TI expands and unifies its wireless microcontroller portfolio

by Rich Quinnell, EiC, Electronic Products

Developing an IoT product for today's fragmented market often means creating variations on a theme for differing wireless protocols that may be in play. In the home automation market, for instance, customers may already have systems using Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth, or even a proprietary sub-GHz network protocol, and will only want products compatible with their existing system. To help developers address this diversity, Texas Instruments is expanding its SimpleLink wireless MCU product family by adding more wireless options while maintaining application code reuse compatibility across the portfolio.

The most recent expansion to the SimpleLink family involves two next-generation Wi-Fi MCUs. The CC3120 is a network processor, handling all the details of Wi-Fi connectivity, including identity, data, and code security, without requiring any host processor resources. The CC3220 is a superset of the CC3120, integrating a Coretex-M4 host applications processor with the network processor. This integration allows developers to use a single device in their design without needing to work around the network processing functions. This mimics the operation of more traditional two-chip designs by having the host and network processors functionally separated.

Security is rapidly becoming a key concern for IoT developers, TI's SimpleLink product line manager Puny Prakash told Electronic Products in an interview, and the new TI processors help ease that concern. The CC3220 devices each have a unique key built into them to serve as the starting point for data and runtime information protection. By making every device uniquely identifiable, security functions such as private key encryption, key management, authentication, and anti-cloning become much easier.  Prakash added that onboard hardware and TI software tools help abstract key management during development and deployment.

A second IoT developer concern Prakash pointed out is power consumption. “Developers want longer battery life for their wireless IoT devices,” he said, “and even in wired operation low power is desirable.” The SimpleLink devices, he added, offer three power modes: always connected, intermittently connected, and on-demand connectivity. With just two AA batteries, he claimed, a SimpleLink device can operate from one to five years depending on the mode used.

One of the new attributes of the SimpleLink portfolio, Prakash noted, is application code compatibility across all members of the portfolio. Developers can create application software for one device using one wireless standard, then move that code intact over to another device using a different wireless standard. The key, Prakash pointed out, is the work TI has done to provide operating systems, drivers, tools, and a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that decouple the application code from system specifics. A one-time investment with the SimpleLink software development kit (SDK) provides access to the entire portfolio.

Developer support tools available include the SimpleLink SDK, the free CodeComposer Studio IDE, and the LaunchPad and BoosterPack families of development kit hardware. TI also makes available to customers online documentation and software libraries through its Resource Explorer. Online training and sample code is available through TI's SimpleLink Academy.

Currently the SimpleLink portfolio supports integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and sub—GHz wireless as well as providing an application processor with RS-485 connectivity to serve as a host to a stand-alone network processor. TI has indicated that support for Zigbee, Thread, and Ethernet connectivity in the SimpleLink family will be coming soon.