TI's Home Gateway Reference Design Enables Home Automation And Energy System Management In The Palm Of Your Hand

The reference design supports ZigBee, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity right out of the box to allow developers to create home gateways that can interface with multiple systems, products and applications within a smart home. TI’s new reference design has been designed in partnership with Alektrona – a specialist in creating networked smart energy products and applications.

The Home Gateway Reference Design gives developers all of the hardware and software needed to build a home gateway system, including a 275 MHz Sitara ARM AM3352 Cortex-A8 processor that runs applications, multiple communication stacks, and provides local intelligence for energy management and home automation activities. For wireless connectivity to the smart grid and within the home, the reference design includes TI’s CC2530 ZigBee system-on-chip, WiLink 8.0 combo-connectivity solution, and TPS650250 power management integrated circuit. The home gateway design demonstrates how TI’s complementary portfolio of embedded, analog and connectivity components can help developers save time and money by using tested and interoperable components from a single supplier.

The new Home Gateway Reference Design is the latest example of TI’s commitment to helping developers create innovative technology that reduces energy consumption and smarter connected devices for the smart grid. With TI’s extensive ARM processor portfolio that has more than 500 products and boasts offerings from $1 in price and up to 5 GHz in performance, developers can maximize their investment, accelerate time to market and enable differentiated products based on customer needs.

Features and benefits of the new HG3352 Home Gateway Reference Design:

•TI’s Sitara’s AM3352 ARM Cortex-A8 processor running Linux OS allows developers to create designs in an open-source environment.
•Flexible Sitara processor portfolio is scalable from 275MHz to 1GHz based on customers’ performance and cost needs.
•Single ZigBee device (CC2530) supports ZigBee Home Automation and ZigBee Smart Energy standards.
•WiLink 8.0 solution supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth low energy in a single chip.
•6-channel power management integrated circuit (TPS650250) with dynamic voltage scaling provides high power efficiency.
•2GB of external NAND Flash memory and 2GB of DDR3 memory allow developers to create designs that support significant data storage.
•Expansion headers give developers flexibility to support power line communications and other wireless standards.
•Enabling 6LoWPAN IPv6 wireless connectivity allows developers to create gateways that can connect to new Internet-enabled devices.

Early samples of the new HG3352 Home Gateway Reference Design are now available. The reference design will also be available on TI’s eStore for USD $449 in 2Q 2013.