Samsung Steps Into The Internet Of Things Market With Low Power ARTIK Platform
Yesterday at IoT World 2015 in San Francisco Samsung debuted ARTIK, a set of new technologies centered on tiny circuit boards crammed with processing and communications components that they designed to juke developers to create and configure new Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as personal trackers, drones, robots, security systems, and the like. Of course, Samsung also intends to enhance their own product lines with ARTIK, including televisions, home appliances, and smartphones.
In a blog post Samsung said of their new platform, "ARTIK provides a platform for developers who simply want to focus on building and testing new ideas for IoT. Rather than spend your time writing low-level libraries, we invite you to use our development tools and open APIs to bring wearable tech, smart devices and hubs to market more quickly, cheaply and easily."
Samsung's ARTIK product line is comprised of three modules — aptly named ARTIK 1, ARTIK 5, and ARTIK 10 — that bundle such key components as CPUs, GPUs, storage, memory, and storage with wireless sensors, connectivity components (802.11 bgn Wi-Fi, full Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee), I/O hardware, software and services to help with configuration...everything that developers of drones and robots, etc. might need to quickly and easily get their mobile creations Internet-connected and into the mix. The capabilities of the three ARTIK packages the company will offer differ to meet a wide range of needs.
ARTIK 1 is the smallest of the bunch at just 12mm square, and is targeted specifically at the burgeoning wearable market. Samsung says, in fact, that it can power a smartwatch for three weeks on a single charge, kept in always-on mode and paired to a smartphone. ARTIK 1 contains a dual-core processor (one core running at 250MHz and the other at 80MHz), 1MB of memory, 4MB of flash storage, and can push graphics at WVGA resolution (800x480). The unit also comes with Bluetooth LE and a nine-axis motion sensor that incorporates an accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope.
At 25mm-by-29mm Samsung's ARTIK 5 — which the company envisions in smart-home hubs and applications that require streaming video or high computation capability — has more than twice the surface area of the ARTIK 1. It makes optimum use of that extra space, too, bringing two ARM A7 CPU cores (each at 1GHz) and an ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU that allows it to push out 720p video in multiple formats at 30fps. It also uses Samsung's high-density ePOP tech, with 512MB of LPDDR3 RAM and 4GB of eMMC storage, as well as a USB 2.0 port added to the package. Rounding it all out is 802.11bgn Wi-Fi, full Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee networking, support for both USB and MMC flash cards, and a variety of I/O ports.
Finally, there is the ARTIK 10 power horse, sized at 29mm-by-39mm and loaded for bear with eight CPU cores, four ARM A15s (each at 1.3GHz) and four ARM A7s (each at 1GHz). It also comes with a ARM Mali T628 MP6 GPU, which is capable of pushing 1080p HD video at 120fps, and 2GB of LPDDR3+ RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage. And as far as communications and I/O go, the ARTIK 10 offers the same spec set as the ARTIK 5 and more, including a USB 3.0 port and multi-channel hardware audio decoding. Samsung claims it is as powerful as a smartphone, capable of driving home servers, media hubs, personal clouds and more.
Samsung didn't offer specific pricing for the ARTIK bundles, though Samsung president and chief strategy officer Young Sohn did say that the ARTIK 1 will sell for "less than $10" while the high-end ARTIK 10 would price out at "less than $100".
In a blog post Samsung said of their new platform, "ARTIK provides a platform for developers who simply want to focus on building and testing new ideas for IoT. Rather than spend your time writing low-level libraries, we invite you to use our development tools and open APIs to bring wearable tech, smart devices and hubs to market more quickly, cheaply and easily."
Samsung's ARTIK product line is comprised of three modules — aptly named ARTIK 1, ARTIK 5, and ARTIK 10 — that bundle such key components as CPUs, GPUs, storage, memory, and storage with wireless sensors, connectivity components (802.11 bgn Wi-Fi, full Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee), I/O hardware, software and services to help with configuration...everything that developers of drones and robots, etc. might need to quickly and easily get their mobile creations Internet-connected and into the mix. The capabilities of the three ARTIK packages the company will offer differ to meet a wide range of needs.
ARTIK 1 is the smallest of the bunch at just 12mm square, and is targeted specifically at the burgeoning wearable market. Samsung says, in fact, that it can power a smartwatch for three weeks on a single charge, kept in always-on mode and paired to a smartphone. ARTIK 1 contains a dual-core processor (one core running at 250MHz and the other at 80MHz), 1MB of memory, 4MB of flash storage, and can push graphics at WVGA resolution (800x480). The unit also comes with Bluetooth LE and a nine-axis motion sensor that incorporates an accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope.
At 25mm-by-29mm Samsung's ARTIK 5 — which the company envisions in smart-home hubs and applications that require streaming video or high computation capability — has more than twice the surface area of the ARTIK 1. It makes optimum use of that extra space, too, bringing two ARM A7 CPU cores (each at 1GHz) and an ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU that allows it to push out 720p video in multiple formats at 30fps. It also uses Samsung's high-density ePOP tech, with 512MB of LPDDR3 RAM and 4GB of eMMC storage, as well as a USB 2.0 port added to the package. Rounding it all out is 802.11bgn Wi-Fi, full Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee networking, support for both USB and MMC flash cards, and a variety of I/O ports.
Finally, there is the ARTIK 10 power horse, sized at 29mm-by-39mm and loaded for bear with eight CPU cores, four ARM A15s (each at 1.3GHz) and four ARM A7s (each at 1GHz). It also comes with a ARM Mali T628 MP6 GPU, which is capable of pushing 1080p HD video at 120fps, and 2GB of LPDDR3+ RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage. And as far as communications and I/O go, the ARTIK 10 offers the same spec set as the ARTIK 5 and more, including a USB 3.0 port and multi-channel hardware audio decoding. Samsung claims it is as powerful as a smartphone, capable of driving home servers, media hubs, personal clouds and more.
Samsung didn't offer specific pricing for the ARTIK bundles, though Samsung president and chief strategy officer Young Sohn did say that the ARTIK 1 will sell for "less than $10" while the high-end ARTIK 10 would price out at "less than $100".
