imix Is the “Kitchen-Sink Hardware Platform” for Secure, Low-Power IoT Apps

Two year ago, a group of researchers from Stanford and the University of Michigan began working on an open-source, secure operating system for microcontrollers. In their search for a dev platform, they were unable to find one that possessed all the features they wanted to support. So they created one: imix.

With a Cortex-M4 MCU, low-power wireless communication, sensing, battery charging, and plenty of GPIO options, imix is an all-in-one board that has everything you could possibly need to prototype your next application or sensor network using the Tock OS.

Billed as a “kitchen-sink hardware platform,” imix packs a number of integrated sensors — light, humidity, temperature, and accelerometer — along with a Microchip SAM4L MCU, a Nordic nRF51 Bluetooth LE/ANT SoC, a ZigBee transceiver, a LiPo battery charger, and an auditable random number generator. No expansion boards are required, though it is compatible with most Arduino Uno shields.

imix enables you to individually control a separate power domain for each subsystem, and it’s easy to measure power consumption from each domain independently.

But that’s not all. imix was designed to provide a common platform for researchers to explore new apps while using modern hardware. When combined with the Tock OS, it allows for researchers to conduct repeatable experiments and build on each other’s work.

Sensor networks research has evolved over the past couple decades to include new applications for the Internet of Things. These applications use different network protocols (e.g., Bluetooth LE) and have strict security and privacy requirements.

imix includes radios for both 802.15.4 and Bluetooth LE, sensors that enable common IoT and sensor networks applications, as well as ample exposed communication busses and GPIO pins for expansion. Moreover, the platform is designed to make rigorous evaluation of power consumption easy and convenient.

Now live on Crowd Supply, the Tock team is seeking $10,000. To learn more or back the board for yourself, head over to its page here.