Sheffield, U.K. -- Jennic announced that it has become "the first semiconductor company to make both its ZigBee network stack object library and all associated support—including user guides, programming, and reference manuals—and application notes publicly available online on its support Web site. Together with the company's wireless microcontrollers, modules, and development kits, which include reference designs and applications, the new support capability has been launched to help make ZigBee easy to adopt by network and product developers for home, building, and industrial automation applications.
Jim Lindop, CEO of Jennic commented, "We have a broad geographic base of customers who want to quickly develop ZigBee-enabled products but with minimal effort in order to achieve fast time-to-market objectives. This customer demand and the wide variety of diverse applications can be met more easily using our wireless microcontroller, freely available software development tools, and public access to a ZigBee network stack."
He added, "With the public support site, offering a simple library and making ZigBee understandable, we have a great infrastructure that can support many new customers per month, and we can easily expect to have thousands of developers taking advantage of this online facility. We believe that ZigBee products can only get to mass-market adoption if customers are able to get single-chip products like ours off-the-shelf, and they don't have to pay for both tweaks to the product and for training and field support. It should all be made easy for them."
"Developers want the ability to easily understand what ZigBee wireless can do for their application and then try it out, rather than be faced with complex solutions," says Lindop.
The ZigBee network stack available on the Web site can be evaluated on Jennic's JN5121-EK010 developer kit and the wireless application programmed onto chips and modules supplied by Jennic. Priced at $1299 and available ex-stock from Jennic's distributors, the kit contains all the software tools and hardware required to develop and monitor wireless sensor network products, including the ZigBee network stack.
About Jennic
Jennic is a fabless semiconductor company leading the wireless connectivity revolution into new applications. Its expertise in systems and software combined with world class RF and digital chip design provides low-cost, highly integrated silicon solutions for the low-power, short-range wireless data market, with a focus on the IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee standards. The company's products include low-power wireless microcontrollers, modules, and low-cost development platforms. Headquartered in Sheffield, U.K., and employing over 70 people, Jennic is privately held and has a track record of successful silicon chip development for wireless applications over the last nine years. For more information, visit the company's Web site.