Microchip Intros ZigBee Alternative

Microchip Technology Inc http://www.microchip.com. is covering all of its personal area networking bases. The company today will make a trio of IEEE 802.15.4 announcements, including its MiWi protocol, a free, small-footprint protocol developed internally.    Without

looking to replace ZigBee, the company’s aim with MiWi is to provide an alternative to the interoperability protocol with a smaller stack and at a lower cost for customers that have more specific needs and want to use IEEE 802.15.4 transceivers in peer-to-peer, star and mesh networks.   “When ZigBee was originally developed, the whole idea was low-cost, low-power, small footprint protocol stack that was easy to use. Some people would not interpret it to have those features today,” Rodger Richey, applications manager for Microchip's advanced microcontroller architecture division, said. “As the [ZigBee] Alliance grew in the number of members, the number of different features people wanted got integrated into the stack and it kind of became the Swiss Army knife of wireless protocols. That’s good for a lot of applications, for example those that need a lot of interoperability … and very large networks. But in working with customers, we found a gap between ZigBee and something for those who do not need interoperability for a proprietary system.”   MiWi, as Richey describes, is simply a way to provide basic network formation routing capabilities and data to the application.   “You may only need the screwdriver, not the corkscrew or the knife. This is a way for customers to satisfy individual need,” he said.   Unlike ZigBee, no certification is required for MiWi protocol systems, which is provided under a free license, when the combination of Microchip's microcontrollers and MRF24J40 transceiver -- the company’s first RF transceiver, also announced today -- is used.   With the 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver, Microchip can offer a complete ZigBee protocol platform, the company said, noting that its radio also offers low power consumption and performance that exceeds all IEEE 802.15.4 specifications, with full media access controller (MAC) support and an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware encryption engine.   In addition, the Chandler, Ariz.-based company announced the ZENA wireless network analyzer tool for further development of ZigBee protocol systems. ZENA, available now, uses a simple graphical interface to configure the Microchip ZigBee and MiWi protocol stacks for reduced code size of the stacks by removing optional features and customization of the stack to fit a particular need, the company said.   Consisting of both hardware and software, the ZENA wireless network analyzer is an IEEE 802.15.4 protocol analyzer that is capable of decoding ZigBee and MiWi protocol packets. The tool augments Microchip’s existing IEEE 802.15.4 development tools, including the PICDEM Z 2.4GHz demonstration kit, an evaluation and development platform for IEEE 802.15.4 application designers. The kit includes all of the hardware, software source code and printed circuit board layout files needed to rapidly prototype wireless products, Microchip claimed.    Microchip has been working on 802.15.4 since 2000 http://www.microchip.com/zigbee and is a member of the ZigBee Alliance http://www.zigbee.org/en/index.asp.