10 most popular products of 2015

The Internet of Things (IoT) has proven to be one of the main drivers of innovation for many companies in the semiconductor industry today. Many products such as starter kits, microcontrollers and gateways have been developed to support the nascent IoT.

However, there are other devices and solutions developed in 2015 that are not IoT-related. Automotive and power are two sectors with some of the most innovative products announced this year. Single-board computers, headed by Raspberry Pi, also showed great improvements in terms of capacity and size.

EE Times India reviewed some of the biggest products developed by semiconductor companies in 2015 and picked 10 that made the strongest impression to our readers.

Windows 10 steps out of PC mould

In a demonstration earlier today, Microsoft showed off Windows 10 OS's cross-device compatibility, a new browser (codenamed Spartan) and ease of use in new areas of technology, such as, yes, holographics.

"We're preparing for a world where there are more devices than people," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. "It's not mobility of any single device but the mobility of experience across devices," he added, which no doubt would have reminded some of Apple's Handoff.

If you are thinking that the event was just about a new operating system, you'd be both right and wrong as you will soon see. Let's first get the usual operating system specs out of the way.

Microsoft showed Windows 10 on a Lumia 1520. Joe Belfiore, who runs Microsoft's Windows phone, tablet, and PC design teams, said Windows 10 is under development with the following features.

• Universal applications including Word, Power Point, Outlook, and Excel
• Support for wireless printing
• Cortana with multiple language and impression capabilities
• More integrated IP-based messaging services
• Auto-creation of photo albums

Microsoft has integrated DirectX 12 into Windows 10 to improve gaming and entertainment across form factors. The Xbox team head, Phil Spencer, said DirectX 12 will improve performance of CPU-bound games up to 50 per cent while cutting power consumption in half. To take advantage of this improved performance, an Xbox app will be available on all Windows 10 devices and Xbox One games will stream on any PC or phone later this year.

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