RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc, the global distributor for engineers, is strengthening its ARM mbed portfolio with the latest mbed innovations for connected, low-power, security-conscious projects. The mbed OS addresses key Internet of Things (IoT) development challenges, and the Freescale Freedom-K64F platform is one of the first boards in the industry to support mbed OS seamlessly.

mbed OS, which can now be downloaded free of charge from at mbed.com/technology/os, equips engineers to handle the complexity of IoT development at scale. mbed OS enables IoT development to take advantage of platform principles used successfully in web 2.0 and smartphone application development. These features include pre-integrated security IP, as well as connectivity transports and interfaces supporting key standards such as Bluetooth Smart, Wi-Fi, Thread low-power wireless mesh networking, 6LowPAN and GSM. In addition, enhancements to the mbed IoT Device Platform and support for energy-efficient drivers help developers make devices run for longer from a limited energy source such as a coin cell.

The Freescale Freedom-K64F platform, now available from RS, is one of the first development boards to bring mbed OS development to the engineer’s bench. mbed OS and the mbed Thread networking stack, which is ideal for smart-home applications, run on the on-board Kinetis K64F microcontroller. The board also contains a MEMS accelerometer and magnetometer constituting a full e-compass, microSD card slot and Ethernet port. It is also form-factor compatible with the Arduino R3 board thereby giving easy access to a wide range of shields for adding functions like 2.4GHz radio, RFID or cellular connectivity. RS will add support for further platforms supporting mbed OS development as they emerge.

For further information please visit the website at za.rs-online.com/web/.