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Wireless

GainSpan Provides Wi-Fi Connectivity for Embedded Systems

February 24, 2011

The Wi-Fi based remote control car, which integrates the GainSpan ultra-low-power Wi-Fi connectivity with the STMicroelectronics EvoPrimer development platform, will be demonstrated at Embedded World 2011, Nuremberg.


NUREMBERG, GERMANY and SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire) -- GainSpan Corp., a leader in low power embedded Wi-Fi solutions, today announced the successful integration of its GS1011MIP Wi-Fi module on STMicroelectronics EvoPrimer development platform. Now, system engineers can easily add ultra low power Wi-Fi connectivity to embedded systems that use popular STMicroelectronics 8/32-bit microcontrollers. A demonstration of the solution featuring a Wi-Fi based remote control car can be seen at ST's Booth #12-330 in Hall 12 at Embedded World 2011 in Nuremberg, Germany, from March 1–3, 2011.

The GS1011MIP Wi-Fi module works seamlessly with the STMicroelectronics MCUs that are among the top sellers in the global markets and are used extensively in a broad range of embedded system applications. Key applications for this integration include consumer electronics, home appliances, personal healthcare devices, security systems, thermostats, HVAC equipment, home and building automation systems, industrial sensors among many others.

"These solutions are important to system engineers because we are seeing growing interest from them to add Wi-Fi connectivity to new designs and to upgrade existing designs, no matter what the host processor. Our fully certified, low power Wi-Fi modules and Serial to Wi-Fi software greatly simplify the task of adding wireless connectivity," said Bernard Aboussouan, vice president of marketing at GainSpan. "The successful integration with STMicroelectronics MCUs protects customer investments in product development and accelerates Wi-Fi enabled product availability in the market."

As part of the booth demonstration, visitors will be able to "drive" a battery operated car using a Wi-Fi enabled remote control unit—starting, increasing and decreasing speed, making turns and stopping. One GainSpan GS1011MIP Wi-Fi module is incorporated into the car which is controlled by the ST EvoPrimer base platform with an ST 32-bit MCU. Another GS1011MIP Wi-Fi module is integrated into the remote controller which interfaces to the STM32 using a serial interface and AT commands. The accelerometer in the EvoPrimer controls speed and direction.

This demonstration shows the ease with which GainSpan's Wi-Fi solution can be integrated with an ST 8/32-bit MCU. North Pole Engineering, Inc. (NPE), a GainSpan design-in partner, developed the Wi-Fi based remote control car and integrated the hardware and software of the GS1011MIP module with the ST EvoPrimer platform in about one week. "The GainSpan platform was extremely easy to integrate with the ST platform. We are pleased by the flexibility of the GainSpan chip to integrate the complete Wi-Fi and networking stacks, making it simple and quick to add Wi-Fi capability to devices," said Joe Meyer, president of North Pole Engineering.

GainSpan's GS1011MIP Wi-Fi module is the ideal solution to enable fast development of Wi-Fi enabled devices. It includes a full Wi-Fi stack including WPS for easy provisioning, Over-The-Air firmware update, optional networking stack and services and 802.11i security. In the demonstration, the networking stack and security reside on the GS1011MIP offloading the MCU from all Wi-Fi and networking functions, while the host MCU handles the application and connects to the Wi-Fi module over UART or SPI interfaces using AT commands. The Wi-Fi module also features an ultra low power SoC that consumes just a few µA of standby current and has a wake-up latency of only a few ms, which is ideal for battery operated devices requiring years of battery life.

STMicroelectronics' STM32 is the industry's largest family of microcontrollers using the advanced ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit processor core, offering a range of memory densities, operating speeds, and integrated features to solve diverse application demands. The EvoPrimer development platform provides rapid prototyping with STM8 and STM32 microcontrollers. EvoPrimer has a common base unit with interchangeable microcontroller modules, or target boards. The target boards connect to functions on board the EvoPrimer base, including LCD touchscreen, joystick, MEMS accelerometer, microphone, loudspeaker and jack, Micro SD card connector, and Li-ion battery with charge-management circuitry.

About North Pole Engineering
NPE, Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is a provider of embedded technology solutions for a broad range of industries. The company specializes in advanced technologies that combine hardware and software disciplines to provide low-cost, low-power solutions to the OEM marketplace.

About GainSpan
GainSpan is a leading ultra-low power embedded Wi-Fi solutions company focused on connecting things wirelessly to the Internet. The company's Wi-Fi chips and modules make it possible to quickly and easily add Wi-Fi to devices, through a serial interface to a device microcontroller. The GainSpan Wi-Fi chip handles all Wi-Fi functionalities, networking and security stacks, accelerating wireless device development cycles. GainSpan solutions feature an ultra low power SoC that consumes just a few µA of standby current and has a few ms of wake-up latency, ideal for battery operated devices requiring long life. Applications for the company's embedded Wi-Fi include healthcare, smart energy and control and monitoring for industrial, commercial and home markets. Based in San Jose, CA, the company has R&D facilities in Bangalore, India.






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