Huawei wants to power the Internet of Things with its new 10KB LiteOS

Shawn Knight

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huawei 10kb liteos internet os internet of things connected devices iot liteos william xu

Huawei is interested in delving into the Internet of Things but it has no intentions of building hardware. Instead, the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker is planning to launch a lightweight operating system for the onslaught of connected IoT devices that’ll be flooding the market in the coming years.

When I say lightweight, I mean just that. The OS consumes just 10 kilobytes and has thus earned the title LiteOS.

During a recent presentation, Huawei Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer William Xu said that by 2025, his company anticipates there being 100 billion Internet-connected devices with two million new sensors being added every hour. It's clear that Huawei wants in on the action.

Xu added that Huawei’s OS can be applied to different IoT areas including smart homes, wearables and connected vehicles. It supports zero configuration, auto-discovery and auto-networking. LiteOS will also be open to developers so they’ll be able to develop their own products using the OS although it’s unclear if this means it’ll be completely open source.

huawei internet 10kb liteos os internet of things connected devices iot liteos william xu

Speaking with the Financial Times, Xu reiterated that LiteOS isn’t an attempt to compete with smartphone operating systems like Android or iOS but will instead be used as a base for other devices. One example Xu cited was a connected electric toothbrush that could record how often it is used, which teeth are being properly cleaned and what areas need more attention.

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Must be a lot of security features in those 10Kb. After all, nobody would want their fridge turn into a heater over a cheap hack.
 
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Must be a lot of security features in those 10Kb. After all, nobody would want their fridge turn into a heater over a cheap hack.

Not only that, but I would not trust their OS on any hardware. They could well, use their OS for data theft and espionage.
 
What's to hack? That's like 2 lines of code and it'll probably cost you $20 per line if you wanna use it.

After having played the original doom written in 100 bytes of javascript, little seems impossible.


And just like the javascript, LiteOS will probably reference files that are much larger and load them as needed or at run-time for maximum flexibility in running on everything. This will probably be a minimal boot script/BIOS that looks for another program or configuration on boot (think original Nintendo console OS (which is more like a BIOS). On boot it just looks for a cartridge and runs whatever is on that cartridge).

And just like JS - that could cause security problems if someone is able to load code into the referenced files. Probably not worth the effort, except for IOT locks or safes.
 
I do not believe that we need to go back to 10kb memory usage even in IoT devices. I would rather think that in a IoT world every button will have 256MB RAM and fast dual core CPU to handle more modern OS rather than something running useless 10kb software. It is more plausible that computer will get smaller and more powerful to fit those devices rather than optimization of the software to such levels.
 
I would rather think that in a IoT world every button will have 256MB RAM and fast dual core CPU
Talk about overkill for a single button.Talking about buttons is irrelevant. It is the task that dictates how much power in needed, not the number of buttons. Not every task needs 21st century processing power to complete.
 
I don't know why all of the skepticism here. I for one am looking forward to another high quality and secure product from China.
 
Talk about overkill for a single button.Talking about buttons is irrelevant. It is the task that dictates how much power in needed, not the number of buttons. Not every task needs 21st century processing power to complete.
It is overkill but I am saying that they can make mini chips with such power that cost cents in the future so really 10KB is rather low even for IoT device.
 
Cool.. useful info on my eletronics project on data power system. Going to use them as a case study
 
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