TI and STMicro address internet of things
Texas Instruments adapts Wi-Fi for very simple embedded devices while ST creates wireless smart energy nodes
Published: 18 January, 2012
READ MORE: M2M | Semiconductor | Wi-Fi
With billions of connections envisaged for the 'internet of things', it's no surprise that chipmakers are racing to be the ones to provide the silicon for all those gadgets and embedded modules. NXP has been a frontrunner, and this week has seen Texas Instruments, Redpine and STMicro submitting their own approaches.
TI is using Wi-Fi to underpin its SimpleLink CC3000 wireless processor, designed to add internet connectivity to any embedded product using any microcontroller. This would enable household appliances, sensors and other previously dumb items to communicate, share data and access cloud services, using the standard 802.11 protocol. TI's most colourful example was of an umbrella which would connect to online weather updates and switch on an LED light when rain was likely.
The innovation also shows how Wi-Fi is creeping into ultra-low power sectors usually inhabited by ZigBee or other standards conceived for industrial and home control networks. SimpleLink CC3000 claims to consume only 0.5% of the resources of traditional Wi-Fi, with a tiny memory and software requirement (6Kb of flash, 3Kb of RAM and no operating system). However, the 802.11 processor uses standard APIs so that it can be introduced to existing, as well as new, embedded applications.
"Wi-Fi technology has been around for more than a decade, but it hasn't necessarily been accessible for most classes of product," Matt Kurtz, channel marketing manager for TI's wireless connectivity unit, told EETimes, adding that the firm had seen rising demand for Wi-Fi to be added to simple microcontroller products which cannot accommodate a Linux OS or apps processor. "We rolled up our sleeves and rearchitected our existing Wi-Fi solution to make it suitable for any product - regardless of the architecture," he claimed.
Also pushing low power Wi-Fi into M2M markets is Redpine Signals, which has unveiled WiSeConnect, a self-contained module for the 'internet of things'. The product supports the main current Wi-Fi iteration, 802.11n, running at very low power. It also surrounds 11n with various interfaces and extensions designed for the M2M space, particularly industrial aspects such as enterprise and factory automation or health monitoring. Among the specs supported are SEP (Smart Energy Profile) 2.0, for the smart grid and environmental monitoring space; Wi-Fi Direct for peer-to-peer communications between devices; Embedded AP; and the WLan security technologies for enterprise use.
Connected modules, because of their huge numbers, will need to be simple to build and deploy, and self-managing. WiSeConnect is designed to contain all the hardware and software required as well as pre-certified regulatory compliance. "The most important requirement for M2M markets is ease of system integration," commented Redpine CEO Venkat Mattela.
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