New easy-to-connect cloud IoT development board

RS Components offers a new development board that makes it easy for engineers to create secure cloud-connected designs. The new PIC-IoT WG development board (AC164164) from Microchip provides a simple way to develop PIC microcontroller-based applications and connect them to the Google Cloud IoT Core platform, which delivers the ability to collect, process and analyse data in real time. In conjunction with Cloud IoT Core, the board is excellent for developing embedded applications for a variety of use cases including in smart home and cities applications, in the healthcare sector, in intelligent lighting systems, or sensor-based process and control automation solutions for Industry 4.0. A major appeal will be possible savings in time and cost, as well as the security vulnerabilities that may come with big software frameworks and RTOS, allowing engineers that are not experts in networking or security to get their applications up and running swiftly. As well as a powerful, yet low-power, 16-bit PIC24F microcontroller that comes with core-independent peripherals, the board combines the MCU with the advanced ATECC608A cryptographic secure-element coprocessor, a light and temperature sensor, and a fully certified industrial-grade IEEE802.11b/g/n IoT network controller module, which is simple to connect to a microcontroller via the SPI interface. The PIC MCU provides 16 MIPS operation running at 32MHz and offers 128KB of ECC flash memory, extendable to 256KB, and 16KB of RAM. The board’s low-power operation makes it perfect for battery-operated, real-time sensing and control applications.