Tag: SOC
GainSpan: low-power Wi-Fi (802.11)
by Paul on Jan.18, 2009, under ICs, Sensors
GainSpan (www.gainspan.com) is an electronics manufacturer that is using system-on-a-chip technology to produce a chip with an embedded 802.11 radio. Operating at 1.8V the chip can supposedly run for up to 10 years on a single AA battery. The chip also includes an ARM 32-bit microcontroller and memory. Intel is an investor in GainSpan.
Sound great! This should be great competition for Zigbee and allow the practical implementation of many solutions. Potentially, low-power 802.11 should be better than Zigbee. Sadly, price information (even for the development systems) and data sheets are not evident on the company’s website. That’s always irritating! Hopefully, GainSpan will be more forthcoming soon.
