On the Internet of Things

Sensinode recently announced support for the next-generation CC2530 radio chip from Texas Instruments.

http://www.sensinode.com/EN/news/sensinode-ltd.-targets-smart-grid-applications.html

This new chip is an exciting development on the SoC front, and compliments the general industry trend towards SoC radio technology. Our Sensinode team is excited about this new chip which gives us much better performance in terms of receiver sensitivity and transmit power (= better range). In addition the processor core has several improvements over the CC2430. The new chip has a huge amount of flash now at 250 kB. Although this may be needed by ZigBee Pro stacks, which are very complex, Sensinode’s NanoStack 2.0 needs only the 64 kB version of the chip. As the CC2530 is available in 128kB, 64kB and 32kB versions – that is a direct cost savings.

The transaction to a new chip generation takes a long time – and the CC2530 is only sampling now. I hope to see Sensinode CC2530-based products late this year. As this is fully compatible with our current 6LoWPAN network products based on the current CC2430 – this transition is a smooth one.

This compliments Sensinode’s earlier announcement for NanoStack 2.0 support for the TI Sub-GHz CC1110 chip, which shows how flexible 6LoWPAN is over various radio technologies. At only 32 kB of ROM and 4 kB or RAM, it also is also shows how small a complete wireless IPv6 stack can get. Sub-Ghz 6LoWPAN networks are extremely interesting in terms incredible range and the avoidance of 2.4GHz interference. In the Smart Metering market, Sub-GHz 6LoWPAN is receiving tremendous interest. New Sub-GHz versions of Sensinode products will be available already 3Q-2009.