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New Chips Enable 2.4 GHz Sensor Networks

Posted by michael on from the background-chatter dept.

mindless4210 writes "Oki announced today that the world's first fully compliant IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee chip has been developed. The technology promises to start a new generation of wireless sensor networks, utilizing the unlicensed 2.4 GHz spectrum. The new IC integrates the digital circuit-based MAC and PHY with the analog circuit-based RF onto a single chip. The company also developed a kit which enables fast production of sensor networks which could control air conditioning, lighting, fire alarm systems, and many other applications. The low power consumption of the chip enables multi-year operation with only dry-cell batteries."

4 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Not sure why this is a "first" ... by rskrishnan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lots of companies have single-chip-2.4Ghz radio ICs. Like nvlsi.no or ChipCon. And NVLSI is better by a mile - quite literally a single chip 2.4GHz radio - make a sensor network in a few weeks .... if you find someone to help you solder the QFN pkg (goddamn SMD pkgs).Perhaps they bundle the ZigBee protocol within the IC ??

    1. Re:Not sure why this is a "first" ... by Dielectric · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think it's just the first production ZigBee chip, which, until now, has been total vaporware. Nordic and ChipCon and Cypress and others have had working 2.4GHz wireless chipsets for quite a while, but they're all proprietary, not a recognized IEEE standard.

      Hate the QFN? I agree, that would be pretty hard to solder down by hand. Check out the Cypress wireless chipset, you can get an SOIC which is actually pretty easy with a fine tip.

  2. So much for 802.11b/g by russotto · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm glad my WiFi network is 802.11a. If this goes into wide use there's going to be so much noise in 2.4Ghz that 2.4Ghz wireless is going to be really hard to continue using. (Heck, it already is)

    As to the techno-babble, most 802.11a/b/g cards require a separate chip for the MAC (which handles the 802.11 level 2 protocol -- some chipsets do most of this on the host), the PHY (which handles the digital signal processing) and the RF section (which is black magic). Putting them all on one chip allows for smaller and hopefully less power-hungry devices.

  3. If you like this kind of stuff... by xplosiv · · Score: 4, Informative

    I suggest you check out CocoonTech.com, it's a site dedicated to Home Autmation, Theaters and Security, This article got posted there this morning before it appeared on slashdot ;) Z-wave, which is 'similar' to ZigBee is one of the newer but fast growing protocols in the HA world. There have been many times where manufactures have said they have developped an x-10 killer protocol, but so far ZigBee & Z-wave seem to be ones of the few which might actually become widely accepted (or in some cases is being deployed already). Home Automation for the masses!