Cypress Semiconductor announced Tuesday a new wireless solution that delivers advanced coexistence combining 802.11ac high-performance Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for IoT applications. The highly integrated Cypress CYW4373 solution incorporates a USB 2.0 hub that provides a common WLAN and Bluetooth interface. The combo solution is ideal for smart home products and network peripherals such as home appliances and printers.
Wi-Fi networks powered by 802.11ac simultaneously deliver low-latency and high-speed with secure device authentication, making it the ideal wireless technology to connect directly to the cloud. Cypress’ 802.11ac solutions use high-speed transmissions to enable IoT devices with faster downloads and better range, as well as lower power consumption by exploiting deep sleep modes. The CYW4373 solution is supported in Cypress’ all-inclusive, turnkey, WICED Studio IoT development platform, which streamlines integration of wireless technologies for developers.
The Cypress CYW54907 802.11ac microcontroller (MCU) integrates a high-performance 320-MHz ARM® Cortex®-R4 application processor and an advanced 802.11ac subsystem. This dual-band solution offers bridging for IoT gateways and synchronized streaming audio solutions. Both solutions feature a dual-band 2.4- and 5-GHz radio with 20-, 40- and 80-MHz channels with up to 433 Mbps performance.
Add lightning-fast Wi-Fi to the IoT device using Cypress’s next generation WICED Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combo solutions. Leveraging the the power of IEEE 802.11ac WLAN, these solutions provide up to 837 Mbps PHY data rates and up to 2×2 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) support. All 802.11ac WLAN +Bluetooth combo solutions come with driver support to work with Linux on external applications processors.
Cypress supports WICED Wi-Fi customers through its global network of IoT partners using production-ready, fully-certified modules based on the SoC families showcased below. Modules are available with both internal and external antennas along with a range of range of digital interfaces like PCIe, HSIC, SDIO, gSPI for Wi-Fi and HCI-over UART/USB for Bluetooth. In addition, several modules integrate dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) power amplifiers (PA) that meet the output power requirements of embedded systems, low-noise amplifiers (LNA) for best-in-class receiver sensitivity, and internal transmit/receive (iTR) RF switches, further reducing the overall solution cost and printed circuit board area. Optional antenna diversity also allows for improved RF performance in difficult environments.
The Cypress WICED Studio IoT development platform features an integrated and interoperable wireless software development kit (SDK). The SDK includes rigorously tested Wi-Fi and Bluetooth protocol stacks, as well as simplified application programming interfaces that free developers from needing to learn complex wireless technologies. In line with the IoT trend toward dual-mode connectivity, the SDK supports Cypress’ Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination solutions and its Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy devices. The SDK enables cloud connectivity in minutes with its robust libraries that uniquely integrate popular cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, IBM Bluemix, Alibaba Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, along with services from private cloud partners.
Cypress’ WICED Studio connectivity suite is microcontroller (MCU)-agnostic and provides ready support for a variety of third-party MCUs to address the needs of complex IoT applications. The platform also enables cost efficient solutions for simple IoT applications by integrating MCU functionality into the connectivity device. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth protocol stacks can run transparently on a host MCU or in embedded mode, allowing for flexible platform architectures with common firmware.
“A wide range of smart home and portable electronics applications are adding 802.11ac high-performance Wi-Fi to connect to the cloud due to its ability to manage fast connections and provide cleaner air, while also supporting low-power operation,” said Brian Bedrosian, vice president of marketing for the IoT Business Unit at Cypress. “Cypress’ 802.11ac combo solutions enable coexistence with Bluetooth in the crowded 2.4-GHz band, providing audio, video and voice control applications with high fidelity, even in multi-user environments.”
The CYW4373 combo solution features a dual-band 2.4- and 5-GHz radio with dynamic channel selection of 20-, 40- and 80-MHz channels, supporting up to 433 Mbps performance, and it includes a separate Bluetooth/BLE 4.2 subsystem. The solution simplifies system design with a common USB hub or shared SDIO interface to the system host controller.
The CYW4373 802.11ac solution is currently sampling to lead customers with full production expected later this year.
