Vancouver, British Columbia – DECEMBER 5, 2017 – Riot Micro today made its market debut with the industry’s lowest power baseband modem chip for the cellular Internet of Things (IoT). The Riot Micro RM1000 is built using an innovative approach that applies BLE and Wi-Fi architecture techniques to deliver a cellular IoT solution with the low power and cost levels characteristic of short-range wireless systems. The RM1000 is available now to module manufacturers and OEMs designing NB-IoT and eMTC systems including asset management, home automation, industrial, point-of-sale, smart energy, vending and automotive applications.
Innovative design approach reduces power consumption by up to 50%
To develop the RM1000, Riot Micro assembled a team of engineers with extensive expertise in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and LTE design to create an LTE PHY and L2/L3 protocol stack specifically optimized to meet the 3GPP release 13 requirements for Cat-NB1 NB-IoT and Cat-M1 eMTC. By providing granular control over system resources, the innovative hardware-based architecture minimizes active power consumption in all use cases. This design approach significantly reduces silicon area and active power consumption compared to alternative signal processor-based solutions.
“Riot Micro’s innovative approach, leveraging proven design techniques from BLE and Wi-Fi into the world of LTE, will drive down system cost and power. We want to enable cellular IoT mass deployment. That will require the cost and energy needs driven to similar levels as BLE, and our approach gets us there,” said Peter Wong, CEO of Riot Micro. “We are thrilled with the feedback from lead customers and partners, who’ve confirmed that we offer the only viable NB-IoT platform to enable the price points and battery life required for mass deployment of IoT applications.”
Hardware-centric baseband optimizes size, power and cost
Riot’s RM1000 is a hardware-centric baseband controller, tightly coupled to an optimized LTE protocol stack running on an ultra-power efficient integrated processor. The PHY layer implemented completely in hardware enables minimal eDRX cycle power consumption and extremely fast wake/sleep transition times. These power savings mean that IoT modules based on the RM1000 can run longer on lower capacity batteries, further saving on system cost. Riot’s hardware-based architecture assures that power consumption is always minimized regardless of traffic patterns and use cases.
Alternative solutions typically require a 100MHz+ processor speed, external memory, and on-chip PLLs for a high-speed clock, increasing silicon area, power consumption, and cost. Software-based PHY solutions also have longer startup and shutdown due to firmware load and processing, which ultimately costs battery life.
Package and availability
The RM1000 is available now, supplied to OEMs and module manufacturers developing custom solution, in an 8mm x 8mm 68 pad QFN package or a 3.5×3.2 mm WLCSP package. Riot Micro offers a full-range of customer support services, including reference designs, for evaluation and module design.
About Riot Micro
Riot Micro is a start-up company with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company designs purpose-built silicon for manufacturers and suppliers of applications and devices on the forefront of the Internet of Things. For more information contact: http://www.riotmicro.com.
