Microsoft has unveiled its Windows 10 IoT Core solution for Raspberry Pi 2 and MinnowBoard Max, the single-board, credit card-sized computers.
The IoT version of the OS is targeted at small, embedded devices that may or may not have screens allowing consumers and businesses to create applications for embedded smart devices.
Using the solution, Microsoft developers have been able to build smart applications such as a door lock that unlocks using facial recognition.
Microsoft added that for devices with screens, consumers will be able to write a Universal Windows app that will be the interface of their device.
The solution is also designed to work within a range of open source languages (including C++ and Java) and Visual Studio.
The firm said the Windows 10 IoT Core offers improved support for Python and Node.js and an eight to ten times improved General-purpose input/output (GPIO) performance on Raspberry Pi 2.
Other specifications of the release include the support of analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) and pulse-with modulation (PWM) via breakout boards and ICs.
Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application programming interfaces (APIs) give apps easy control over system management features like time zone and network connections, according to a post on the company’s blog.
Steve Teixeira, Director of Program Management IoT at Microsoft, said in the blog: "We built IoT Core and the corresponding developer tools to make it easy to build projects that are fun and cool, as well as those that have very practical uses in the real world."
The company added that to run Windows 10 IoT Core, users will need to have installed the Windows 10 OS released on July 29 and also have Visual Studio 2015 on their machine.
