Microchip readies ZigBee RF4CE protocol and XLP compliant platform

The platform consists of Microchip's nanoWatt XLP eXtreme Low Power PIC microcontrollers, the MRF24J40 IEEE 802.15.4 transceivers and FCC-certified modules, and the industry's smallest memory footprint ZigBee RF4CE certified protocol stack.

In addition to low power consumption, the compliant PIC XLP microcontrollers offer a wide range of integrated peripherals for capacitive touch sensing, USB and a host of analog functions. Free software is also provided to enable these peripherals, including Microchip's USB stacks and libraries, and mTouch sensing software. Together with its IEEE 802.15.4 compliant 2.4 GHz MRF24J40 transceiver and agency certified transceiver modules, Microchip provides a highly efficient, cost-effective, platform for implementing the new RF4CE protocol in RF-enabled remote controls and equipment.

Microchip offers a wide range of tools for development with the PIC XLP microcontrollers, including the free MPLAB IDE, the MPLAB REAL ICE emulation system, the MPLAB ICD 3 in-circuit debugger, the PICkit 3 low-cost debugger/programmer and Microchip's free C compilers. All of these tools are available today at www.microchip.com/get/V6RM.

Microchip's certified RF4CE protocol stack is currently available to Beta program participants, with general availability planned for March. The MRF24J40 transceiver and FCC certified modules are available today, as are the compliant families of PIC XLP microcontrollers. For additional information, click here.

Technical Paper: Challenges in capturing and analyzing ZigBee RF4CE networks

Microchip Technology Inc., www.microchip.com