Synapse Wireless Inc. joins Silicon Laboratories

SAN JOSE: Snap, the operating systems for wireless sensor networks from Synapse Wireless Inc. has been associated with the Si1000 wireless microcontroller from Silicon Laboratories Inc. to facilitate sub-GHz connectivity for smart meters, building automation and personal medical devices.

Synapse said, the arrangement, presented as the Synapse RF Engine module, is in addition appropriate for commercial lighting control and asset tracking systems and much more. Snap is an Internet-enabled, IEEE 802.15.4-based, instant-on, multi-hop, mesh network protocol intended to run on an assortment of microprocessors and microcontrollers. Snap consists of a memory footprint of 45-Kbytes and can sustain up to 16 million nodes in a single network.

The Snap network operating system can support Internet-enabled, wireless machine-to-machine communications, and offers an embedded Python interpreter for application development. Synapse was due to exhibit the RF Engine at the company's booth at the Embedded Systems Conference here

The integrated power and low-noise amplifiers facilitate an RF link budget of more than 140 dB without dynamic external elements. The wireless MCUs presents active mode current consumption of 160-microamps per MHz. During its sleep mode, they use 315-nanoamps using the internal low frequency real-time-clock. In the case of deep-sleep mode, they can function on as little as 25-nA with full RAM retention.

The Synapse RF Engine module is offered at the moment priced at $29, with volume discounts available.