Company
Date Published
Author
Jonathan Williams
Word count
3069
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

The Twilio Microvisor is an IoT platform that provides secure and reliable remote firmware management for connected microcontrollers. It uses Arm TrustZone to separate connectivity from firmware, enabling features such as unbrickable over-the-air firmware updates and live remote debugging. The platform supports a range of cellular modems, Wi-Fi hardware, and Ethernet interfaces, and can be used with various operating systems and programming languages. Microvisor is designed for highly reliable and secure remote firmware management, but it does not currently support Linux-based apps or certain industrial Ethernet protocols like PROFINET or EtherNet/IP. The platform's architecture takes over the TrustZone, preventing user applications from corrupting the Microvisor code. It also supports precision timing and high-performance NIC capability, making it suitable for a wide range of IoT applications. The platform is designed to be highly customizable, allowing users to design and build their own hardware based on the Microvisor requirements. Twilio handles maintenance and updates to the Microvisor itself, with guarantees for ongoing security audits and mitigation strategies for parts shortages.