Last week at CES we had a great time visiting the Texas Instruments Wireless Group. We met up with Heather Ailara. Heather is the Media Relations Manager for TI’s Worldwide Wireless Communications Wireless Business Unit. Heather introduced us to Matt Kurtz, the worldwide platforms and channel marketing manager for TI’s wireless connectivity solutions business unit.
Matt introduced us to a new definition of a term that I have been using for sometime now; “connected devices”. Matt’s definition was very different than mine. When I speak of connected devices, I think of tablets and smart phones and things like this. When Matt speaks of connected devices, he is speaking of crocks pots. Yes I said it, crock pots.
Texas Instruments introduced us to a platform of low cost, low power products that are going to re-shape our future. One of the products is the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 chipset supporting the IEEE802.11 b/g standard for WiFi connectivity. This chipset is uniquely designed for the special purpose of running in conjunction with low cost, low power Texas Instruments microcontrollers.
The demonstration that really caught my attention was the operation of a Hamilton Beach crock pot from a smart phone. With phone in hand Matt was able to turn the crock pot on or off and or adjust cook settings. Come on, I am on the ski slopes enjoying my day when I realize I want the meatballs to be ready in time for some apres ski spaghetti and meatballs. Whip out my iPhone and boom, meatballs on! I realize this may seem funny, but think of what the future holds. In time, virtually every device in our home will have the ability to be controlled remotely through our tablets or smart phones or whatever means you use to connect to the internet.
Matt called it ubiquitous connectivity. Texas Instruments is offering a complete solution that is easy to integrate, low power, low memory foot print and not so MIPS-intensive. We speak of application processors in our smart phones running at 1.x GHz. To implement this solution, we need only speak of 25 MHz and a 16 bit MCU.
When we had a chance to sit down and ask some questions, I jumped to the conclusion that these devices we being fabbed on older lines at TI on process nodes like 0.18 um or 0.25 um. But Matt surprised me. These devices are being fabbed on 65 nm low power CMOS at their foundries like UMC and TSMC and others.
This was a surprise, but when you think about it, using a node like 65 nm, you get lower power, more die per wafer, smaller foot print and lower cost. And with a smaller node like this, you can hard code the WiFi software stack into ROM, taking the load off the MCU, and removing the need for high-end processors. Perfect for an application that could run into the hundreds of millions or even billions.
This is an area of growth for Texas Instruments. This device is only the start of a roadmap – they see it as an investment in the future and hope that it will be a big percentage of their revenue in the years to come. I can see TI’s revenue portfolio looking very different in 2015 and beyond! I can see Texas Instruments doing just this. Who else can offer so much to deliver these emerging connectivity solutions? TI has the biggest portfolio of wireless technology, proven hardware, leading edge MCU’s, and world-wide support.
TI's portfolio for emerging connectivity solutions
This will take time to trickle into our home. I for one am looking forward to a future where I can control my home, truly, from my smart phone. I think I may look into getting an evaluation kit so I can retrofit my crock pot now, so I can get those meatballs cooking.
