Concerns Regarding the Deployment of IoT Solutions

According to the latest data from IHS Markit, the number of connected devices worldwide will reach 30.7 billion by 2020, and this figure is expected to grow to 75.4 billion by 2025. The explosive growth of connected devices not only brings new opportunities to the market but also poses more challenges for its future development. 

Based on this situation, Bain & Company conducted interviews with over 170 executives from IoT and analytics solution companies and over 500 executives intending to deploy IoT solutions. They raised their concerns about deploying IoT solutions, including:

Increasing demand for enhanced security measures

• Continuous evolution of connection standards and their associated complexities

• Relatively scarce resources for internal development

• Technical limitations, such as power consumption

To help IoT developers address these concerns, Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced the SimpleLink™ Microcontroller (MCU) platform. 

As the industry's most extensive wired and wireless MCU platform, it covers more than 800 devices, including the MSP432™ MCU, CC2640R2F Bluetooth® Low Energy wireless MCU, CC1350 ultra-low-power dual-band wireless MCU, CC1310 Sub-1 GHz ultra-low-power wireless MCU, CC3220 Wi-Fi wireless MCU, and CC3120 wireless network processor. Due to its shared foundation based on drivers, frameworks, and databases, the SimpleLink MCU platform's software development kit (SDK) achieves scalability with a 100% code reuse rate, helping users more easily meet changing design or application requirements and even enter entirely new markets with the same product foundation. 

Notably, developers or engineers now only need to make one software investment to reuse various resources, such as TI Resource Explorer and SimpleLink Academy, to unlock infinite application design possibilities.

TI's Brand-New SimpleLink™ MCU Platform

With 100% application code portability, the SimpleLink MCU™ platform allows developers to access a broad and scalable MCU product lineup within a single software environment. 

How is this achieved? First, TI Drivers provide a wide range of easy-to-use and portable functional APIs, enabling standardized access to common peripherals such as SPI, UART, and ADC, all built on a consistent hardware abstraction layer. Second, with the full-featured TI RTOS, connection options, and wireless stacks integrated into the SDK, industry-standard POSIX APIs can achieve application code compatibility between different kernels.

If users want to design a new home thermostat, developers can leverage the MSP432 MCU to manage interfaces and quickly begin offering differentiated products, while also extending the design for new connectivity applications. If local Wi-Fi network control needs to be added, developers only need to migrate the existing source code to the CC3220 wireless MCU preloaded with the required Wi-Fi stack. 

However, what about commercial buildings or other industries? In fact, developers only need to integrate the previously developed application into the Bluetooth 5 supported CC2640R2F wireless MCU or the CC1350 with integrated long-range Sub-1GHz transceiver to create thermostats for homes, buildings, and various industrial applications with a one-time investment.

Creating Applications for Homes, Buildings, and Various Industrial Scenarios with a One-Time Investment

Of course, developers can also use the MSP432 MCU and CC3320 wireless MCU simultaneously according to the application's requirements. 

The TI SimpleLink product portfolio covers more than 14 standards and technologies, including Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth® Low Energy, ZigBee®, Sub-1 GHz, and 6LoWPAN, helping users add wireless connectivity capabilities to any device, design, and user, while also addressing concerns about the continuous evolution and complexity of IoT application connection standards.

In addition to supporting different connectivity standards, security and low power consumption are equally crucial for IoT applications. To address these two major concerns, TI has also introduced the new SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3220 wireless MCU at the same time. 

This device is based on an innovative architecture, featuring two physically separated execution environments on a single chip. The CC3220 wireless MCU includes 25 rich embedded security features, such as secure storage, cloning protection, secure boot, and network security. 

These features provide developers with powerful tools to protect IoT devices without the need for external security MCUs or components, preventing intellectual property (IP) theft, data theft, and other risks. Moreover, like other SimpleLink products, TI has always been committed to providing the industry with the lowest power consumption and easy-to-integrate Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ solutions. 

The CC3x20 series devices can help designers create products ready for production within six months and run for several years powered by two AA batteries.