Next-generation platform comes to ZigBee

A new generation of wireless semiconductors and software aims to help companies create ZigBee-compliant wireless products significantly faster, easier and more profitably.

The next generation of wireless semiconductors and software unveiled by Ember Corporation aims to help companies create ZigBee-compliant wireless products significantly faster, easier and more profitably than current first-generation offerings.

Today's announcement includes the EM250, the world's first ZigBee "system-on-a-chip;" Ember's second-generation ZigBee software stack called EmberZNet 2.0 (which is also its fifth generation mesh networking stack); as well as new software tools for rapid application development and debugging.

ZigBee is a wireless network standard that solves the unique needs of remote monitoring and control, and sensor network applications.

The Ember EM250 is the first 802.15.4-based semiconductor system built to be ZigBee compliant that integrates a programmable microprocessor, RF radio, network protocol stack and memory into a tiny, single-chip solution.

Until now, ZigBee systems have only been available as multi-chip solutions.

Multi-chip solutions will still play a role in certain larger, processor-intensive ZigBee applications.

Consequently, Ember will unveil a new dual-chip ZigBee solution at the upcoming ZigBee Open House in Oslo, Norway, 15th June 2005 to offer a full family of hardware platforms.

Measuring smaller than a shirt button (7mm on a side), the 2.4GHz EM250 offers OEMs and systems integrators building ZigBee-enabled products dramatic reductions in component size, cost and power consumption.

Moreover, the chip's diminutive size and power needs enable ZigBee capabilities to be embedded into products never before possible.

In addition, the EM250 solution set enables for the first time a ZigBee-compliant network node with "location awareness", which allows for easier commissioning, management and network subsegmentation.

The EM250 also has the highest RF output and Rx sensitivity for power consumed than competitive ZigBee products.

Ember's new hardware is complemented by EmberZNet 2.0, a major new release of Ember's networking stack featuring a number of Ember enhancements that extend ZigBee functionality, simplicity and performance.

Beyond full support for the ZigBee standard, EmberZNet 2.0 supports application profiles for home controls as well as user-defined network applications.

It also features an Ember transport layer to provide more reliable wireless communications between nodes and enable distributed bindings.

The Ember transport layer, along with Ember's application programming interface (API), also makes it easy for Ember's existing customers to port their EmberNet applications to the new ZigBee platform.

Using the same familiar API they've already mastered, they can migrate their applications to a ZigBee-compliant version with minimal changes and development costs.

Future upgrades to their products can be easily deployed with EmberZNet's over-the-air bootloader.

For example, Ember customer Raymarine is porting its family of wireless autopilot systems for sports boats to the new Ember platform to create a novel ZigBee-compliant solution that lets fishermen control their vessels wirelessly, even away from the helm.

"Ember offered the speed and convenience of a fully integrated ZigBee platform solution - radio chips, networking software and development environment - that enabled us to meet an aggressive product development cycle", said Kieran Breheny, Director of Engineering Development at Raymarine.

New tools In addition to Ember's new single-chip ZigBee solution, the company fortified its development kit with a number of unique software tools to further accelerate customers' time to market.

Ember WorkBench provides a suite of tools for developing and debugging embedded ZigBee applications.

It combines an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with distributed network debugging and visualisation tools.

Developers can connect to their target devices, effortlessly control their application, upload firmware and collect debugging information across multiple devices simultaneously.

Built-in protocol analysis and traffic visualisation engines allow developers to correlate events occurring on their devices with network communication events, dramatically slashing development times.

Ember's new single-chip platform enables self-organising, self-healing wireless networks on which ZigBee applications can be easily built and deployed.

According to Harbor Research analyst Glen Allmendinger, ZigBee-based technology like Ember's will transform public and private life more than any computing development since the PC.

"ZigBee is a major advance over earlier approaches to wireless device networking, and will be a crucial enabler throughout this decade, not only in the home, but in many other markets as well", he said.

"Ember's ability to shrink an entire ZigBee system on to a tiny, low power chip will accelerate the ubiquity of the technology by making it easier and inexpensive for manufacturers to ZigBee-enable their products".

Ember's ZigBee system is designed to be particularly well suited for low-power, low-data-rate applications that help buildings consume less energy, improve industries' environmental impact, and make homes safer and more comfortable.

The EM250/EmberZNet platform is already being designed into applications for home control and monitoring, asset tracking, automatic meter reading, and personal healthcare monitoring, to name a few.

"Ember is building the pervasive standard for embedded wireless networking", said Jeff Grammer, Ember's President and CEO.

"Our next-generation platform is based on years of extensive wireless networking experience from real-world implementations".

"The new platform gives OEMs a fully integrated, one-stop-shop solution that shields them from everything except what they do best: building applications".

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