Part 1 – Sensing and power
An IoT transaction starts or ends with an event: a simple motion, a temperature change, perhaps an actuator moving on a lock. Unlike many IT devices in existence, IoT in a large part is about a physical action or event. It responds to affect a real-world attribute. Sometimes this involves considerable data being generated from a single sensor, such as auditory sensing for preventative maintenance of machinery. Other times, it's a single bit of data indicating vital health data from a patient. Whatever the case may be, sensing systems have evolved and made use of Moore's law in scaling to sub-nanometer sizes and significantly reduced costs. Part 1 explores the depths of MEMs, sensing, and other forms of low-cost edge devices from a physical and electrical point of view. The part also details the necessary power and energy systems to drive these edge machines. We can't take power for granted at the edge. Collections of billions of small...