With Texas Instrument's SimpleLink wireless microcontroller (MCU) platform, customers can enjoy always-on, battery-less or coin cell-powered operation for years. With the platform, customers can develop products that support wireless connectivity standards such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Sub-1GHz, ZigBee RF4CE and proprietary modes up to 5Mbit/s using a single-chip and identical RF design. The SimpleLink wireless MCU family will be released by batch in 2015.

The SimpleLink platform is integrated with an ARM Cortex-M3 MCU, Flash/RAM, analogue-to-digital converter, peripherals, sensor controller and built-in robust security on chip. It is also easy to design with through ready-to-use protocol stacks, TI RTOS, Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE), development tools, online training and E2E community support. Minimal RF expertise is required with available reference designs, which simplify development and layout. Additionally, customers may connect to the cloud through Texas Instrument's internet of things (IoT) cloud ecosystem.

The first members of the SimpleLink wireless MCU platform are the CC2640 for Bluetooth Smart, and the CC2630 for 6LoWPAN and ZigBee. For additional flexibility, customers can use the CC2650 wireless MCU supporting multiple 2.4GHz technologies including Bluetooth Smart, 6LoWPAN, ZigBee and RF4CE. Leveraging this multi-standard support, customers can future-proof their designs and configure their chosen technology at the time of installation in the field. Additional members of the platform—the CC1310 for Sub-1GHz operation and the CC2620 for ZigBee RF4CE—will be available later in 2015.

The SimpleLink wireless MCU platform is designed for low-power operation, which includes a unique integrated sensor controller that interfaces external sensors autonomously while the rest of the device sleeps. The platform includes radio peak currents below 6.2mA and MCU active current of less than 61uA/MHz. The complete chip can stay in standby at only 1uA with memory retention and RTC (real time clock) running. This enables the platform to offer half the power of other MCUs according to EEMBC's ULPBench with a score of 143.6.

The CC2640 is designed for a broad range of Bluetooth Smart applications including health, fitness and medical wearables, mobile accessories, beacons, industrial automation and more with:

•Easy development with comprehensive design support: Complete robust, royalty-free software stack with over-the-air (OTA) update capability, wiki guides, reference designs, low-cost tools and software starting points

•Lowest power Flash-based Bluetooth 4.1 solution with multi-year operation on smaller coin cells

•Complete one-chip Bluetooth Smart system in a fingertip, 4mm x 4mm size that integrates a Flash-based MCU, Bluetooth Smart radio

To get started, customers can purchase the next-generation Bluetooth Smart SensorTag (CC2650STK) or the CC2650DK development kit and download the latest BLE-Stack.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved