Silicon Labs, renowned for its innovative energy-efficient solutions under the brand name "Gecko," has recently broadened its EFM32® Gecko MCU series with the introduction of the EFM32GG11 Giant Gecko MCU family. These new additions aim to deliver enhanced performance, expanded features, and reduced power consumption, making them ideal for a wide array of industrial-grade applications. Known for its NASDAQ listing as SLAB, Silicon Labs continues to push boundaries in the semiconductor industry.
The EFM32GG11 Giant Gecko MCUs stand out in the low-power MCU market due to their cutting-edge capabilities. They cater specifically to industries like smart metering, asset tracking, building automation, wearable tech, and personal health care. These MCUs operate at peak speeds of up to 72 MHz, boast substantial memory capacity, and are equipped with advanced peripherals and hardware accelerators. Additionally, they come bundled with comprehensive software tools, including Micrium® OS, which is highly regarded in the industry.
As the Internet of Things (IoT) becomes increasingly intricate, there’s a growing demand for MCUs capable of handling multiple sensors, complex user interfaces, sophisticated algorithms, and robust wireless protocols while maintaining energy efficiency. The Giant Gecko MCUs rise to this challenge by offering superior integration, performance, and power-saving capabilities.
Tom Pannell, the senior director of IoT products at Silicon Labs, emphasized the groundbreaking nature of these MCUs: “Giant Gecko MCUs bring a level of user experience that was previously achievable only by high-power MCUs. Evolving from the ten-year legacy of Gecko, this new family represents a monumental leap forward in terms of performance, functionality, and design flexibility for developers.â€
Key features of the Giant Gecko family include:
- ARM® Cortex®-M4 processor cores tailored for performance-heavy applications.
- The highest on-chip memory capacity among similar MCUs, reaching up to 2 MB of flash and 512 KB of RAM, enabling larger code sizes, enhanced debugging, OTA updates, data logging, and rich graphical interfaces.
- Support for SD/MMC and Octal/Quad-SPI memory interfaces to accommodate storage-intensive tasks.
- Rapid wake-up/sleep transitions and a low-power architecture that allows for independent sensor input access and autonomous peripheral operations.
- Remarkable energy efficiency with active mode drawing just 77 μA/MHz and deep sleep mode consuming only 1.6 μA.
In terms of connectivity, the Giant Gecko MCUs offer a variety of communication interfaces and controllers:
- A 10/100 Ethernet MAC for IP-based industrial control.
- A WiFi module compatible with the SDIO interface for IP-based wireless cloud connections.
- Single or dual CAN bus controllers designed for industrial control.
- A free-crystal USB controller for cost-effective, ultra-low power USB connectivity.
- TFT LCD display drivers with pixel-blended overlay (Alphablending) and ultra-low power segment LCD drivers for enhanced user interfaces.
- A capacitive sensing engine that simplifies touch application development by offering powerful touch inputs and ultra-low-power touch wake-up.
Security is another strong point of the Giant Gecko family. These MCUs provide a secure and reliable platform for developing applications that utilize top-tier encryption algorithms. Features include an energy-efficient security accelerator for faster and more efficient execution of advanced algorithms compared to traditional software methods. There's also a Security Management Unit (SMU) for precise peripheral access control and a NIST-certified True Random Number Generator (TRNG) for superior randomness.
The Giant Gecko MCUs are available in QFN, QFP, and BGA packages, with options for up to 192 pins. Many of these packages are pin-compatible with existing EFM32 MCUs, ensuring seamless integration into current projects. Compatibility extends to the entire EFM32 MCU and EFR32 Wireless Gecko SoC families, maximizing software reuse and minimizing development time and costs.
Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio development tools provide robust support for Gecko MCUs. Developers gain one-click access to all necessary resources within a unified, Eclipse-based environment. Tools include graphical configuration utilities, advanced energy monitoring, network analysis, capacitive touch configuration, and software examples. Native support for Micrium OS makes it easier than ever for developers to leverage Micrium tools via Simplicity Studio.
Regarding pricing and availability, engineering samples of the EFM32GG11 Giant Gecko MCU are now ready for mass production in Q1 2018. Pricing starts at $5.66 for quantities of 10,000. Additionally, the SLSTK3701A Giant Gecko development kit is available at a suggested retail price of $99.99. To place orders for engineering samples or development kits, visit [website URL].
This latest advancement from Silicon Labs underscores their commitment to innovation and meeting the evolving needs of the modern IoT landscape.
Ac Controller
What is a wireless AC controller? What does it do?
Wireless AC controller is a kind of network device, such as the AC100/150 of Fengrunda, which can be used to centrally control and manage wireless aps. It is the core of a wireless network and is responsible for managing all wireless aps in the wireless network. AP management includes: delivering configuration, modifying related configuration parameters, RF intelligent management, and access security control.
Why use a wireless controller, and what exactly does it do?
In fact, the role of the wireless controller is to play a gateway function between the WLAN and the Internet (on the router), and the data from different access points are aggregated and accessed to the Internet. The role of an access point (AP) is to complete wireless access, and it can control user access through network flags.
The role of wireless controllers
1, Flexible networking mode and excellent scalability
The AP does not need to be directly connected to the AC, so that the AP can be deployed in any place that needs to be covered through the network, such as you deploy an AP in each employee's home, and then connect to the wireless controller inside the enterprise through the VPN, you can expand the wireless network of the enterprise to the family of each enterprise member.
2, intelligent RF management functions, automatic deployment and fault recovery
Through the dedicated RF management module, we can initially estimate the AP deployment according to the user's architectural design drawing, and can calculate the average bandwidth of the wireless terminal, the coverage between AP and AP in the actual debugging process.
3. Centralized network management
All the configuration of the wireless network can be completed by configuring the wireless controller. For example, enable, manage, and maintain all AP devices and mobile terminals, including all functions such as radio wave spectrum, wireless security, access authentication, mobile roaming, and access users.
4, powerful roaming function support
The wireless controller uses AP as the boundary combined with fast RF management system, which greatly reduces the connection time between wireless client and AP, and thus realizes the function of fast roaming.
5. Load balancing
AP and wireless controller systems can distribute wireless users or terminals to nearby aps within the coverage area of an AP, ensuring the number of each wireless terminal or the sum of AP bandwidth transmission or the upper limit of each wireless terminal bandwidth.
6, wireless terminal positioning, rapid fault location and intrusion detection
Wireless controllers can track and locate the location of wireless terminals, such as wirelessly connected computers, PDAs and Wi-Fi mobile phones.
7, powerful access and security policy control
At present, the wireless system supports authentication of 802.1, WEB authentication, MAC, SSID, VPN, etc., and supports various encryption modes such as WEP, WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2, etc., and all configurations can be configured globally through the wireless controller.
8, Qos support
AP and wireless switching systems can limit the maximum bandwidth of a user's wireless connection within each user's privileges. For different IP services, the system can also define different QoS queues through the wireless switch module. For example, for wireless voice applications, SIP and RTP protocols can be set in the high queue, while common applications such as http and ftp can be set in the low queue.
The wireless controller AC is more advanced than the AP, plays the role of manager in the wireless network, and the wireless controller AC also acts as a client to complete a series of functions in the wired network (such as authentication, authentication, etc.). However, wireless controller AC is not a WLAN device specified in the 802.11 protocol family, but as a supplement to the protocol in specific applications, and its price far exceeds that of ordinary access point (AP) devices.
In small-scale wireless networks that use only a few aps, it is not economical to use expensive wireless controller AC equipment. However, if the number of wireless aps is large, more than 20 can be used AC controller.
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Shenzhen MovingComm Technology Co., Ltd. , https://www.movingcommtech.com