| Wireless sensor platform gains .NET MF support |
Jun. 08, 2007
 Crossbow Technology has ported the .NET Micro Framework, Microsoft's new low-end embedded software platform, to its second-generation wireless sensor platform. The company will demonstrate the new Imote2.Builder development kit and .NET MF support for its Imote2 platform at the Sensors Expo tradeshow in Chicago next week.
(Click for larger view of the Imote2 sensor platform)
According to Crossbow, the Imote2 targets "compute-intensive" wireless sensor network applications such as digital imaging and industrial vibration monitoring. The 1.9 x 1.4-inch module is based on a PXA271 XScale processor, and is equipped with 256KB of SRAM, 32MB of SDRAM, and 32MB of flash memory. For its means of communication, the module includes an on-board ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) wireless radio, along with a built-in antenna for 2.4 GHz operation.
Imote2 wireless sensor platform block diagram
The module supports low voltage (0.85V) operation, and its processor's clock rate scales from 13 to 416 MHz, making it well suited for battery-powered applications, the company said.
The Imote2 is based on technology licensed from Intel's Mote 2 initiative, Crossbow said.
Imote2.Builder
The Imote2.Builder for .NET Micro Framework development kit includes three Imote2 modules, three sensor boards, Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework SDK (software development kit), an evaluation copy of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 IDE (integrated development environment), and "everything required to allow engineers and developers to quickly and seamlessly create robust wireless sensor applications," Crossbow said.
According to Crossbow, the new Imote2.Builder development kit enables rapid prototyping of wireless sensor applications based on the the Imote2 modules. In particular, the kit's integration with Microsoft Visual Studio facilitates "quick, familiar debugging" that enables developers to attain proof-of-concept prototypes "in hours or days, not weeks or months," the company said.
Crossbow claims that Imote2.Builder is "the industry's first set of tools for accelerating the development of entirely new wireless sensor applications on the Marvell PXA hardware platform on which the Imote2 is built."
.NET MF
The .NET Micro Framework (.NET MF) is a new, low-end member of Microsoft's embedded software product line that aims to bring the "efficiency and reliability of a managed code environment" to mobile or embedded devices with tight constraints on cost, memory, processing resources, and/or power consumption. Typical applications are expected to include industrial sensors, equipment instrumentation, home automation systems, and healthcare monitors, as well as Windows "sideshow" devices.
The .NET MF's integration with Visual Studio is said to enhance software development efficiency by providing PC emulation capabilities and on-device debugging within the Visual Studio IDE. User interface development is supported with Windows Presentation Foundation, and the .NET MF SDK (software development kit) includes an extensible emulator that lets developers simulate targeted hardware capabilities.
Colin Miller, Product Unit Manager of Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework group, stated, "the Crossbow Imote2 and the .NET Micro Framework ... reduce the complexity of the sensor development environment and greatly increase the productivity of developers in this space. In this way, they can contribute to the proliferation of robust, powerful wireless sensor applications. Using the Imote2.Builder, developers can expedite and simplify the development of wireless sensor applications, capitalizing on the premier development tools of Visual Studio and robustness and reliability of .NET."
Crossbow COO Mike Dierks added, "The Imote2.Builder will make it easy for developers working in the world's largest development environment to experiment with wireless sensor applications by bringing Microsoft's proven development tools to Imote2, one of the most powerful and flexible wireless sensor platforms on the market today,"
Availability
The Imote2.Builder development kit is expected to ship in Q3 of 2007, priced at $990.
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