Recently, Tom R. Halfhill, a senior analyst at The Linley Group and a senior editor of Microprocessor Report, contributed a review of our new Wireless Gecko Series 2 SoCs in the June issue of Microprocessor Report. He analyzes key EFR32 Series 2 upgrades and how the next-generation portfolio compares with the EFR32 Series 1 family in areas such as wireless performance, security features, on-chip CPU and package size.

In this report, Halfhill highlights Series 2 security features such as secure boot with Root of Trust and Secure Loader (RTSL) in addition to hardware crypto accelerations with side-channel countermeasures that considerably strengthen resistance to adversary attacks. The report also compares key specifications of EFR32MG21 and EFR32BG21 SoCs, the first products in the Series 2 portfolio. EFR32MG21 supports multiprotocol, Zigbee®, Thread and Bluetooth® mesh networking, and EFR32BG21 is dedicated to Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth mesh connectivity.

Our Wireless Gecko Series 2 portfolio leads a growing crowd of wireless MCUs and SoCs for connected devices. Halfhill compares EFR32MG21 features and performance with several competing products from other large wireless MCU/SoC vendors:

•            NXP’s Kinetis K32W0x

•            ST Microelectronics’ STM32WB

•            Texas Instrument’s SimpleLink CC1352R

Halfhill acknowledges that our new Series 2 portfolio includes the lowest power wireless SoCs on the market while offering the tiniest footprint, boasting a 4 mm x 4 mm surface-mount QFN package with only 32 pins. The SoCs also offer the highest ambient temperature range, making them suitable for applications with extreme heat exposure such as connected LED lighting and various Industrial IoT applications. The latest Series 2 SoCs are ideal for a wide range of line-powered IoT products including gateways, hubs, lights, voice assistants and smart electric meters.

Series 1 customers can easily upgrade to the Series 2 platform. With IoT security threats increasing, Wireless Gecko Series 2 leads the pack in providing improved security features but comes at virtually no additional cost when upgrading to Series 2. The enhanced radios offer a +20 dBm option for longer range, allowing customers to choose the right power level and wireless range for each design. The Series 2 radio also offers better selectivity, which is helpful as more and more wireless devices use the crowded 2.4 GHz band.

Read the full Microprocessor Report: https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/white-papers/the-linley-group-microprocessor-report-silicon-labs-upgrades-wireless-mcus.pdf

Wi-Fi may not be the first wireless technology one thinks of when considering low power IoT applications, but it should be. In this Q&A, Silicon Labs’ senior product manager for Wi-Fi products Siddharth Sundar discusses Wi-Fi's advantages and challenges that developers should keep in mind when choosing the right approach to wireless IoT.

What are the advantages to using Wi-Fi in low power IoT applications?

Being a widely deployed protocol with approximately 13 billion deployed devices means that Wi-Fi connectivity is available in most home and commercial/office environments. This avoids the need for a gateway and lets devices be cloud connected without needing new infrastructure. Wi-Fi is also highly interoperable, so you can have confidence that your devices will connect to most Wi-Fi networks out there. The higher data rates and range offered by Wi-Fi also enable a wider range of applications.

How does Wi-Fi compare to other IoT wireless communication protocols?

Wi-Fi has significantly higher data throughput than most other IoT wireless communication protocols – often 10-100x higher, allowing it to tackle higher throughput applications like audio and video. The broad deployment and range of Wi-Fi is also a significant benefit compared to many other protocols.

These benefits do come at a cost. Wi-Fi products typically have higher power consumption and higher implementation costs than IoT specific protocols like BLE and Zigbee, since the range and throughput offered by Wi-Fi demands higher design complexity. However, most of this design complexity can be managed through using pre-certified modules, and the cost and power consumption of Wi-Fi devices is decreasing to a point where it is competitive for many IoT applications.

Why implement 802.11n rather than 802.11ac for IoT platforms?

There are a few key reasons why 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) may be better suited for most IoT applications than 802.11ac-based products (Wi-Fi 5). First, 802.11ac is based on 5 GHz versus 802.11n which supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz offers more range and better object penetration compared to 5 GHz. This is a key benefit in home environments with multiple walls and barriers.

Also, IoT Wi-Fi devices like Silicon Labs transceivers and modules are designed with enhanced RF selectivity to maintain reliable communication even in the presence of blockers such as nearby APs, 802.15.4 and Bluetooth devices. The below figure illustrates how advanced interference mitigation techniques help overcome the channel limitations related to the 2.4 GHz band. Learn more in Wi-Fi Learning Center.

One final point, the cost and power consumption of 802.11ac based systems is higher due to the higher protocol complexity. While it does provide enhanced throughput, the data rates provided by 802.11n are more than sufficient for most IoT applications including audio and security/IP camera video streaming.

What are some ways to reduce power requirements using Wi-Fi in IoT applications?

There are a number of ways to reduce power consumption using Wi-Fi:

1. Minimize the time spent in active TX and RX modes: With Wi-Fi’s high data rates, it may make sense to aggregate data and transmit/receive infrequently. It may also make sense to use higher data rates to transmit data more quickly and reduce the amount of time spent in high power transmit modes.
2. Choose the right devices: Not all Wi-Fi chipsets are made the same, so make sure you choose the devices with the lowest possible current consumption for the TX, RX, sleep and DTIM modes you are interested in. Watch out for datasheet tricks and make sure you are comparing apples to apples – this is especially important when looking at “sleep” and “associated” current definitions, as they are defined differently by vendors.
3. Think about the system level: The best power optimizations can be found at the system level, by seeing if you can turn off the radio and only power it on infrequently or using techniques like beacon skipping to reduce idle/sleep current if you are OK with tolerating latency.
4. Use the low power features available in the Wi-Fi standard: The Wi-Fi standard has a number of power optimizing features like DTIM sleep modes and Power Save that can save you a significant amount of power.

Are Wi-Fi solutions as integrated and compact as something like Bluetooth?

Wi-Fi solutions have traditionally been more complex and larger than solutions for Bluetooth. However, this gap is reducing, and there are increasingly smaller, optimized solutions available for Wi-Fi. This new class of IoT Wi-Fi devices takes advantage of Moore’s law to deliver higher performance, and eliminates size/cost adding features like MIMO. For example, Silicon Labs has a pre-certified Wi-Fi SiP module (including a Wi-Fi Radio, RF, XTAL and antenna) in a 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm package, which allows you to add Wi-Fi to small form factor devices.

Wi-Fi may not be the first wireless technology one thinks of when considering low power IoT applications, but it should be. In this Q&A, Silicon Labs’ senior product manager for Wi-Fi products Siddharth Sundar discusses Wi-Fi's advantages and challenges that developers should keep in mind when choosing the right approach to wireless IoT.

What are the advantages to using Wi-Fi in low power IoT applications?

Being a widely deployed protocol with approximately 13 billion deployed devices means that Wi-Fi connectivity is available in most home and commercial/office environments. This avoids the need for a gateway and lets devices be cloud connected without needing new infrastructure. Wi-Fi is also highly interoperable, so you can have confidence that your devices will connect to most Wi-Fi networks out there. The higher data rates and range offered by Wi-Fi also enable a wider range of applications.

How does Wi-Fi compare to other IoT wireless communication protocols?

Wi-Fi has significantly higher data throughput than most other IoT wireless communication protocols – often 10-100x higher, allowing it to tackle higher throughput applications like audio and video. The broad deployment and range of Wi-Fi is also a significant benefit compared to many other protocols.

These benefits do come at a cost. Wi-Fi products typically have higher power consumption and higher implementation costs than IoT specific protocols like BLE and Zigbee, since the range and throughput offered by Wi-Fi demands higher design complexity. However, most of this design complexity can be managed through using pre-certified modules, and the cost and power consumption of Wi-Fi devices is decreasing to a point where it is competitive for many IoT applications.

Why implement 802.11n rather than 802.11ac for IoT platforms?

There are a few key reasons why 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) may be better suited for most IoT applications than 802.11ac-based products (Wi-Fi 5). First, 802.11ac is based on 5 GHz versus 802.11n which supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz offers more range and better object penetration compared to 5 GHz. This is a key benefit in home environments with multiple walls and barriers.

Also, IoT Wi-Fi devices like Silicon Labs transceivers and modules are designed with enhanced RF selectivity to maintain reliable communication even in the presence of blockers such as nearby APs, 802.15.4 and Bluetooth devices. The below figure illustrates how advanced interference mitigation techniques help overcome the channel limitations related to the 2.4 GHz band. Learn more in Wi-Fi Learning Center.

One final point, the cost and power consumption of 802.11ac based systems is higher due to the higher protocol complexity. While it does provide enhanced throughput, the data rates provided by 802.11n are more than sufficient for most IoT applications including audio and security/IP camera video streaming.

What are some ways to reduce power requirements using Wi-Fi in IoT applications?

There are a number of ways to reduce power consumption using Wi-Fi:

1. Minimize the time spent in active TX and RX modes: With Wi-Fi’s high data rates, it may make sense to aggregate data and transmit/receive infrequently. It may also make sense to use higher data rates to transmit data more quickly and reduce the amount of time spent in high power transmit modes.
2. Choose the right devices: Not all Wi-Fi chipsets are made the same, so make sure you choose the devices with the lowest possible current consumption for the TX, RX, sleep and DTIM modes you are interested in. Watch out for datasheet tricks and make sure you are comparing apples to apples – this is especially important when looking at “sleep” and “associated” current definitions, as they are defined differently by vendors.
3. Think about the system level: The best power optimizations can be found at the system level, by seeing if you can turn off the radio and only power it on infrequently or using techniques like beacon skipping to reduce idle/sleep current if you are OK with tolerating latency.
4. Use the low power features available in the Wi-Fi standard: The Wi-Fi standard has a number of power optimizing features like DTIM sleep modes and Power Save that can save you a significant amount of power.

Are Wi-Fi solutions as integrated and compact as something like Bluetooth?

Wi-Fi solutions have traditionally been more complex and larger than solutions for Bluetooth. However, this gap is reducing, and there are increasingly smaller, optimized solutions available for Wi-Fi. This new class of IoT Wi-Fi devices takes advantage of Moore’s law to deliver higher performance, and eliminates size/cost adding features like MIMO. For example, Silicon Labs has a pre-certified Wi-Fi SiP module (including a Wi-Fi Radio, RF, XTAL and antenna) in a 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm package, which allows you to add Wi-Fi to small form factor devices.

Wi-Fi may not be the first wireless technology one thinks of when considering low power IoT applications, but it should be. In this Q&A, Silicon Labs’ senior product manager for Wi-Fi products Siddharth Sundar discusses Wi-Fi's advantages and challenges that developers should keep in mind when choosing the right approach to wireless IoT.

What are the advantages to using Wi-Fi in low power IoT applications?

Being a widely deployed protocol with approximately 13 billion deployed devices means that Wi-Fi connectivity is available in most home and commercial/office environments. This avoids the need for a gateway and lets devices be cloud connected without needing new infrastructure. Wi-Fi is also highly interoperable, so you can have confidence that your devices will connect to most Wi-Fi networks out there. The higher data rates and range offered by Wi-Fi also enable a wider range of applications.

How does Wi-Fi compare to other IoT wireless communication protocols?

Wi-Fi has significantly higher data throughput than most other IoT wireless communication protocols – often 10-100x higher, allowing it to tackle higher throughput applications like audio and video. The broad deployment and range of Wi-Fi is also a significant benefit compared to many other protocols.

These benefits do come at a cost. Wi-Fi products typically have higher power consumption and higher implementation costs than IoT specific protocols like BLE and Zigbee, since the range and throughput offered by Wi-Fi demands higher design complexity. However, most of this design complexity can be managed through using pre-certified modules, and the cost and power consumption of Wi-Fi devices is decreasing to a point where it is competitive for many IoT applications.

Why implement 802.11n rather than 802.11ac for IoT platforms?

There are a few key reasons why 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) may be better suited for most IoT applications than 802.11ac-based products (Wi-Fi 5). First, 802.11ac is based on 5 GHz versus 802.11n which supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz offers more range and better object penetration compared to 5 GHz. This is a key benefit in home environments with multiple walls and barriers.

Also, IoT Wi-Fi devices like Silicon Labs transceivers and modules are designed with enhanced RF selectivity to maintain reliable communication even in the presence of blockers such as nearby APs, 802.15.4 and Bluetooth devices. The below figure illustrates how advanced interference mitigation techniques help overcome the channel limitations related to the 2.4 GHz band. Learn more in Wi-Fi Learning Center.

One final point, the cost and power consumption of 802.11ac based systems is higher due to the higher protocol complexity. While it does provide enhanced throughput, the data rates provided by 802.11n are more than sufficient for most IoT applications including audio and security/IP camera video streaming.

What are some ways to reduce power requirements using Wi-Fi in IoT applications?

There are a number of ways to reduce power consumption using Wi-Fi:

1. Minimize the time spent in active TX and RX modes: With Wi-Fi’s high data rates, it may make sense to aggregate data and transmit/receive infrequently. It may also make sense to use higher data rates to transmit data more quickly and reduce the amount of time spent in high power transmit modes.
2. Choose the right devices: Not all Wi-Fi chipsets are made the same, so make sure you choose the devices with the lowest possible current consumption for the TX, RX, sleep and DTIM modes you are interested in. Watch out for datasheet tricks and make sure you are comparing apples to apples – this is especially important when looking at “sleep” and “associated” current definitions, as they are defined differently by vendors.
3. Think about the system level: The best power optimizations can be found at the system level, by seeing if you can turn off the radio and only power it on infrequently or using techniques like beacon skipping to reduce idle/sleep current if you are OK with tolerating latency.
4. Use the low power features available in the Wi-Fi standard: The Wi-Fi standard has a number of power optimizing features like DTIM sleep modes and Power Save that can save you a significant amount of power.

Are Wi-Fi solutions as integrated and compact as something like Bluetooth?

Wi-Fi solutions have traditionally been more complex and larger than solutions for Bluetooth. However, this gap is reducing, and there are increasingly smaller, optimized solutions available for Wi-Fi. This new class of IoT Wi-Fi devices takes advantage of Moore’s law to deliver higher performance, and eliminates size/cost adding features like MIMO. For example, Silicon Labs has a pre-certified Wi-Fi SiP module (including a Wi-Fi Radio, RF, XTAL and antenna) in a 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm package, which allows you to add Wi-Fi to small form factor devices.

More and more embedded systems rely on the use of Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOSs) to: satisfy real-time requirements, reduce time-to-market, simplify development, increase code portability, and simplify development. Despite its many benefits, an RTOS also has its drawbacks, such as introducing improperly assigned task priorities, stack overflows, starvation, deadlocks, priority inversions and other hard-to-find bugs.

In these three articles published on Embedded Computing Design, Jean Labrosse, distinguished engineer at Silicon Labs and Micrium founder, will look at tools specifically designed to help RTOS-based application developers uncover some of these elusive bugs, identify issues and offer corrective actions. These tools are readily available yet often unknown to embedded developers.

1. Uncovering Real-Time Bugs with Specialized RTOS Tools - Part 1
2. Uncovering Real-Time Bugs with Specialized RTOS Tools - Part 2
3. Uncovering Real-Time Bugs with Specialized RTOS Tools - Part 3

More and more embedded systems rely on the use of Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOSs) to: satisfy real-time requirements, reduce time-to-market, simplify development, increase code portability, and simplify development. Despite its many benefits, an RTOS also has its drawbacks, one of which is the possibility of introducing improperly assigned task priorities, stack overflows, starvation, deadlocks, priority inversions and other hard-to-find bugs.

In these three articles published on Embedded Computing Design, Jean Labrosse, distinguished engineer at Silicon Labs and Micrium founder, will look at tools specifically designed to help RTOS-based application developers uncover some of these elusive bugs, identify issues and offer corrective actions. These tools are readily available yet often unknown to embedded developers.

1. Uncovering Real-Time Bugs with Specialized RTOS Tools - Part 1
2. Uncovering Real-Time Bugs with Specialized RTOS Tools - Part 2
3. Uncovering Real-Time Bugs with Specialized RTOS Tools - Part 3

Wireless technology plays a major part in the Internet of Things (IoT) but deploying this technology can involve a good bit of programming. Applications must address a range of issues including features like secure over-the-air (OTA) updates.

In this Q&A, Silicon Labs’ senior product manager for Xpress devices Parker Dorris discusses some of the questions that come up when talking about the programming burden of wireless applications.

What are some wireless IoT applications that Silicon Labs is targeting?

We’re targeting Bluetooth Low Energy-enabled sensors, smartphone-controlled smart home devices, white goods, and machine-to-machine applications, especially those requiring the additional option of phone configuration and connectivity. We’re already seeing an extremely diverse mix of applications evaluating and developing with these zero-programming IoT solutions, and the common theme in these designs is a need for wireless connectivity without the steep learning curve. The wireless component just works, which enables companies to focus resources on the aspects of a design that will make the product innovative and successful
in the market.

What is zero-programming, and why is it important to IoT developers?

The goal of our Wireless Xpress portfolio is to lower the barriers of entry for IoT end node design by providing easy to use hardware and software solutions that require zero-programming. These Wireless Xpress module products are all about enablement in a few key respects.

First, because a developer is interfacing with Wireless Xpress through a high-level network coprocessor (NCP)-style interface called the Xpress command API, and communicating with a device that takes on as much responsibility for wireless connection and communication as possible, developers don’t have to become Bluetooth or Wi-Fi experts to get to market quickly.

While you don’t have to write code for these module devices, we expose configurable parameters to tweak performance features. Developers don’t have to learn the intricacies of stack APIs and getting a module to some configured state; they just set a variable. This command API feature helps developers avoid some of the more common challenge points that can snag developers new to a wireless protocol.

Wireless Xpress takes advantage of Silicon Labs’ Gecko OS, an intuitive, simple-to-use IoT operating system. Wireless Xpress devices also focus on enablement in the sense that because the device handles wireless-related responsibilities so comprehensively with the Gecko OS firmware running under the hood, developers don’t have to choose an MCU that will be able to handle low-level wireless maintenance, or granular monitoring through a lower-level NCP protocol. Developers can choose the MCU that’s right for their application, rather than choosing the MCU that’s right for their NCP.

What hardware platforms does Silicon Labs offer for IoT end node designs?

We’ve launched Bluetooth Xpress modules in PCB module and system-in-package (SiP) module options, called BGX13P and BGX13S, respectively. We also offer two zero-programming Wi-Fi Xpress modules, the AMW007 and AMW037.

What is involved on the software side to get a mobile app running?

For Bluetooth Xpress, we’ve launched the Xpress framework for both iOS and Android. Developing mobile apps can sometimes be a challenge for product developers, and developing a BLE-connected app is its own specialized skillset. With the Xpress framework, we abstract low-level mobile OS core Bluetooth APIs behind a few easy-to-use APIs.

This is really helpful to developers for two reasons. First, the Xpress framework handles all the Bluetooth-specific scanning and discovery, interrogation, connection and GATT table communication. For instance, to scan, you call startScan, and the framework delivers a list of discovered devices. To connect, you call connectToDevice, and the framework handles the rest.

Second, the framework looks largely the same for both iOS and Android, unifying an interface that really works quite differently between the two OSes. So if a developer learns to connect to Bluetooth Xpress in iOS, those same function calls are going to work identically in Android. For Wi-Fi Xpress, we’re offering a web app that is served by a Wi-Fi Xpress device and provides a RESTful API to control the module and access a file system.

What type of tools are available to developers to take advantage of Wireless Xpress?

One great thing about these module products is that the Xpress command API is human-readable, and so developers can evaluate the product and fully exercise features with a simple terminal program running on a PC.

We’ve launched two evaluation kits, the Wireless Xpress BGX13P kit and the AMW007-E04 kit, each offering a serial to USB bridge so access to the board looks like a COM port. For developers that want a more context-rich evaluation experience and a graphical interface, we offer the Xpress Configurator tool in Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio development environment. Xpress Configurator logically groups different configurable parameters, validates configurable settings, and displays documentation for each parameter. All of this configuration results in one or more Xpress commands getting sent to the Wireless Xpress module through a terminal interface built into the tool.

Developers have access to network management and mapping tools. The tools provide a high-level view of the system. The network analyzer tracks wireless node activity in real time proving insights for debugging and system optimization.

What about connecting to the cloud?

For Bluetooth Xpress, we offer over the air (OTA) support through the Xpress framework. If Silicon Labs releases a firmware update to Bluetooth Xpress, this signed, encrypted update can be pulled from our cloud with a single framework API. Wi-Fi Xpress products can access the cloud directly to receive firmware updates. Developers can also use this built-in cloud connectivity to perform device health checks in the field and retrieve other key, application specific metrics as well.

Wireless technology plays a major part in the Internet of Things (IoT) but deploying this technology can involve a good bit of programming. Applications must address a range of issues including features like secure over-the-air (OTA) updates.

In this Q&A, Silicon Labs’ senior product manager for Xpress devices Parker Dorris discusses some of the questions that come up when talking about the programming burden of wireless applications.

What are some wireless IoT applications that Silicon Labs is targeting?

We’re targeting Bluetooth Low Energy-enabled sensors, smartphone-controlled smart home devices, white goods, and machine-to-machine applications, especially those requiring the additional option of phone configuration and connectivity. We’re already seeing an extremely diverse mix of applications evaluating and developing with these zero-programming IoT solutions, and the common theme in these designs is a need for wireless connectivity without the steep learning curve. The wireless component just works, which enables companies to focus resources on the aspects of a design that will make the product innovative and successful
in the market.

What is zero-programming, and why is it important to IoT developers?

The goal of our Wireless Xpress portfolio is to lower the barriers of entry for IoT end node design by providing easy to use hardware and software solutions that require zero-programming. These Wireless Xpress module products are all about enablement in a few key respects.

First, because a developer is interfacing with Wireless Xpress through a high-level network coprocessor (NCP)-style interface called the Xpress command API, and communicating with a device that takes on as much responsibility for wireless connection and communication as possible, developers don’t have to become Bluetooth or Wi-Fi experts to get to market quickly.

While you don’t have to write code for these module devices, we expose configurable parameters to tweak performance features. Developers don’t have to learn the intricacies of stack APIs and getting a module to some configured state; they just set a variable. This command API feature helps developers avoid some of the more common challenge points that can snag developers new to a wireless protocol.

Wireless Xpress takes advantage of Silicon Labs’ Gecko OS, an intuitive, simple-to-use IoT operating system. Wireless Xpress devices also focus on enablement in the sense that because the device handles wireless-related responsibilities so comprehensively with the Gecko OS firmware running under the hood, developers don’t have to choose an MCU that will be able to handle low-level wireless maintenance, or granular monitoring through a lower-level NCP protocol. Developers can choose the MCU that’s right for their application, rather than choosing the MCU that’s right for their NCP.

What hardware platforms does Silicon Labs offer for IoT end node designs?

We’ve launched Bluetooth Xpress modules in PCB module and system-in-package (SiP) module options, called BGX13P and BGX13S, respectively. We also offer two zero-programming Wi-Fi Xpress modules, the AMW007 and AMW037.

What is involved on the software side to get a mobile app running?

For Bluetooth Xpress, we’re launching the Xpress framework for both iOS and Android. Developing mobile apps can sometimes be a challenge for product developers, and developing a BLE-connected app is its own specialized skillset. With the Xpress framework, we abstract low-level mobile OS core Bluetooth APIs behind a few easy-to-use APIs.

This is really helpful to developers for two reasons. First, the Xpress framework handles all the Bluetooth-specific scanning and discovery, interrogation, connection and GATT table communication. For instance, to scan, you call startScan, and the framework delivers a list of discovered devices. To connect, you call connectToDevice, and the framework handles the rest.

Second, the framework looks largely the same for both iOS and Android, unifying an interface that really works quite differently between the two OSes. So if a developer learns to connect to Bluetooth Xpress in iOS, those same function calls are going to work identically in Android. For Wi-Fi Xpress, we’re offering a web app that is served by a Wi-Fi Xpress device and provides a RESTful API to control the module and access a file system.

What type of tools are available to developers to take advantage of Wireless Xpress?

One great thing about these module products is that the Xpress command API is human-readable, and so developers can evaluate the product and fully exercise features with a simple terminal program running on a PC.

We’ve launched two evaluation kits, the Wireless Xpress BGX13P kit and the AMW007-E04 kit, each offering a serial to USB bridge so access to the board looks like a COM port. For developers that want a more context-rich evaluation experience and a graphical interface, we offer the Xpress Configurator tool in Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio development environment. Xpress Configurator logically groups different configurable parameters, validates configurable settings, and displays documentation for each parameter. All of this configuration results in one or more Xpress commands getting sent to the Wireless Xpress module through a terminal interface built
into the tool.

Developers have access to network management and mapping tools (Fig. 2). The tools provide a high-level view of the system. The network analyzer tracks wireless node activity in real time proving insights for debugging and system optimization.

What about connecting to the cloud?

For Bluetooth Xpress, we offer over the air (OTA) support through the Xpress framework. If Silicon Labs releases a firmware update to Bluetooth Xpress, this signed, encrypted update can be pulled from our cloud with a single framework API. Wi-Fi Xpress products can access the cloud directly to receive firmware updates. Developers can also use this built-in cloud connectivity to perform device health checks in the field and retrieve other key, application specific metrics as well.

In a 45-minute webinar, Jean Labrosse explains everything you need to know about an RTOS. An RTOS is software that manages time and resources of a CPU. RTOSs are practically used in almost every embedded and IoT system.

Click here to register: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3924613694856300300?source=BE-Web 

About Jean Labrosse: 

Jean Labrosse is a software architect at Silicon Labs. Labrosse, an RTOS expert who founded Micrium in 1999, is a regular speaker and panelist at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston and Silicon Valley, and other industry conferences. He is the author of three definitive books and many blogs and articles on embedded design. He holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.

Title: Develop Secure, Interoperable Smart Home Devices with Z-Wave

Date: July 11 & 12, 2018

Duration: 1 hour

Speaker: Johan Pedersen, Product Marketing Manager of Z-Wave

Topic:  Z-Wave is a popular wireless technology for smart home applications with a large ecosystem of interoperable devices, such as smart lighting, energy monitoring, and home security systems. Consumers benefit from Z-Wave’s ease of use and secure interoperability thanks to mandatory product certification and features including SmartStart plug-and-play installation, Security 2 (S2), and backwards compatibility. Adding Z-Wave connectivity to your product is straightforward due to clearly defined software stacks, published device profiles, pre-certified modules, a finished product certification program and development tools that ensure high-quality products get to market fast.

In this webinar, we explore how Z-Wave wireless technology enables easy-to-use, secure, and interoperable products for the smart home market.