Freescale Semiconductor Shipped 7M IEEE-ZigBee Chipsets in 2008
March 6, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
Freescale Semiconductor shipped more than 7 million Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 and ZigBee units in 2008 for the wireless sensor networks used in smart energy, industrial control and home entertainment applications.
A study by In-Stat, 802.15.4 - A New Sense of Energy, projected that 802.15.4 node and chipset units will reach 292 million in 2012, up from 7 million in 2007.
"We are projecting significant growth rates for 802.15.4 over the next four years," said Brian O'Rourke, principal analyst with In-Stat.
Designed to address the need for a low power wireless solution, IEEE 802.15.4 became a foundation for monitoring and control networks, as well as other standard network stacks such as ZigBee technology, Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics (RF4CE) Consortium, SynkroRF network technology and WirelessHART technology, according to Freescale.
RF4CE founding members - Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics and Sony Corp. - announced the consortium in June 2008 and worked with Freescale to address increased demand for advanced functionality and performance not available through infrared or other proprietary wireless technologies, according to Freescale.
As an early creator and adopter of RF control for consumer electronics, Freescale announced in 2008 its initiative to offer its own SynkroRF entertainment control network technology as an open specification to consumer electronics manufacturers.
SynkroRF control technology is the basis of RF4CE protocol and Freescale is working on the adoption of an open RF entertainment control specification based on IEEE 802.15.4.
"We've seen high demand for our IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee products as wireless applications such as home entertainment control, smart energy, industrial and process control and monitoring continue their rapid growth," said Brett Black, manager of Freescale's Wireless Connectivity Operation.
"Our customers need platform solutions that help them get to market quickly so they can keep pace with this growth and be ready to develop their next applications," Black said.
Source: Freescale Semiconductor Inc.