GainSpan Announces Sampling of GS2000 Family of Wi-Fi/ZigBee IP Chips and Modules

Targeted at Connected Home, Smart Energy, Metering, Healthcare and High-speed Audio, Video and Security applications

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GainSpan Corporation

Aug 21, 2013, 11:00 ET

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- GainSpan® Corporation, a leader in ultra-low power Wi-Fi connectivity for the Internet of Things, announced it is sampling its new family of GS2000 chips and modules.  The GS2000 is the industry's first single chip solution bringing together two IEEE low power standard wireless technologies: Wi-Fi® (802.11b/g/n) and ZigBee IP (802.15.4). The new Wi-Fi/ZigBee IP chip will accelerate development and market adoption of a whole new class of battery and line-powered connected devices for the Connected Home, Smart Energy, metering, healthcare and high-speed audio, video and security applications. 

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With the GS2000, device and appliance manufacturers no longer have to design for one or the other protocols, but can use the same SOC to develop a design that supports either ZigBee IP and/or Wi-Fi, with IPv4 or IPv6, all in the same product—at no additional cost.

By incorporating Wi-Fi and ZigBee, which support both IPv4 and IPv6 devices, the GS2000 extends IP connectivity everywhere. Wi-Fi brings local connectivity to smartphones and remote connectivity through the Internet. It leverages the extensive installed base of Wi-Fi access points and hotspots. ZigBee IP extends the reach of IP to more battery operated devices, through the use of smaller channelization and meshing.

The GS2000 is also ideal for "Wi-Fi only" applications, thanks to its best-in-class Wi-Fi performance.  It offers multi Mbps throughput for high-definition video and audio applications, unmatched idle power consumption combined with fast wake up performance from idle state for the longest battery life for a Wi-Fi device and high receiver sensitivity capability for extended range operation. 

A highly integrated System-on-a-Chip (SoC), the GS2000 contains multi-standard RF as well as both 802.11b/g/n and 802.15.4 PHY/MAC functionality, dual ARM® Cortex® -M3 processors, networking stack and services, and large memory size to support various application profiles—all on a single silicon die. It supports Wi-Fi WLAN software, ZigBee IP-- which is based upon 6LoWPAN--and IP based addressing and methods over both 802.11 and 802.15.4 wireless standards. With its dual mode IPv4/IPv6 networking stack and services, the solution offers the flexibility to support applications with no microcontroller host, with low cost resource constrained 8 / 16 bits microcontrollers as well as with 32 bits hosts

"Only Wi-Fi and ZigBee IP provide for and support IP addressing and methods, extending these Internet protocols directly to a device or sensor," said Greg Winner, president and CEO, GainSpan. "To deliver on the vision of the Internet of Things, range, power consumption, ease of deployment and network management are often more critical than other factors. The GS2000 addresses line powered as well as battery operated applications cost effectively, both necessary to achieve that vision."

The GS2000 extends GainSpan's leadership from personal healthcare and fitness and smart energy applications to new segments such as metering and high-quality video and audio applications used in consumer and home automation products. 

Feature Highlights

  • Multi-mode capability
    • Complete Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n with Space Time Block Coding) and ZigBee IP on a  single die
    • Support for dual stack IPv4 and IPv6
    • Support for Station/Client Mode, Limited Access Point for easy provisioning or connecting to smartphones, Wi-Fi Direct™, and Wi-Fi Direct with concurrent mode
  • Best-in-Class Performance:
    • 802.11 b/g/n chips and modules with multi Mbps throughput over SDIO, SPI or UART
    • Unmatched idle power consumption with fast wake up
    • High receiver sensitivity capability
  • Extensive networking stack and services
    • Personal and enterprise security, embedded DHCP, DNS and HTTP(S) clients and servers, XML parser, service and device discovery, easy provisioning, and OTA firmware updates
    • Supports SEP2.0, OpenADR and ECHONET Lite for Smart Energy Applications

Availability
Samples of the GS2000 Wi-Fi/ ZigBee IP combo SOC and modules as well as evaluation and development kits are currently shipping, with volume shipments expected later this year.   

About GainSpan Corporation
GainSpan, a spinoff of Intel Corporation, is an innovator and leader in enabling the Internet of Things through its wireless connectivity solutions. With a broad portfolio of ultra-low power Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/ZigBee IP chips, modules and software, GainSpan allows customers to quickly and easily add connectivity to products targeting the Connected Home, Smart Energy, Healthcare, High-quality Audio and Video consumer applications as well as industrial and commercial control/monitoring applications. GainSpan is a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance® and ZigBee Alliance.  www.gainspan.com.
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/gainspan
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/gainspan
LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/company/308585

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SOURCE GainSpan Corporation