch hardware support for human-machine interface (HMI) and local interconnect network (LIN) applications. The SAM DA1 series integrates peripheral touch controller (PTC) for capacitive touch and eliminates the need for external components while minimizing CPU overhead. The feature is aimed at capacitive touch button, slider, wheel and proximity sensing applications.
Moreover, SAM DA1 microcontrollers offer up to 64KB of Flash, 8KB of SRAM and 2KB read-while-write Flash. The other key features of SAM DA1 series include 45 DMIPS and up to six serial communication interface (SERCOM), USB and I2S ports. SERCOM is configurable to operate as I2C, SPI or USART, which gives developers flexibility to mix serial interfaces and have greater freedom in PCB layout.
Atmel | SMART SAM DA1 ARM based Cortex-M0+ microcontrollers
The automotive-grade MCUs — operating at a maximum frequency of 48MHz and reaching a 2.14 Coremark/MHz — are qualified to the AEC Q-100 Grade 2 (-40 to +105degreeC). According to Matthias Kaestner, VP of Automotive at Atmel, the company is targeting the SAM DA1 chips for in-vehicle networking, infotainment connectivity and body electronics.
Automotive touch surface demo at Embedded World 2015
The fact that the SAM DA1 devices are based on powerful ARM cores clearly shows a trend toward more performance and the ability to run more tasks on the same MCU. The Cortex-M0+ processor design comes with a two-stage pipeline that improves the performance while maintaining maximum frequency. Moreover, it supports a new I/O interface that allows single cycle accesses and enables faster I/O port operations.
That’s no surprise because the number of electronic control units (ECUs) is on the rise amid growing momentum for connected car features like advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). However, a higher number of ECUs will make the communication among them more intense; so automotive OEMs want to reduce the number of ECUs while they want more value from the MCU.
Moreover, car vendors want to bring down the number of ECUs to avoid complexity within the larger car network. The outcome of this urge is the integration of more performance and functionality onto the MCU. Each ECU has at least one microcontroller.
Atmel’s SAM DA1 device is another testament that the boundaries between MCU and SoC platforms are blurring. The fact that these MCUs are targeting highly sophisticated connected car applications like infotainment and ADAS means that the journey toward bigger and more powerful chips is now inevitable.
Atmel is an MCU company, and this product line has played a crucial role in its transformation that started in the late 2000s. At the same time, however, the San Jose, California–based chipmaker seems fully aware of the critical importance of the system-level solutions. Atmel calls the SAM DA1 family of chips MCUs; however, its support for more peripherals, larger memories and intelligent CPU features show just how much the MCU has changed over the course of a decade.
Memory Protection Unit in Cortex-M0+
Atmel has a major presence in the automotive market with its MCUs and touch controllers being part of the top-ten car vendors. It’s interesting to note that, beyond its MCU roots, Atmel has a lot of history in automotive electronics as well. Atmel was one of the first chipmakers to enter the automotive market.
Moreover, Atmel bought the IC division of Temic Telefunken Microelectronic GmbH for approximately $110 million back in 1998. Telefunken was an automotive electronics pioneer with an early success in electronic ignition chips that made way into Volkswagen cars back in 1980.
The release of SAM DA1 series marks a remarkable opportunity as well as a crafty challenge for Atmel in the twilight worlds of MCU and automotive electronics. Tom Hackenberg, a senior analyst at IHS, calls the phenomenon ‘SoC on wheels.’
Hackenberg says that the automotive industry consumed approximately a third of all MCUs shipped in 2013. However, now there is an SoC on the road, the brain behind the connected car, and it commands a deeper understanding of the AEC-Q100 standard for automotive quality and ISO 26262 certification for car’s functional safety.
Atmel’s AvantCar touchscreen demo at the CES 2015
The integration of touch controller into SAM DA1 chips can be an important value proposition for the car OEMs who are burning midnight oil to develop cool infotainment platforms for their newer models. Next, while AEC Q100 Grade 2 qualification is a prominent part of the SAM DA1, Atmel might have to consider augmenting the ISO 26262 certification for functional safety, a vital requirement in ADAS and other connected car features.
Majeed Ahmad is author of books Smartphone: Mobile Revolution at the Crossroads of Communications, Computing and Consumer Electronics and The Next Web of 50 Billion Devices: Mobile Internet’s Past, Present and Future.
Integrating the Bosch intelligent 9-axis sensor, these new extension boards provide IoT and wearable designers the ability to prototype designs using Atmel | SMART MCUs.
During Embedded World 2015, Atmel launched a new extension board for the highly-popular Xplained platform. Featuring a Bosch Sensortec BNO055 intelligent 9-axis absolute orientation sensor, the next-gen device connects directly to Atmel’s Xplained board making it ideal for prototyping projects for the Internet of Things, wearables and gaming markets, for applications like personal health and fitness, indoor navigation, as well as others requiring context awareness and augmented reality for a more immersive experience.
The low-cost, easy-to-use Xplained prototyping and evaluation platform for Atmel | SMART ARM-based MCUs can be customized with a wide range of extension boards. The platform enables easy development with a rich selection of example projects and software provided in the Atmel Software Framework (ASF), Atmel Studio and third party integrated development environments.
“As a leading provider of secure, smart and connected solutions, we are committed to providing the essential tools and platforms to bring more IoT and wearable designs to market,” explained Steve Pancoast, Atmel Vice President of Development Tools and Software.
The new extension board enables designers to easily allow developers to prototype motion control and smart sensing designs using Atmel’s broad portfolio of MCUs. The extension board is compatible with the Xplained-PRO expansion connector, and software examples are provided through the Atmel Studio integrated development environment.
“We are excited about the opportunity to feature our BNO055 sensor in the Xplained ecosystem,” added Jeanne Forget, Global Director Marketing of Bosch Sensortec GmbH. “Our advanced BNO055 absolute orientation sensor complements the Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-based MCUs and will allow developers to bring their designs quickly to market. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration with Atmel with this product.”
Interested? The Xplained extension board is now available in the Atmel Store for $19.00.
Atmel launches automotive grade ARM Cortex-M0+-based MCUs with capacitive touch hardware support for HMI and LIN applications.
Just in time for Embedded World 2015, Atmel has officially launched its next-generation family of automotive-qualified ARM Cortex-M0+-based MCUs with an integrated peripheral touch controller (PTC) for capacitive touch applications.
The SAM DA1 is the first series in this Atmel | SMART MCU automotive-qualified product family, operating at a maximum frequency of 48MHz and reaching a 2.14 Coremark/MHz. Atmel’s SAM DA1 series is ideal for capacitive touch button, slider, wheel or proximity sensing applications and offers high analog performance for greater front-end flexibility. The new devices are available down to a very compact QFN 5x5mm package with wettable flanks for automated optical inspection.
Eliminating external components and offering more robust features, devices in the SAM DA1 series come with 32 to 64 pins, up to 64KB of Flash, 8KB of SRAM and 2KB read-while-write Flash and are qualified according to the AEC Q-100 Grade 2 (-40 to +105°C).
“As a leader in both automotive touch and LIN solutions, we are committed to bringing innovative, cost-effective solutions to next-generation vehicles,” explained Atmel’s VP of Automotive Matthias Kaestner. “With a comprehensive peripheral set for connectivity and state-of-the-art touch support, the SAM DA1 series allows system designers to perfect the human-machine interface in the automobile with capacitive touch. We are committed to offering a wide range of cost-optimized auto-qualified products for in-vehicle networking, infotainment connectivity and body electronics.”
Key features of the SAM DA1 series include:
To accelerate the design development, the ATSAMDA1-XPRO development kit is available to support the new devices. Furthermore, the new SAM DA1 series is also supported by Atmel Studio, Atmel Software Framework and debuggers.
Interested? The company is currently working on the SAM DA1 series with lead customers, with general sampling slated to begin at the end of April 2015. In the meantime, you can head over to the MCU family’s page here.
Why develop a new MCU instead of using a high-performance MPU? Eric Esteve says “simplicity.”
By Eric Esteve
If you target high growth markets like wearable (sport watches, fitness bands, medical), industrial (mPOS, telematics, etc.) or smart appliances, you expect using a power efficient MCU delivering high DMIPs count. We are talking about systems requiring a low bill of material (BoM) both in terms of cost and devices count. Using a MCU (microController) and not a MPU (microProcessor) allows for the minimizing of power consumption as such device like the SAM S70 runs at the 300 MHz range, not the GigaHertz, while delivering 1500 CoreMark. In fact, it’s the industry’s highest performing Cortex-M MCUs, but the device is still a microcontroller, offering multiple interface peripherals and the related control capabilities, like 10/100 Ethernet MAC, HS USB port (including PHY), up to 8 UARTs, two SPI, three I2C, SDIOs and even interfaces with Atmel Wi-Fi and ZigBee companion IC.
The Cortex-M7 family fits within the SAM4 Cortex-M4 and the SAM9 ARM9 products.
The Cortex-M7 family offers high performance up to 645 Dhrystone MIPS but as there is no Memory Management Unit, we can not run Operating System such as Linux. This family targets applications with high performance requirements and running RTOS or bare metal solution.
This brand new SAM S/E/V 70 32-bit MCU is just filling the gap between the 32-bit MPU families based on Cortex-A5 ARM processor core delivering up to 850 DMIPS and the other 32-bit MCU based on ARM Cortex-M. Why develop a new MCU instead of using one of this high performance MPU? Simplicity is the first reason, as the MCU does not require using an operating system (OS) like Linux or else. Using a simple RTOS or even a scheduler will be enough. A powerful MCU will help to match increasing application requirements, like:
Building MCU architecture probably requires more human intelligence to fulfill all these needs in a smaller and cheaper piece of silicon than for a MPU! Just look at the SAM S70 block diagram below, for instance.
SAM S70 Block diagram
The memory configuration is a good example. Close to the CPU, implementing 16k Bytes Instruction and 16k Bytes Data caches is a well-known practice. On top of the cache, the MCU can access Tightly Coupled Memories (TCM) through a controller running at MPU speed, or 300 MHz. These TCM are part of (up to) 384 Kbytes of SRAM, implemented by 16 Kbytes blocks and this SRAM can also be accessed through a 150 MHz bus matrix by most of the peripheral functions, either directly through a DMA (HS USB or Camera interface), either through a peripheral bridge. The best MCU architecture should provide the maximum flexibility: a MCU is not an ASSP but a general purpose device, targeting a wide range of applications. The customer benefits from flexibility when partitioning the SRAM into System RAM, Instruction TCM and Data TCM.
As you can see, the raw CPU performance efficiency can be increased by smart memory architecture. However, in terms of embedded Flash memory, we come back to a basic rule: the most eFlash is available on-chip, the easier and the safer will be the programming. The SAM S70 (or E70) family offers 512 Kbytes, 1 MB or 2 MB of eFlash… and this is a strong differentiator with the direct competitor offering only up to 1 MB of eFlash. Nothing magical here as the SAM S70 is processed on 65nm when the competition is lagging on 90nm. Targeting a most advanced node is not only good for embedding more Flash, it’s also good for CPU performance (300 MHz delivering 1500 DMIPS, obviously better than 200 MHz) — and it’s finally very positive in power consumption.
Indeed, Atmel has built a four mode strategy to minimize overall power consumption:
Target Applications depicted above for Atmel’s SMART | ARM based Cortex M7 SAM S Series. The SAM S series are general-purpose Flash MCUs based on the high-performance 32-bit ARM based Cortex-M7 RISC processors with floating point unit (FPU).
If you think about IoT, the SAM S70 is suited to support gateway applications, among many other potential uses, ranging from wearable (medical or sport), industrial or automotive (in this case it will be the SAM V70 MCU, offering EMAC and dual CAN capability on top of S70).
This post has been republished with permission from SemiWiki.com, where Eric Esteve is a principle blogger as well as one of the four founding members of SemiWiki.com. This blog first appeared on SemiWiki on February 22, 2015.
The recent partnership highlights a new approach to IoT security and management along with ultra-secure hardware at Embedded World 2015.
Sequitur Labs, a developer of advanced security solutions and policy management for the mobile computing and connected devices markets, and Atmel will be demonstrating a joint platform for enhanced security and manageability of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and applications at Embedded World 2015 in Nuremberg, Germany.
The Seattle-based company has integrated their programmable, context aware security and manageability platform for embedded and smart gadgets with Atmel’s SAMA5D4 and SAM D21 MCUs, ATWINC1500 Wi-Fi modules, as well as ATECC508A crypto element devices employing ultra-secure hardware-based key storage. The joint solution significantly raises the bar on countering threats aimed at the IoT by implementing a system-wide, dynamic approach to security policy enforcement.
As recent reports suggest, the IoT market is projected to grow significantly with 69% of U.S. consumers planning to buy network-connected technology for their homes by 2019. And, with the number of intelligent devices entering the market on the rise, enhanced security and manageability of data becomes critical for IoT adoption. Threat vectors are expected to multiply quickly as connected nodes increase in volume with immense potential repercussions for business, critical infrastructure, medical systems, transport systems and personal data.
“Security and manageability of IoT nodes are the primary needs in this market. ‘Thing’ makers must stay ahead of the game by creating devices that are ‘secure by design’ and that employ a systems-driven approach. This means robust security and management need to be designed right from the outset and not added as an afterthought,” explained Phil Attfield, CEO of Sequitur Labs.
It should be noted that Sequitur’s security framework includes secure, policy driven command and control, enhanced data protection and hardware encryption, secure firmware updates, and programmable policy for greater customization.
“As a leader in security, Atmel is committed to delivering comprehensive, ultra-secure solutions to the billions of forthcoming connected devices,” said Bill Boldt, Atmel Senior Marketing Manager for Crypto Products. “Atmel’s innovative ecosystem partner, Sequitur Labs, is accelerating and simplifying IoT and embedded system development to provide the full complement of security capabilities, specifically confidentiality, data integrity and authentication. We are excited to work with Sequitur Labs to continue bringing ultra-secure, hardware-based key storage solutions to a wide range of applications including IoT, wireless, consumer, medical, and industrial, among others.”
The Sequitur Labs and Atmel product demonstration platform can be seen in the Atmel booth (4A-230) all week long at Embedded World. Additionally, Sequitur Labs CEO Phil Attfield will present “Reducing Risk and Liability of IoT with a Systems-based Approach to the 20 Critical Security Controls,” while Atmel’s very own Kerry Maletsky will explore “Making IoT a Reality—Leveraging Hardware Security Devices.”
Interested in learning more? Head over to Sequitur Labs’ official page here.
Taking a closer look at how ATECC508A CryptoAuthentication devices can help in providing robust authentication.
Forward secrecy, which is often referred to as Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), is essentially the protection of ciphertext with respect to time and changes in security of your cryptographic session keys and/or primary keying material over time.
A cryptographic session key is used to authenticate messages and encrypt text into ciphertext before it is transmitted. This thwarts a “man in the middle” from understanding the message and/or altering that message. These keys are derived from primary keying material. In the case of Public Key Cryptography, this would be the private key.
Unless you are implementing your own security in the application layer, you probably rely on the TLS/SSL in the transport layer.
One can envision a scenario in which ciphertext was recorded by an eavesdropper over time. For a variety of reasons out of your control, your session keys and/or primary keying material are eventually discovered and this eavesdropper could decipher all of those recorded transmissions.
Release of your secret keys could be the result of a deliberate act, as with a bribe, a disgruntled employee, or even someone thinking they are “doing the right thing” by exposing your secrets. Or, it could be the result of an unwitting transgression from protocol. Equipment could be decommissioned and disposed of improperly. The hard drives could be recovered using the infamous dumpster dive attack methodology, thus exposing your secrets.
If you rely solely on transport layer security, your security could be challenged knowingly or unknowingly by third parties controlling the servers you communicate with. Recently leaked NSA documents shows powerful government agencies can (and do) record ciphertext. Depending on how clever or influential your snoopers are, they could manipulate the server system against you.
There are many ways your forward security could be compromised at the server level, including server managers unwittingly compromise it due to bad practices, inadequate cipher suites, leaving session keys on the server too long, the use of resumption mechanisms, among countless others.
Let’s just say there are many, many ways the security of your session keys and/or primary keying material could eventually be compromised. It only takes one of them. Nevertheless, the damage is irreversible and the result is the same: Those recorded ciphertext transmissions are now open to unintended parties.
You can wipe out much of your liability by simply changing where encryption takes place. If encryption and forward secrecy are addressed in the application layer, session keys will have no relationship with the server, thereby sidestepping server based liabilities.This, of course, does not imply transport layer security should be discarded.
A public/private key system demonstrates the property of forward secrecy if it creates new key pairs for communication sessions. These key pairs are generated on an as-needed basis and are destroyed after a single use. Their generation must be truly random. In fact, they cannot be the result of a deterministic algorithm. Once a session key is derived from the public/private key pair, that key pair must not be reused.
Atmel’s newly-revealed ATECC508A CryptoAuthentication device meets this set of criteria. It has the ability to generate new key pairs using a high quality truly random number generator. Furthermore, the ATECC508A supports ECDH, a method to spawn a cryptographic session key by knowing the public key of the recipient. When these spawned session keys are purposely short-lived, or ephemeral, the process is known as ECDHE.
Using this method, each communication session has its own unique keying material. Any compromise of this material only compromises that one transmission. The secrecy of all other transmissions remains secure.
Before any of the aforementioned instances can occur, the identity of the correspondents needs to be robustly authenticated. Their identities need to be assured without doubt (non-repudiation), because accepting an unknown public key without robust authentication of origin could authorize an attacker as a valid user. Atmel’s ATECC508A provides this required level of authentication and non-repudiation.
Not only is the ATECC508A a cost-effective asymmetric authentication engine available in a tiny package, it is super easy to design in and ultra-secure. Moreover, it offers protective hardware key storage on-board as well a built-in ECC cryptographic block for ECDSA and ECDH(E), a high quality random number generator, a monotonic counter, and unique serial number.
With security at its core, the Atmel CryptoAuthentication lineup is equipped with active defenses, such as an active shield protecting the entire device, tamper monitors and an active power supply circuit which disallows the ability to “listen” for bits changing. The ECC-based solutions offer an external tamper pin, so unauthorized opening of your product can be detected.
Atmel becomes first to ship ultra-secure crypto element enabling smart, connected and secure systems.
Just announced, the Atmel ATECC508A is the first device to integrate ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman) security protocol — an ultra-secure method to provide key agreement for encryption/decryption, along with ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) sign-verify authentication — for the Internet of Things (IoT) market including home automation, industrial networking, accessory and consumable authentication, medical and mobile, among many others.
Atmel’s ATECC508A is the second integrated circuit (IC) in the CryptoAuthentication portfolio with advanced Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) capabilities. With built-in ECDH and ECDSA, this device is ideal for the rapidly growing IoT market by easily providing confidentiality, data integrity and authentication in systems with MCU or MPUs running encryption/decryption algorithms (such as AES) in software. Similar to all Atmel CryptoAuthentication products, the new ATECC508A employs ultra-secure hardware-based cryptographic key storage and cryptographic countermeasures which are more secure than software-based key storage.
This next-generation CryptoAuthentication device is compatible with any microcontroller or microprocessor on the market today including Atmel | SMART and Atmel AVR MCUs and MPUs. As with all CryptoAuthentication devices, the ATECC508A delivers extremely low-power consumption, requires only a single general purpose I/O over a wide voltage range, and available in a tiny form factor, making it ideal for a variety of applications that require longer battery life and flexible form factors.
“As a leader in security, Atmel is committed to delivering innovative secure solutions to the billions of devices to be connected in the IoT market,” explained Rob Valiton, SVP and GM of Atmel’s Automotive, Aerospace and Memory Business Units. “Atmel’s newest CryptoAuthentication IC is the first of its kind to apply hardware-based key storage to provide the full complement of security capabilities, specifically confidentiality, data integrity and authentication. We are excited to continue bringing ultra-secure crypto element solutions to a wide range of applications including IoT, wireless, consumer, medical, industrial, and automotive, among others.”
Key security features of the ATECC508A include:
In the wake of recent incidents, it is becoming increasingly clear that embedded system insecurity impacts everyone and every company. The effects of insecurity may not only be personal, such as theft of sensitive financial and medical data, but a bit more profound on the corporate level. Products can be cloned, software copied, systems tampered with and spied on, and many other things that can lead to revenue loss, increased liability, and diminished brand equity.
Data security is directly linked to how exposed the cryptographic key is to being accessed by unintended parties including hackers and cyber-criminals. The best solution to keeping the “secret key secret” is to lock it in protected hardware devices. That is exactly what this latest iteration of security devices have, are and will continue to do. They are an inexpensive, easy, and ultra-secure way to protect firmware, software, and hardware products from cloning, counterfeiting, hacking, and other malicious threats.
Interested in learning more? Discover the latest in hardware-based security here. Meanwhile, you may also want to browse through recent articles on the topic, including “Is the Internet of Things just a toy?,” “Greetings from Digitopia,” “What’s ahead this year for digital insecurity?,” and “Don’t be an ID-IoT.”
ATMX50RHA ASIC delivers flexible analog capabilities for up to 22 million routable gates simplifying the design process for next-generation space applications.
Atmel has announced a new radiation-hardened (rad-hard) mixed-signal ASIC platform for high-performance and high-density solutions for space applications. Manufactured on 150 nm Silicon on Insulator (SOI) process, the ATMX150RHA adds to Atmel’s portfolio of rad-hard solutions.
Providing a platform that simplifies the design process for space application, the new ATMX150RHA delivers up to 22 million routable gates, includes non-volatile memory blocks, flexible form factor with compiled SRAM and DPRAM blocks, and supports 2.5/3.3/5V and high-voltage (25-45-65V) I/Os with pre-qualified analog IP. This flexible and highly-integrated ASIC brings an overall lower bill of materials for space applications, which range from transportation and communication to Earth observation to scientific research. The ATMX150RHA ASIC platform is supported by a combination of state-of-art third-party and proprietary design tools such as Synopsys, Mentor and Cadence.
Leveraging Atmel’s nearly 30 years of flight heritage, the ATMX150RHA integrates Atmel’s proven rad-hard solution and offers a full service option for customers designing ASICs up to the qualified flight models. As previous Atmel ASIC platform generations, all ATMX150RHA products are fully designed, assembled, tested and qualified in Europe.
“With our long-standing flight heritage and more than 3,500 flight models delivered, we are a leading ASIC provider for space applications with proven, reliable solutions,” explained Patrick Sauvage, General Manager of Atmel’s Aerospace Business Unit. “Atmel’s ATMX150RHA ASIC adds to our proven aerospace portfolio, and delivers a fully integrated solution that allows aerospace designers a flexible, yet complete solution to help accelerate their space mission. The new ASIC is further testament to our aerospace leadership.”
Key features of the ASIC:
Interested in learning more? Soar over to the ATMX150RHA’s official page here.
Users don’t want to wait for updates anymore, they want information in realtime.
App users were once content with static apps, single-user experiences where content changes only when a user requests a new page, clicks a button or refreshes the page. New information is presented only when a user requests it.
But times have changed. The average attention span of a human is 8 seconds, according to the National Center for Biotech Information. Users don’t want to wait for updates anymore; they want information in realtime. As a result, we’re seeing a major shift from static apps to realtime apps, web and mobile apps that mimic real life behaviors, pushing content and information “as it happens.”
The result is the birth of applications that have created industries that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible without this realtime functionality. Realtime technology is at the core of these apps and services; its lifeblood. And these apps are just a couple examples of the exponential growth of realtime web and mobile applications.
We’re seeing increased understanding of the benefits of realtime web tech so it’s not surprising that the number of apps using the technology is rapidly increasing. Common functionality includes simple data updates for notifications, dashboards (sports, finance, site analytics and anything that’s stat-heavy), realtime news and activity streams. Or more complex functionality for multi-user chat, collaborative applications, multiplayer games, interactive 2nd screen experiences, realtime mapping and GIS.”
– Phil Leggetter in 10 Realtime Web Technology Predictions for 2014
The days of standing out on the curb to hail a cab are dwindling. In fact, I’ve watched people let empty cabs drive right by them. Why would somebody do this? It’s the realtime user experience. Users prefer to hail, track, and pay for their fare seamlessly, all in one mobile app.
Realtime maps have become a staple feature of taxi and ridesharing applications. Users expect to be able to watch their car on a live updating map, giving them an ETA and assuring them that a car is really coming. But there are also other realtime features in these apps that are vital to the overall user experience. The apps are able to dispatch drivers in under a quarter of a second with the click of a button. They’re able to monitor and track fleets of vehicles, accurately dispatching vehicles without ever double booking or dropping rides. And most of all, they’re able to create one smooth ride experience, from hailing to payment, and everything in between.
This tight information loop, fast and efficient communication between themselves, the driver, and dispatch is the reason these ride sharing and taxi apps are so popular. And that tight information loop requires realtime technology to make it all possible.
Examples: Lyft, Sidecar, Uber, GetTaxi, Flywheel
Static or slow sport applications can’t emulate the fast-paced action of actually viewing a live sporting event. To create this user experience, there’s needs to be information pushed to the user as quickly and often as possible. A simple clock and score board that updates every 10-20 seconds doesn’t have the real life feel and speed it needs to capture the attention of its users.
Realtime technology has changed that. Information is now pushed as it happens, to thousands of users simultaneously, anywhere in the world. These apps no longer just update the score and time, but rather are fully featured applications for out-of-stadium audience interaction. This includes collaborative features like polls and trivia, social feeds, live blogging, and live statistics. The app obviously won’t completely emulate the feeling of watching a live sporting event in the flesh, but it is changing the way that somebody out of stadium can experience a live sporting event entirely from their phone.
Examples: Manchester City FC Match Day Centre, ScoreCenter
If you remember the early days of eBay, you probably pulled your hair out with the frustrations of the last 5 minutes of a heated bid war, repeatedly tapping ‘refresh’ to see if you were still the highest bidder. Then you refresh again, the auction is over, and you’ve been outbid. A static bidding application doesn’t mimic the excitement of a real life auction, and more importantly doesn’t enable users to bid rapidly with one another for an item.
“Behavioral emails are one of best ways to capitalize on in-app activity,” said Dane Lyons, Founder and CTO of Knowtify.io, the smart email engagement platform. “People really appreciate a brand that provides the information they really need when they need it.”
Today, online auction houses need to push high volumes of data as quickly as possible. They may have hundreds or even thousands of buyers watching and bidding on a single item. Data stream networks can power this, no matter where each bidder is located across the globe. This creates a reliable, low latency connection between all the bidders, the auctioneer, and auction application, ensuring a smooth and solid bidding platform.
Examples: TopHatter, Catawiki
When a user presses a button on their phone to turn on a light, they expect that light to turn on as if they’re flipping a switch. Or when you cross over a certain geographical location in your vehicle, you expect your garage door to open and your house’s heater to turn on.
It seems as though every home appliance these days has an IP address. Home automation solutions are becoming increasingly popular, and our houses are getting smarter and smarter. To provide and power a full home automation product, speed, reliability and especially security are paramount requirements.
This is where realtime device signaling comes into play, a key component of any home automation product. Device signaling requires a system that is bidirectional, where updates are sent through a dedicated channel that can trigger events (such as a light turning on). This signaling is needed on both the send side and the receive side. Though low latency is key for this signaling, security and reliability are just as important. When the security of your home rests in an home automation solution, encryption and additional security features need to be a core feature of the application. This ensures that unauthorized users can’t access the home automation application.
When you lock the door from your smartphone, you want that door to lock every time, and you definitely don’t want somebody else to be able to unlock it.
Examples: Revolv, Insteon
These are just a couple different types of web and mobile apps that reflect the exponential growth and reliance of realtime technology. We want information as it happens. And realtime technology delivers that.
Interested in learning more? Be sure to browse through a number of PubNub’s latest blog posts, as well as surf through our archive on the company’s realtime network here.
