New ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit Ethernet Edition available from stock

Farnell element14 has secured an agreement with ARM to be the first to stock the recently launched ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit – Ethernet Edition for IBM Internet of Things Foundation, opening up opportunities for tech enthusiasts across the world to experiment and innovate with the Internet of Things (IoT). Available now, the new development kit enables people with limited or no experience of embedded design or web development to create IoT applications and devices in a matter of minutes, says the company. The agreement reinforces element14’s commitment to providing electronic components and development kits that support design innovation for the Internet of Things. Worldwide interest in IoT is high, with a recent global survey of more than 3,500 adults, commissioned by element14, revealing 43% want to be able to connect more devices and appliances to the Internet. This figure rises to 71% across China and India. David Shen, Group CTO, Premier Farnell, said: “The new ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit is an ideal ecosystem to develop IoT enabled applications. The out of box experience is outstanding as it allows designers of all skill levels to get their device connected to the cloud and begin reading the kits sensors remotely in a matter of minutes. This agreement is another example of how we are leading the market in opening up new opportunities for innovation and making the right tools and expertise available to engineers and enthusiasts across the world.” Zach Shelby, vice president, IoT business marketing, ARM, added: “The agreement with element14 makes the ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit easily available to any developer, almost anywhere on the planet, at a price they can afford. A major focus for mbed is to lower the barriers to IoT innovation, enabling anyone to become an entrepreneur. This kit helps to deliver on that ambition.” The new development kit, which guides users through the processes for developing cloud-ready IoT devices, comes with an ARM mbed-enabled development board, built on the Freescale FRDM-K64F Kinetis microcontroller, which has an ARM Cortex-M4 processing core running at 120MHz. An Ethernet connection links the kit to IBM's Bluemix cloud service, which acts as a guide on how to use the board. The kits also features a sensor expansion board, which contains a 128 x 32 graphics LCD, 256KB RAM, 1MB of flash storage, a speaker, five-way joystick, temperature sensor, accelerometer, potentiometers and a PWM (pulse-width modulation) control line to receive digital signals, says the company.