I have been attending Embedded World, the premier global embedded show for more than 15 years. Embedded World 2018 will always have a special place in my heart, as we introduced the next generation of XPort®, the most successful serial to Ethernet module, to the embedded engineering community. XPort was designed by Lantronix in 2003 15 years ago, and soon after it became an embedded engineer’s favorite module, as it was the quickest, most elegant and straightforward way to provide IP network connectivity to any Industrial device. Over the last 15 years, millions of machines have been connected to the Internet using the XPort module, which has led to a revolution now commonly known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Many competitors have unsuccessfully tried to replicate the XPort’s success with similar products. XPort’s patented, small and unique form factor, similar to an RJ45 connector, combined with the man years of networking software innovation that comes with XPort which makes it a simple drop into any board design without any extra coding. XPort has been designed into all sorts of devices from connected door locks to industrial machinery, to energy applications to medical devices. In fact, in 2017, a full 14 years after its introduction, more and more brand new designs were kicked off by our OEM customer base using the XPort module.

The new XPort Edge from Lantronix adds more performance capabilities with a high-performance ARM processor, built-in security, and pre-integrated device management and cloud connectivity features, making it the world’s first embedded wired IoT gateway in a small form factor of an RJ45 connector. I am very excited about all the new types of devices that our OEM partners will be developing for their verticals using this new platform. Wired connectivity is still one of the most popular connectivity choices provided in many devices in the Industrial IoT, and XPort Edge will soon be an embedded engineers’ favorite just like its older brother, XPort.