TinyOS 2.0 Support for Crossbow's IRIS Mote Platform

Earlier this month, Crossbow announced the availability of the TinyOS 2.0 Operating System for Crossbow's advanced IRIS Motes. TinyOS 2.0 is the latest major release of the popular open source embedded operating system. This release now enables developers to use the latest generation TinyOS software on the latest generation Sensor Network hardware. TinyOS is an open-source operating system designed for wireless embedded sensor networks. It features a component-based architecture which enables rapid innovation and implementation while minimizing code size as required by the severe memory constraints inherent in sensor networks. The TinyOS component library includes network protocols, distributed services, sensor drivers, and data acquisition tools. The event-driven execution model enables fine-grained power management yet allows the scheduling flexibility made necessary by the unpredictable nature of wireless communication and physical world interfaces.

The IRIS Mote platform offers users excellent RF range (over 3x improved radio range of previous generation motes), substantially lower sleep current (50% of previous generations), and double the program memory (8KB). In conjunction with TinyOS 2.0, users now have a better hardware abstraction model, improved timers, sensor interfaces, power management, arbitration and much more. The IRIS Mote is a 2.4 GHz module used for enabling low-power wireless sensor networks and is also supported by Crossbow's MoteWorks software development environment based on open-source TinyOS.

The IRIS port was created by Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems. Wireless sensor network developers and researchers benefit from Vanderbilt University’s well-established, recognized expertise in TinyOS development and continued support of released code. “We are pleased to have received Crossbow’s support for the advancement of the open source TinyOS 2.0 environment and continued development of leading edge wireless sensor network platforms,” said Professor Akos Ledeczi, Research Associate Professor and principal investigator on the project.

Crossbow is the leading provider of wireless sensor nodes, or motes, and continues to offer broad operating system choice. One or more Crossbow platforms are now supported on development environments including Contiki, Linux, LiteOS, Mantis, Microsoft .NET Micro Framework, MoteWorks, SOS, and TinyOS. “Crossbow’s ability to provide software choice enables rapid development of the newest and most innovative applications of wireless sensor networks,” said Robert Robinson, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Crossbow’s wireless division.    

Instructions for download and use of Vanderbilt’s open-source code release of TinyOS 2.0 for IRIS are available here. Crossbow’s IRIS product line includes the IRIS OEM Module, IRIS Mote, and related sensor boards. Check out the IRIS platform and other Crossbow wireless sensor networking products here.