The IoT is the third and biggest wave in the development of internet, following the initial spread of desktop-computer connections in the 1990s and wireless mobile connections in the last decade.
It is the expansion of the Internet used by people to communicate, monitor and remotely analyze data from all types of systems, including factory equipment, vehicles, home appliances, energy networks, wireless and wearable sensors, consumer electronics, and all types of other objects.
Networked things (systems, sensors and objects) contain technology to communicate, sense and interact with their own conditions and operations or the environment around them, including external systems. Human intervention will no longer be required.
You've probably heard of Moore's law. This statement predicts that the number of transistors that can be placed on integrated circuits doubles every two years. This leads to an exponentially increasing power while reducing the relative manufacturing cost. Now that we are approaching the final stage of Moore's Law, the grand question to be answered is:
How do we gain value and improve our electronic devices from here on?
MORE MINIATURIZATION. The miniaturization continues with a current target of 7 nanometers shrinkage. As of today, one transistor (the most basic electronic component) measures 10 nanometers. A processor contains 2 billion of these. The whole transistor measures the size of your nail.
MORE CONNECTED DEVICES. By 2020, one person will possess 7 connected devices on average, and will generate more data than 20 people back in 2008. Then, why would the processor higher speed or smaller size would be useful if the application doesn't follow? This would be like having a smartphone without any access to Internet, high definition camera, GPS or running tracker app. Analog chips remain a critical component in almost all applications in today's digital world. The analog deals with the semiconductor technologies to transfer element of the nature (image, sounds and senses) into digital. IoT is by essence a huge user of analog chips.