Freescale has launched the Kinetis KW41Z, said to be the first multimode radio MCU to support concurrent operation of IEEE802.15.4 Thread and Bluetooth Smart/BLE while hosting associated applications.
The KW41Z features up to 512k of flash and 128k of RAM, allowing multiple networking stacks to run on one device. It also supports Bluetooth v4.2, with an on chip balun facilitating wider coverage, better interference immunity, lower power and complexity and fewer RF front end components.
“Freescale is recognised as a longtime industry leader in MCU innovation and we now are building on this leadership by redefining the state-of-the-art for wireless MCU connectivity,” said Emmanuel Sambuis, executive director, MCU and connectivity products, at Freescale. “As the secure Internet of Tomorrow continues to take shape, Freescale is showing the way for the rest of the industry.”
The Kinetis KW41Z MCU is likely to find application in a range of home devices, such as thermostats, home security systems and door locks. Alongside the ability to run applications, it features Thread connectivity, providing the ability to control these systems using a smartphone or tablet via BLE and to use BLE to join devices to the network securely.
The KW41Z is based on an ARM Cortex-M0+ core running at 48MHz and features a 2.4GHz transceiver supporting FSK/GFSK and O-QPSK modulations.
Demonstrations of the device are planned for the forthcoming ARM TechCon event. These will include a BLE controlled robot and a BLE heart rate monitor.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk