†NXP Semiconductors N.V., a worldwide leader in advanced secure connectivity solutions, today began the roll out of a management suite for secure edge computing. NXP’s EdgeScale suite provides a set of cloud-based tools and services for secure manufacturing and enrollment of IoT and edge-computing devices. The solution provides a secure mechanism for developers to leverage popular cloud-computing frameworks for their applications and remotely deploy and manage an unlimited number of edge devices.
NXP Layerscape-based platforms use EdgeScale to bridge cloud frameworks to edge nodes, sensors and devices, solving challenges inherent in IoT deployments. The EdgeScale suite automates what is now the manual and cumbersome process of provisioning software and software updates to remote embedded equipment. To do this securely, the EdgeScale suite leverages NXP’s Trust Architecture. This unique hardware architecture integrated in every Layerscape SoC provides a†Hardware Root of Trust†that includes essential features like secure boot, secure key storage, manufacturing protection, hardware resource isolation, and runtime tamper detection.
Suitable for a wide range of edge-computing systems, Layerscape SoC devices range from economical and power-efficient single-core 64-bit Arm-based devices to high-performance sixteen-core platforms for networking, data analytics and compute-intensive machine learning applications.
IHS Markit currently predicts over 70 billion “internet connectable” devices by 2025. Many of these devices will connect directly to remote cloud hosted servers, but some will require right-sizing and right-positioning of secure computing at the edge of the network. According to Tom Hackenberg, Principal Analyst for Embedded Processors at IHS Markit, “While there may be no one-size-fits-all IoT or Cloud, there is market demand for comprehensive network platforms that can support a variety of edge compute frameworks in a unified and scalable device management solution to provide end-to-end root-of-trust secure networking environments.”
The EdgeScale suite provides developers three levels of management:
- Point-and-click dashboard for quick development and customization
- Command-Line-Interface (CLI) for greater control to manage large-scale deployments
- RESTful API enabling integration with any cloud computing framework; also offers OEMs the ability to provide their own unique end-user experience
“Given recent concerns around IoT security, it’s paramount for customers to verify that all the devices in the field are running the latest, authenticated firmware and apps,” commented Tareq Bustami, senior vice president, NXP Digital Networking. “Using EdgeScale on the Layerscape SoC platforms affords our customers a convenient mechanism for achieving secure device management for edge computing.”†
“Device security and management are key requirements for IoT Edge success,” said Sam George, director, Microsoft Azure IoT at†Microsoft Corp.†”Integrating EdgeScale and Layerscape with Azure IoT Edge provides customers the tools to develop and deploy secure and scalable IoT systems and solutions.”
The†EdgeScale suite†will be delivered as part of the Layerscape software development kit (SDK) in†March 2018†and demonstrated in the NXP Edge Corridor during Embedded World. Using EdgeScale, Layerscape edge computing platforms bridge cloud frameworks to edge nodes, sensors, and devices solving challenges inherent in IoT connections to cloud data centers.
