Slashdot Mirror
New Chips Enable 2.4 GHz Sensor Networks
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."
What a nightmare that was. That crap only worked about 50% of the time... until my neighbor used their cordless phone, or my microwave ran, etc. etc. The ISP was continually tracking down sources of interferance, and installing new filters, amplifiers, etc.
I've now moved to a provider that uses (motorolla) equipment that runs in the 5GHz range. This stuff seems to work flawlessly.
Why can't we just have story moderation? Editors would simply approve/disprove stories for voting, obvious crap would get dumped, anything mildly interesting would get posted to the moderation page. logged in users would then have the opportunity to look through all the stories submitted (minus the total crap) if they wanted. People who only want to see the best would simply choose to only view the top X% of stories of the last X# of hours. It's not really that different than moderation and it'd be easy to implement.
I'd imagine some editors might not like it because it would reduce their ego, but it would make for a much better slashdot.
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
People have trouble remembering to change the batteries in their smoke detectors now, imagine what will happen when their AC goes out because they forgot to put new batteries in it. :)
I've been waiting for ZigBee hardware from Motorola for quite a while now. Several months ago, their web site proudly proclaimed that their HCS08 series chips would support ZigBee. I'm now using HCS08 chips, but all mention of ZigBee has since vanished from the product page.
Makes me wonder if there's some not-quite-working ZigBee RF hardware on the chip...
The new chip has several key bennefits, which include the use of synchronous serial interface when connecting to a host CPU, low-power consumption enabling long time operation with dry-cell batteries, and a 0.22 micron low-leakage process. The package is quite small at only 7x7(mm).
Just me or does this seem like the perfect chip for a subdermal implant. Seriosly, stick one of these babys next to a pacemaker and you can control your heartrate via the TCP/IP or encrypt the signal and have law enforcments firearms disable themselves in the hands of criminals (ala Judge Dredd ) Coupled with a proper set of sensors soldiers vital stats could be relayed to a central command unit without bulk transmiters, or just one transmitter ( Aliens (1986)
Maybe I shouldn't watch so many movies.
"It's all just meme meme around here"