Panasonic Industrial Europe GmbH (PIE) today unveiled a ZigBee™-based modem module powered by Ember’s semiconductors and software for OEMs wishing to enter the fast-growing ZigBee market. ZigBee is a global wireless industry standard designed for remote monitoring, control and sensor networks.
The new Panasonic PAN4570 module is one of the first products to employ Ember’s EM250™ “ZigBee system-on-a-chip (SoC).” The PAN4570 is a low-power transceiver designed to embed wireless mesh networking capabilities into products for applications in industrial controls, home automation, inventory management, automatic meter reading and environmental monitoring.
The EM250 is an 802.15.4/ZigBee semiconductor system that packs a programmable microprocessor, RF radio, ZigBee protocol stack and memory into a tiny, single-chip solution smaller than a shirt button. The EM250 enables PAN4570 customers to rapidly bring to market new wireless-enabled products while enjoying dramatic reductions in component size, cost and power consumption.
The PAN4570 module was designed by Panasonic’s Wireless Components team at the European Technology Center (EuTC) (www.panasonic-eutc.com) in Germany.
“Ember is the ZigBee platform of choice, and offers the industry’s most mature, feature-rich platforms of integrated hardware, software and development tools,” said Ulrich Rittner, development manager at Panasonic-EuTC. “We believe the Ember-enabled PAN4570 will help our OEM customers create ZigBee-compliant wireless products significantly faster, easier and more profitably than current first-generation offerings.”
Key features of the PAN4570 include:
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Ember’s EM250 system-on-chip, 128 kilobytes of flash memory, 5 kilobytes of RAM, 16-bit microcontroller, 2.4GHz CMOS radio semiconductor system;
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EmberZNet 2.0, Ember’s second-generation ZigBee-compliant network stack;
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Ember’s reliable application programming interface (API) for ease and speed in developing ZigBee applications;
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An on-board, low-power regulator and three different power modes for increased battery.
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Small size (20mm x 26.5mm x 3mm);
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Very high sensitivity (-98 dBm) with low packet error rate (1%);
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Operating temperature range of -40 degrees to +85 degrees Celsius.
“ZigBee enabling a world-renowned brand like Panasonic is a great design win for Ember,” said Bob Metcalfe, chairman of Ember. “Panasonic’s participation will bring a big boost to the embedded networking market.”
The PAN4570 module will publicly debut at Embedded World 2006, in Nürnberg, Germany, Feb. 14-16, in Hall 12, Stand 346 of Atlantik Elektronik GmbH, Ember’s distributor. Engineering samples of the module are already available.
ZigBee: Wireless Control That Simply Works
The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. The ZigBee Alliance is a rapidly growing, non-profit industry consortium of leading semiconductor manufacturers, technology providers, OEMs, and end-users worldwide. Membership is open to all. Additional information can be found at www.zigbee.org.
About Panasonic
Best known by its Panasonic brand name, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of US$81.44 billion for the year ended March 31, 2005. The company’s shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, New York (NYSE:MC), Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company’s Web site at http://panasonic.co.jp/global/index.html.
About Ember Corporation
Ember enables communication among embedded microcontrollers with standards-based wireless mesh networking semiconductors and software. Ember helps its customers to automate home appliances, lower energy consumption in buildings, keep borders and infrastructure secure, and control industrial processes, just to name four of the many diverse applications being developed by Ember’s more than 100 customers. Spun out of MIT in 2001, Ember is headquartered in Boston and has its radio development center in Cambridge, England, and distributors worldwide. Ember is a lead member of the ZigBee Alliance, and its platform is the National Technical Systems’ (NTS) “Golden Suite” for 802.15.4/ZigBee interoperability testing. For more information, please visit www.ember.com.
