Intel Corporation today announced several new advancements in support of the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework, including a ecosystem growth, framework-ready products and two new software tools designed to help reduce time-to-market and costs for developers.

Today, billions of devices are connecting to each other directly and through the cloud and generating enormous volumes of data in the process. A huge portion of the growth of "big data" comes from intelligent systems — a category of securely managed machines that autonomously connect to the Internet, execute native or cloud-based applications and analyze the data collected. To simplify the deployment of intelligent systems, which comprise what is frequently called the "Internet of Things," Intel recently released the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework. The framework is a set of interoperable specifications designed to address connecting, managing and securing intelligent devices in a consistent and scalable manner.

Since the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework was announced in September 2012, the embedded ecosystem has used it to develop and deploy more than 50 products in the communications, transportation, medical, mobile, industrial and retail industries.

"In just under 6 months since the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework was released, we've seen impressive support and adoption from this rapidly expanding ecosystem," said Jim Robinson, general manager, Segments and Broad Market Division at Intel. "The framework provides a consistent and scalable way for the embedded community to develop intelligent systems and shift resources from the development phase for extracting greater value from their data."

As the intelligent systems ecosystem has grown, so has the network of companies in support of the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework. ADLINK and Eurotech have joined an existing and growing network of system vendors, Internet service providers, system integrators and cloud-to-device services that build upon the Intel Intelligent System Framework and both companies will be demonstrating their Intelligent System Framework ready demos in the Intel booth. Current ecosystem companies include Advantech*, Arrow Electronics*, Avnet*, Axeda*, Dell*, Digi International*, Kontron*, McAfee*, Portwell*, WebHouse* and Wind River*.

To further enable the development of high-performance, scalable systems for industrial control, Intel unveiled a new solution that enables industrial designs built on Intel® architecture and the Intel Ethernet Controller I210 to achieve the highest level of PROFINET IO performance, enabling even the most demanding industrial applications with standard off-the-shelf components and platforms. The new solution is based on KW-Software's PROFINET software stacks which are optimized for the Intel Ethernet Controller I210.

In an effort to help reduce development costs and time-to-market, Intel is releasing two new software tools – the Intel^® System Studio and the Intel^® Firmware Support Package to support ISF.

Intel^® System Studio is a new software suite that integrates multiple development tools into one comprehensive package, enabling embedded and mobile software developers to quickly and efficiently deliver reliable systems based on Intel processors and SoCs. Intel System Studio includes powerful system and application debuggers to help get systems running, a memory and thread error checker to strengthen reliability and tools to optimize code that can boost power efficiency and performance.

The Intel Firmware Support Package provides low-level Intel CPU, Intel chipset and memory firmware initialization capability using a standardized interface. Previous firmware solutions for embedded devices were highly customized and offered no backward compatibility, creating an inability to scale products to meet rapid growth. The Intel Firmware Support Package can be easily integrated into any boot loader of the developer's choice, such as coreboot*, Wind River VxWorks*, BIOS, Real-Time Operating Systems, Linux* and open source firmware.

The Intel System Studio single user license is available for $3,499 and a floating license (one seat) is available for $5,299. The Intel^® Firmware Support Package and the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework are available free of charge. More information on the Intel Intelligent Systems Framework is available online.