The announcements come at a time when Qualcomm plans to expand the portfolio of its current IoT offerings.
Qualcomm is making big strides in the rapidly evolving IoT and edge computing market with the acquisition of foundries.io, an edge-computing solutions provider, to improve its open source expertise and accelerate product commercialisation with Qualcomm Linux.
Coinciding with this announcement, the company also announced two new product launches — QCC730 Wi-Fi system for IoT connectivity and RB3 Gen2 development kit, tailored for IoT and embedded applications.
The RB3 Gen2 development kit can be deployed in various products including robots, drones, industrial handheld devices, connected cameras, AI edge boxes, and intelligent displays. Gen 1 ran on Linux and robot operating system (ROS) on an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Linux support for Gen2 is currently available for private preview with select collaborators.
Qualcomm currently offers comprehensive Linux distribution for all its IoT platforms and extends the support to all processor cores and subsystems. Foundries.io’s platform often utilizes Linux as the underlying operating system for connected devices, to build secure software stacks for IoT and edge computing deployments.
The platform incorporates various open-source tools and components commonly used in Linux-based development, such as build systems, package managers, and software frameworks. This enables developers to leverage familiar Linux-based workflows and tools while developing and managing IoT and edge computing applications.
The company did not divulge any financial details on the acquisition of foundries.io. With plans to expand the portfolio of IoT products, the acquisition aligns with the idea that Qualcomm is trying to streamline the development and production process for semiconductor-based IoT and edge devices, creating an end-to-end solution for customers.
