Tech Lover 9

The development of a new chip which will help to manage the connectivity of cloud-based devices is to begin at Toumaz after the company was able to raise an unprecedented £11.2 million in a round of investment held this month.

Toumaz Microsystems, a smaller part of the group as a whole, will be receiving most of this money in order to fund the creation of new cloud technology which should help improve the quality of the wireless communication between cloud-based applications available on the devices of the future.

The researchers foresee that these chips will subsequently be available in a wide range of gadgets, from those dealing with home automation and wireless media streaming to platforms which are more useful in the healthcare industry and the world of commerce.

Toumaz is seeing the Far East as a potentially significant market for the cloud chips developed thanks to the investment. Part of the benefits of the creation of this chip will be its ability to operate across a multitude of standards without encountering compatibility issues, so different cloud platforms and hardware setups should be able to incorporate it with ease.

Power consumption is a real concern for any chip which could end up powering applications on portable devices and spokesperson Chris Toumazou explained that the company would be taking this into consideration, eventually providing precisely the kind of technology which the market is calling out for.

Cloud computing is becoming an increasingly important feature of mobile technology, largely because the burden of processing is taken away from the device itself and placed on a server farm where constraints like battery life are of little concern.

The result is that end users are beginning to see portable gadgets having access to far more complex capabilities than would originally be possible using the hardware at hand because the cloud allows for applications to run remotely. These are then streamed wirelessly onto the device, enabling real time interactivity.

Cloud gaming provider OnLive has recently been expanding its efforts in this area, announcing that it would be allowing tablet owners to access a full Windows operating system experience through its application.

Videos showing a Windows 7 desktop running on an Apple iPad 2, albeit with the processing and compatibility handled on the cloud, have emerged in recent weeks. The work of companies like OnLive and Toumaz will continue to have an impact on what you can achieve using a tablet PC and cloud computing.