Avnet Electronics Marketing Releases WiLink 8 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low Energy Pmod Adaptor

Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) recently released the WiLink 8 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Pmod Adaptor, a small adaptor card that facilitates the use of Texas Instruments WL1835MODCOM8 (2.4 GHz) and WL1837MODCOM8I (5.0 GHz) wireless evaluation boards for adding Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities to Avnet’s “Zed-series” development boards (ZedBoard, MicroZed, PicoZed and Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC Mini-Module Plus). The adaptor card broadens the spectrum of applications that can be serviced using Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC solutions for next-generation devices in high-demand market segments including Internet of Things (IoT), multimedia, industrial and home automation, security and M2M industrial applications.

WiLink 8 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Pmod Adaptor is available for order through Avnet and costs $34.

The WL1835 COM8 module is FCC/ICC certified with dual onboard chip antennas. The inclusion of uFL connectors for optional external antennas, allows designers to evaluate alternatives for increasing the radio’s range. Sustained high throughput WLAN connectivity is ensured by implementing the host interface between the Zynq processor and the wireless module with a 4-bit-wide SDIO interface clocked at 50 MHz. A UART-based Bluetooth interface is also supported via a separate Pmod-compatible connector.

“With wireless connectivity increasingly expected in embedded devices, designers are challenged with the technical aspects of implementing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and/or BLE within their products. The Avnet-engineered reference designs demonstrate full Linux support of WiLink 8 on Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC devices which opens-up a wide range of wireless connectivity possibilities for developers,” said Peter Fenn, global technical marketing manager for microcontrollers at Avnet Electronics Marketing. “Avnet’s new WiLink 8 Wi-Fi and BT/BLE Pmod Adaptor helps bring together two powerful technologies — TI’s WiLink 8 and Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC solutions. To ensure the quickest possible time to market, our comprehensive documentation walks the developer through the software build process (using Yocto and Xilinx's Open Source Linux distribution), detailing how to add Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and BLE connectivity to boards based on the Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable technology.”

The wireless adaptor card solution includes:

•             Avnet WiLink 8 Wi-Fi and BT/BLE Pmod Adaptor board
•             Downloadable Yocto SDK and applicable scripts for efficient Linux builds
•             QuickStart Card plus comprehensive documentation for download
•             Downloadable Wi-Fi Webserver reference design for MicroZed

The WiLink 8 Wi-Fi and BT/BLE Pmod Adaptor (cost $34.00) is now available for order from Avnet Electronics Marketing. The WiLink 8 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth COM8 Evaluation boards are also orderable from Avnet for both 2.4- and 5-GHz operation with industrial temperature qualification. Further information on the kits can be found at http://microzed.org/product/wilink-8-adaptor.