Redpine Signals has launched the most advanced semiconductor chip for building smart home devices at the Connections Conference in San Francisco. The RS9116N-DBT chipset is already in volume production and has been integrated into products from leading consumer manufacturers. The chipset addresses the most important requirements for smart home devices, including simultaneously available multi-protocol wireless connectivity, ultra-low power, high data performance, high level of security, and the capability to run edge intelligence and offer whole home coverage.
Housed in a small 8.8 x 8 mm BGA package, the RS9116N-DBT integrates an ARM Cortex M4 MCU, advanced hardware security, and multiple wireless protocols at an industry-leading power consumption point. It contains protocol stacks for Wi-Fi, BT, BLE, ZigBee and Thread, and includes automated mesh formation and reconfiguration capability to provide robust, whole-home coverage. The chipset includes a unique wireless wake-up receiver that remains on at a few microamps of current and is ready to wake up the rest of the device only when required, triggered by specific incoming wireless signals.
Redpine's RS9116N-DBT consumes less than 113 uA for maintaining a cloud connection over Wi-Fi. Redpine claims that this power consumption is one-fifth to one-fifteenth that of other chipsets in the market. According to a Tolly Report earlier this year, in a battery operated smart device, the RS9116N-DBT can provide four years of battery life compared to roughly seven months when using an alternative SoC. The SoC provides simultaneous operation of multiple wireless protocols – thereby enabling router functionality in addition to that of an end node. This makes a device using this SoC capable of switching from being an end node to a router – providing maximum flexibility in a home and ensuring non-stop network coverage. In addition, the ability to stream data at up to 100 Mbps combined with its compatibility with all generations of Wi-Fi – up to Wi-Fi 6, enables the RS9116N-DBT to enhance the overall connectivity experience in the smart home of tomorrow.
With Artificial Intelligence becoming a prominent part of most smart systems, there is a strong need to have appliances and edge devices capable of carrying out analytics and inference of situations themselves. The RS9116N-DBT provides a number of power-efficient and hardware-assisted ML functions to enable the next generation of smart applications while preserving low operational latency and low power consumption.
The RS9116N-DBT is in volume production now. Click here to learn more about this chipset.