By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Hot on the heels of releasing their new SiWx917 chipset for ultra low-power wireless IoT – read about it here – Silicon Labs this month introduced a new family of SiWx917-powered modules, designed to substantially speed up the IoT device development process. Silicon Labs has done everything to make the process as simple, fast, and low-cost as possible while still offering a plenty of configuration options, the company says.
Certifying wireless IoT devices for operation in various parts of the world (or even just for a single market) can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars – not to mention result in product launch delays, which could make or break the prospective success of new products on the ultra-competitive IoT market. But now there’s much less need to worry about any of that, says Silicon Labs. New Wi-Fi & BLE connected devices can now piggy-back off the extensive certification and design work already done by Silicon Labs.
“Wireless IoT solution providers can now choose as the basis for their products our RF optimized modules enabling industry-leading Wi-Fi connectivity. This allows R&D teams to focus on what sets their IoT application apart – hence avoiding commoditisation in the market place. We believe our SiWx917Y modules will be instrumental in supporting solution providers to build the world’s most innovative and successful Wi-Fi IoT products and services,” says Irvind Ghai, Vice President at Silicon Labs.
The modules – view all the details here – are pre-certified for FCC (North America), CE (Europe), MIC (Japan), and several other regional standards. They’re also Wi-Fi 6 certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Irvind Ghai says the new SiWx917Y modules deliver “breakthrough power efficiency while providing robust wireless connectivity, advanced security, and a full-featured application processor, reducing design challenges, product size, costs, and time-to-revenue for device makers.”
The new SiWx917Y wireless computing module comes in a tiny integrated and shielded 16 x 21 x 2.3 mm package. Developers can select from a range of PSRAM and flash memory configuration options as well as from three operational modes: Hostless system-on-chip (SoC), network co-processor (NCP), and radio co-processor (RCP). The module includes an integrated antenna although it also readily supports external antenna designs, Silicon Labs says.
Silicon Labs is among the world’s leading vendors of state-of-the-art Wi-Fi chipsets and modules specifically designed for ultra low-power wireless IoT. The company expects the market for low-power Wi-Fi IoT devices to increase by up to one billion units annually, equivalent to about half of total yearly IoT growth. Market segments for Wi-Fi IoT include smart homes, smart cameras, consumer health, smart buildings, a huge number of industrial use cases, asset tracking, and more.
The Wi-Fi IoT market (in particular for ultra-low power battery operated devices) is currently by far the fastest growing of all Wi-Fi device segments and therefore represents a significant financial upside to specialised Wi-Fi IoT silicon chip providers, such as Silicon Labs. The new SiWx917Y modules are available for purchase now.
/Claus.
