Las Vegas, CES 2016 – GainSpan® Corporation, a leader in wireless solutions for the IoT, today announced the GS780MIZ, a new low-power module that supports Bluetooth Smart technology, also previously known as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). With this module, GainSpan extends the product offering to its customers developing products for smart home, healthcare, industrial and commercial applications, and many consumer products.
Consuming peak RF current of 3.5 mA in receive mode and 4.3 mA at 0dBm output power in transmit mode, GainSpan’s GS780MIZ is among the lowest power consumption Bluetooth Smart modules available on the market today. It features a combination of technologies to help extend battery life for connected devices. Its adaptable RF technology enables adjustments to the power consumption during wireless operation to an optimal level, prioritizing current consumption or communication range depending on the distance. This flexibility dramatically lowers the power consumption during near-distance wireless communication.
The module shares many commonalities with GainSpan Wi-Fi modules. The module can be used in a serial to Bluetooth mode, where the customer application runs onto a host microcontroller and is connected to the GS780M through SPI or UART, using AT command. Alternatively with a built-in microcontroller, 256 Kbytes of Flash and 20 Kbytes of RAM, the module can be used in a standalone mode, with the customer application running on the GS780M.
The GS780MIZ module is based on the Renesas RL78/G1D microcontroller and was developed in close cooperation with Renesas Electronics America, extending a long relationship between the two companies.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with GainSpan in helping them to bring Bluetooth Smart modules to the market. Certified modules are essential in enabling the IoT market and accelerating time to market,” said Vin D’Agostino, Vice President of the General Purpose Products Business Unit, Renesas Electronics America. “Customers now have the choice to develop their design based on our Bluetooth Smart RL78/G1D microcontroller, or to use the RL78/G1D-based GainSpan module.”
“Bluetooth Smart is becoming an essential IoT connectivity solution, extending past the healthcare and fitness applications and connectivity to the smartphone, to new applications we’ve been serving with Wi-Fi,” said Bernard Aboussouan, Vice President Business Development at GainSpan. “By picking the best-in- class chip as the basis for our Bluetooth Smart modules, we offer a competitive connectivity solution, expand our wireless solution offerings and enable developers to choose the wireless technology best suited to their application, whether Wi-Fi or BLE.”
GS780M Highlights
- Adds low power Bluetooth Smart connectivity to any device
- Certified module reduces development time, testing, and certification
- Best-in-class power consumption for increased battery life
Features
- Bluetooth Smart v4.1
- BT SIG qualified stack
- Hostless mode (No MCU) or Serial to BLE mode ( with MCU)
- Client or Server modes
- Up to 8 connections in Server mode
- Bluetooth Smart profiles and custom profiles
- Outstanding low-power consumption
- Over the air firmware upgrade
- Beacon stack
- BT Developer Studio Plug-in
Availability
The GS780MIZ module and development boards will be sampling in January 2016 with general availability planned for late this quarter through GainSpan authorized distributors. The module is currently being certified for US/Canada (FCC/IC), Europe (CE/ETSI), and Japan (TELEC). A longer range module, the GS780MEZ, will be introduced in Q2 2016.
About GainSpan Corporation
GainSpan, a spinoff of Intel Corporation, is an innovator and leader in wireless connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things. GainSpan’s solutions let customers quickly and easily create connected products for smart homes, health and fitness, audio and video applications, and control and monitoring in commercial, industrial applications, and smart cities. Its broad portfolio includes ultra-low-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Smart modules and chips, embedded software including an extensive networking stack, application reference designs and apps for iOS and Android, development tools, and an expanding network of partner solutions. www.gainspan.com
