The IOTA Foundation is working with semiconductor company STMicroelectronics to create a new level of seamless and cost-effective access to Internet of Things (IoT) functionality. The cornerstone of this cooperation is the integration of the IOTA Tangle, a fee-free, peer-to-peer technology solution, into ST’s STM32Cube expansion software for the industry-leading STM32 32-bit MCU ecosystem, the X-CUBE-IOTA1.
IOTA is a global not-for-profit foundation incorporated and headquartered in Germany. The IOTA Foundation’s mission is to support research and development of new distributed ledger technologies (DLT), including the IOTA Tangle. The Foundation encourages the education and adoption of distributed ledger technologies through the creation of ecosystems and the standardization of these new protocols.
The IOTA Tangle moves beyond blockchain by providing the world’s first scalable, feeless and fully-decentralized distributed ledger technology. The Tangle uses its own unique technology to solve three fundamental problems with blockchain technology: high fees, scaling and centralization. It is an open-source protocol connecting the human economy with the machine economy by facilitating novel Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interactions, including secure data transfer, fee-less micropayments, and secure access control for devices.
The relationship will deliver Internet of Things integration capabilities to the ST user community, allowing customers to create and prototype new IoT solutions for single or multiple devices. As important, developers can work while enjoying the ability to develop systems, environments, products and services with IOTA functionality and the power of the Tangle’s distributed, highly scalable peer-to-peer network and feeless structure.
The IoT-enhanced solution will give key industries such as energy, logistics and others advanced performance capabilities in critical areas, including sensing, power management, connectivity and audio. Developers using STM32 will have the ability to transmit, buy and sell relevant data through embedded technologies like Bluetooth LE at low cost, with an easy, robust solution.
The IOTA DLT is a transaction settlement and data transfer layer for the Internet of Things (IoT). IOTA allows people and machines to transfer money and/or data without any transaction fees in a trustless, permissionless and decentralized environment. This technology even makes micro-payments possible without the need of a trusted intermediary of any kind.
The expansion is built on STM32Cube software technology to ease portability across different STM32 microcontrollers. The software comes with sample implementations to use the IOTA middleware on a NUCLEO-F429ZI or NUCLEO-F746ZG development board.
“By enabling IOTA functionalities via the X-CUBE-IOTA1 expansion software for STM32Cube software technology, developers can now easily include IOTA features and capabilities in their IoT devices and create valuable applications using the STM32 Open Development Environment, which combines the STM32 32-bit microcontroller family with other state-of-the-art ST components,” said Alessandro Cremonesi, STMicroelectronics VP System Research and Application.
“With specialized hardware playing such an integral role in the Internet of Things market adoption, it is exciting to work with such partners as ST to enhance IoT’s role as an innovation facilitator,” said Holger Köther, director of partner management, IOTA Foundation. “The IOTA Foundation welcomes the opportunity to work with enterprise leaders like ST to expand our mission of moving beyond blockchain with the world’s first scalable, feeless and fully-decentralized DLT platform, partnered with the world’s leading technology firms.”
