Dialog Semiconductor has released a new Wi-Fi SoC targeted at battery-powered IoT devices such as smart door locks, video monitoring systems, smart thermostats, and wireless sensors enabling direct connectivity to Wi-Fi networks, with a battery life of greater than one year. The FC9000 is Dialog’s first Wi-Fi SoC to be released since the closing of the acquisition of Silicon Motion’s Mobile Communications product line on May 31, 2019.
Previously, devices running on Zigbee, ZWave or Bluetooth standards needed to be paired with an expensive and cumbersome gateway or smartphone to enable connectivity to the cloud, adding complexity and unnecessary costs for IoT adoption. The introduction of the FC9000 overcomes these issues as we move towards a Wi-Fi ubiquitous world.
According to Sean McGrath, Senior VP & GM of Dialog Semiconductor’s Connectivity and Audio Business Group, the FC9000, is the first product in the company’s new VirtualZero product line, that complements their existing portfolio of leading Bluetooth low energy SoC’s for connected devices and represents next IoT connectivity innovation to pass on to its customers. The Wi-Fi device is the first in a series that Dialog plans to launch to solve major pain points for both manufacturers and end-users around IoT network compatibility and power consumption.
The FC9000’s proprietary power-saving algorithms set a new industry power benchmark, which allows it to operate on just a few microamps, increasing overall battery life for end-devices. Venstar, a leading energy management system supplier and one of the largest global thermostat suppliers, is utilizing the FC9000. According to Steve Dushane, the CEO for Venstar, thanks to Dialog’s new SoC, their customers are enjoying a more efficient, reliable Wi-Fi sensor and over a year of battery life. Being first to market with this technology has also given the company a significant competitive advantage.
The new SoC also features a separate hardware accelerated encryption engine that increases the speed of Wi-Fi encryption, such as WPA2-Enterprise and Personal. This support also extends to higher layer commercial grade security encryption, such as TLS, for enabling HTTPs, the modern standard for website security. The FC9000 is a full offload system for Wi-Fi networking, running the end device’s application code alongside its own. It does not require an external network processor or microcontroller but can operate alongside a microcontroller if desired. The SDK included with the device allows for rapid design implementation with a generous provision of 1.6 MB of SRAM on-board memory.
The FC9000 SoC is in volume production today and available as a SoC or integrated module. Both are Wi-Fi Certified. The modules are FCC, IC, and CE certified for worldwide operation. For more information, click here.
