Like most chipmakers, Broadcom is looking for new growth in the ‘internet of things’ (IoT), and has released two systems-on-chip for embedding in tiny, low power gadgets. Its products indicate the growing momentum that is growing behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy to be the standard protocols for the IoT space.
There are many wireless connectivity standards vying to dominate machine-to-machine communications. Some, like ZigBee (mainly in industrial automation), and Z-Wave (home systems) were specifically designed for these ultra-low power, low cost applications. Others, like Wi-Fi, have moved in from PCs and handsets, but are squeezing down their power requirements, while bringing their huge ecosystems to the as-yet ill-defined IoT space.
Broadcom has one SoC, the BCM20732, running Bluetooth and specifically targeting low power peripherals that work with Android devices. The other, the BCM4390, supports Wi-Fi and an 8-bit or 16-bit microcontroller ‘ the inclusion of the latter component means the chip can be incorporated in non-wireless products to retrofit them with connectivity, without needing a separate microcontroller.
Both are based on the ARM Cortex M3 platform and hope to find their way into gadgets which have previously not been connected, such as health monitors, door locks and lighting, and which will use a coin-cell battery with a life of over a year.
The Wi-Fi chip supports Broadcom’s WICED (wireless internet connectivity for embedded devices) platform, which ‘ like Qualcomm’s M2M developer initiative ‘ aims to build an ecosystem of simple applications in areas like intelligent lighting control.
Broadcom executives told GigaOM that it will major on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (including Low Energy), because other options have less scale, and therefore higher costs. And though ZigBee is a standard, Broadcom says it is very open to interpretation, so devices do not necessarily interoperate well, whereas Wi-Fi and Bluetooth offer strong interworking and certification, as well as a common platform from high end devices to M2M.