Location-Detector SoC for ZigBee from TI

The Chipcon CC2431 from Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, TX, is a SoC with a hardware location engine targeting low-power ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor networking applications. The device's RSSI-based location engine calculates the node's position based on the receive signal strength from CC2430-based reference nodes with known locations. Both the CC2431 and CC2430 combine an RF transceiver core with an enhanced 8051 microcontroller, up to 128 KB of Flash memory, 8 KB of RAM, and other features in a 7 by 7 mm package. The CC2431 can send the location information to a collector (e.g., computer, PDA, or handset). Accuracy of 3–5 m can be achieved in typical applications.