By Mikko Savolainen, Senior Manager, Industrial and Commercial IoT Products, Silicon Labs Since opening the Global Positioning System (GPS) for civilian use in the 1980s, GPS technology has become a mainstream and de facto solution for outdoor positioning and asset tracking, finding its way first from commercial airplanes to smartphones and smartwatches to match-box-sized GPS […]
Simplifying product returns through device security
by Oivind Loe, Chief Technology Officer, Sipsby.com, and Josh Norem, Staff Systems Design Engineer, Silicon Labs Product returns for Internet of Things (IoT) devices can be challenging. On the one hand, connected the device should be locked down as much as possible when going out to the field. On the other hand, when a device […]
PCI Express Gen 5 clocks and buffers lead in performance and power
Silicon Labs has introduced a comprehensive portfolio of timing solutions that provide best-in-class jitter performance to meet the latest generation PCI Express (PCIe) 5.0 specification with significant design margin. The Si5332 any-frequency clock family generates PCIe Gen 5 reference clocks with jitter performance of 140 fs RMS, optimizing PCIe SerDes performance while meeting the Gen […]
Clock IC,quartz-crystal reference combined in the same package
Silicon Labs has expanded its Si5332 any-frequency clock portfolio with new versions combining the clock IC and a quartz crystal reference inside the same package, simplifying board layout and design. The all-in-one Si5332 solution guarantees reliable start-up and operation over the lifetime of the product, unlike traditional solutions that source the clock IC and crystal […]
Software option simplifies in-field set-up of sub-GHz IoT devices
Silicon Labs has released new software options for its Wireless Gecko portfolio, enabling simultaneous sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) connectivity on a single chip. This Silicon Labs solution enables commercial and industrial IoT applications to combine long-range sub-GHz communications with Bluetooth connectivity, simplifying device setup, data gathering and maintenance. By avoiding the complexity […]
New study benchmarks Zigbee, Thread, and Bluetooth network protocols
Silicon Labs has released the industry’s first comprehensive network performance results based on large-scale, multicast testing of Zigbee, Thread , nd Bluetooth mesh software. Each mesh networking protocol presents unique characteristics and advantages, depending on the use case and end application. All testing was conducted at Silicon Labs’ Boston design center using the company’s Wireless Gecko […]
Wi-Fi devices cut power in half, bring security to battery-powered IoT applications
Given the crowded field and reasonably mature market of Wi-Fi, it is noteworthy that Silicon Laboratories recently introduced a new Wi-Fi portfolio aimed at simplifying the design of power-sensitive, battery-operated Wi-Fi products including IP security cameras, point-of-sale (PoS) terminals and consumer healthcare devices. Siddharth Sundar, Design Manager at Silicon Labs, explained, “We look at Wi-Fi from a different […]
I2C-programmable XOs provide superior jitter performance for 100/200/400G apps
A new family of high-performance I2C-programmable crystal oscillators (XOs) are said to deliver best-in-class jitter performance and frequency flexibility. With typical jitter performance as low as 95 fsec, the Si544/Si549 Ultra Series programmable XOs maximize jitter margin for clocking high-speed 28 Gbps and 56 Gbps transceivers used in 100/200/400G communications and data center applications. The […]
Biometric sensors include advanced heart monitoring and ECG
Capturing your heart rate from your wearable watch or patch was slick. But fitness enthusiasts are raising the bar and expecting manufacturers to step up to the bar with them. As wearables continue to move into consumer health applications, end users are expecting additional metrics such as heart rate variability, recovery rate — basically as […]
USB Type-C reference design simplifies design of lithium ion battery packs
Silicon Labs has introduced a comprehensive reference design to simplify the development of USB Type-C rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs used to power smartphones, tablets, laptops, headphones and other portable devices. The reference design includes everything developers need to create dual-role port (DRP) applications with USB Type-C power delivery (PD), accelerating the development of new USB Type-C […]
