Syracuse, N.Y.  – Anaren has launched a new Atmosphere Sensors Partnership Program that offers a suite of sensor technologies and tools for its wireless connectivity ecosystem. The inaugural member and primary sensor provider for the program is STMicroelectronics.

A key feature of the initiative is a new sensors element library, available within the Anaren Atmosphere  tool. The tool allows non-RF and non-software savvy customers to develop wirelessly connected products, and incorporate sensors and related components such as drivers and algorithms into their wirelessly connected Internet of Things (IoT) projects, said Anaren.

“Anaren's goal is to make it easier for our customers to be able to design and deploy their connectivity products faster and at lower development cost. To that end, integration of sensors in our new Atmosphere Sensor Element Library eliminates the need for the customer to integrate the specific sensor driver and associated algorithms as those are already integrated by Anaren and the sensor partner in the element,” said Vijay Parmar, business development at Anaren.

“Clearly the value of this approach is enhanced by integrating more sensors and providing additional sensor options for our customers over time, but ST is our lead partner with a shared vision of enabling wireless connectivity for our mutual customers – who are the masses who will drive the IoT revolution. With that in mind, we expect to consider joint marketing activities with a clear focus on delivering greater value to these mutual customers," Parmar added.

ST will continue to work with Anaren to create drivers and code so a wider variety of their sensors are compatible with the Atmosphere platform, said Mark Bowyer, Anaren’s Director of Wireless Business Development.

“Leveraging ST's Arduino shield and creating a compatible interface to Anaren's "runway" connectivity baseboard will open huge benefits for our customers to realize their IoT implementation, creating a sensor-to-server solution in a drag and drop development environment with a plug-and-play hardware platform," Bowyer added.

Anaren also continues to expand its line of Broadcom-based AIR for WICED modules, which enables customers to go wireless without being RF expects. The new sensor partnership program is a continuation of this strategy of providing customers with the tools they need to more easily incorporate wireless and sensing technologies into their products.

“Since the introduction of our first AIR modules – which were all about helping customers ‘go wireless’ without being RF experts -- Anaren has been totally committed to giving our customers all the tools they need to do the job on their own,” stated Bowyer. “This new Sensor Network Partnership Program continues this progression, by enabling customers to easily incorporate sensing functions into their products…whether their goal is to transmit the resulting sensor data to a mobile device or all the way to the cloud.”

“This way, we focus on our RF competency, ST focuses on their sensing solutions, and our shared customers see the benefit of both worlds…all within the easy-to-use Atmosphere development environment,” Bowyer continued.

ST sees opportunities in providing OEMs with a streamlined path for connecting their sensor-generated data to the IoT via Anaren’s wireless tools, as well as delivering secure low-power microcontrollers that help simplify power design.

“ST’s complete portfolio of sensors capable of monitoring motion, the environment, sound and light, and proximity and the sensor hubs and sensor-fusion tools to simplify integration puts us in a strong position to contribute to helping Anaren’s customers realize huge benefit from the Internet of Things,” said Marco Angelici, Volume MEMS & Analog Division director, STMicroelectronics, in a statement. “ST can also add value through its full range of low-power, high-performance STM32 32-bit microcontrollers, and secure ST microcontrollers. They each provide secure communications, analysis, processing, and data protection. STM32 families also offer ultra-efficient power-conversion, -monitoring and -control technologies that simplify power design and ensure power conservation.”

At the same time, Anaren, Inc.’s Wireless Connectivity Group released version 1.2 of the Anaren Atmosphere online development platform. Originally launched in January 2015, followed by the 1.1 version in April 2015, Anaren Atmosphere gives embedded developers a range of online development tools that help with tasks such as code-authoring and mobile app coding for connecting embedded products to mobile devices – or the IoT – using the company’s Broadcom-based AIR for WICED Bluetooth Smart module.

In addition to the new sensors element library, the 1.2 updates include new icon designs, improved Android performance, code API snippet tree, optimized GPIO write and read, and a new web link element, which helps in beacon applications and smart marketing. Other updates include ADC read fixes and a slider enhancement for developers adding a slider function to their application.

Earlier enhancements included the addition of new BLE and embedded features, new developer tools, and other improvements such as improved compatibility with touch-enabled devices and iOS tablets, the addition of compression to network transmission, and support for Windows mobile app compilation.

From: http://electronicspurchasingstrategies.com/2015/06/11/anaren-unveils-sensor-partnership-program/