RF solutions company Qorvo announced Monday enhancements to help advance smart home networking with a radio chip and software that significantly expand the ability of consumers to control their homes with spoken commands.
The GP712 radio chip supports multiple communication protocols in a single-chip design suited to connected-home applications. It was introduced earlier this year by GreenPeak Technologies – now Qorvo’s Low Power Wireless business – and is now in production.
When integrated into Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs), the GP712 enables the VPA to respond to voice commands and communicate directly with millions of smart-home devices that use ZigBee and Thread protocols. Previously, a separate gateway was required to connect the VPA speaker with the ZigBee and Thread sentrollers.
VPA-enabled wireless speakers – such as Amazon Echo and Google Home – have microphones that link consumers directly to cloud services using voice commands.
According to ABI Research, more than 120 million voice recognition-enabled devices are forecast to ship annually by 2021.
Qorvo combines product and technology capabilities, systems-level expertise and global manufacturing scale to quickly solve customers’ most complex technical challenges. Qorvo serves diverse high-growth segments of large global markets, including advanced wireless devices, wired and wireless networks and defense radar and communications. It also leverages unique competitive strengths to advance 5G networks, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and other emerging applications that expand the global framework interconnecting people, places and things.
Qorvo’s Low Power Wireless business develops wireless semiconductor system solutions for connected devices, with a broad range of advanced RF chips and software for smart home data communications and the IoT.
“This new capability allows designers to create more capable voice-controlled smart home assistants that directly support a wider variety of devices and standards,” said Cees Links, general manager of Qorvo’s Low Power Wireless business. “It enhances the user experience, advances the Internet of Things (IoT) and brings us closer to the fully networked home.”
