Windows 10 and IoT

MUMBAI, INDIA: There is more to Windows 10, Microsoft’s latest operating system. Windows 10 IoT Core is a slimmed version of the OS that enables developers to leverage the OS for Internet of Things (IoT).

Windows 10 IoT Core is a new edition for Windows targeted towards small, embedded devices that may or may not have screens, according to Microsoft.

The Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 and the MinnowBoard Max is now available for developers in the Windows IoT Dev Center. Developers can choose their target boards, provision them get the tools and launch development efforts.

“IoT core is designed to have a low barrier to entry and make it easy to build professional grade devices,” said Steve Teixeira, Director, Program Management, IoT, Microsoft. “It’s designed to work with a variety of open source languages and works well with Visual Studio. Oh, and you can also use it to build robotic air hockey tables.”

Improved features:

• Improved support for Python and Node.js, including a new Express Node.js project template is one of the new features.
• GPIO performance on the Raspberry Pi 2 has improved by eight to 10 times. The analog-to-digital converter and pulse-width modulation are now supported via breakout boards and ICs (integrated circuits).
• New Universal Windows Platform APIs give apps easy control over system management features like time zone and network connections.

The only catch is that the developers need development machines running the 7/29/2015 release of Windows 10 (Build 10240) and Visual Studio 2015.