APPLICATION: CONSUMER RF REMOTE CONTROL
Philips Home Control selects Nordic Semiconductor single chip 2.4GHz ULP transceivers plus Gazell RF protocol software for advanced RF remotes for consumer application
Hong Kong - May 19, 2010 - Ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA (OSE: NOD) today announces that Philips Home Control, Singapore, is using Nordic wireless technology in its advanced yet affordable Bellagio RF remote control.
Caption: Philips Home Control's Bellagio RF remote control features a color LCD screen and variable scroll wheel interface for fast and intuitive navigation
Bellagio is designed for use by consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers of media devices such as music players, TVs, and PCs. The Bellagio platform comprises everything required for CE manufacturers to develop a customized RF remote control with minimum design overhead, and includes controller handset, compact USB dongle, and demonstration software that runs on a PC.
The Bellagio RF remote features an interactive 33 by 33mm color LCD screen and a variable scroll wheel user interface that enables fast and intuitive navigation. Traditional remote controls struggle to meet the demands of modern consumers due to limited bandwidth and "one-button-one-operation" interfaces. RF provides sufficient bandwidth for advanced navigation interfaces - such as scroll wheels, touch screens, and track balls - and bi-directional communication required when negotiating the complex user interfaces and menus typical of modern media devices.
In addition, RF eliminates the need for IR's line-of-sight access, allowing devices to be controlled through objects and even interior walls (up to a range of 15m and assuming wall construction materials do not excessively attenuate RF signals). (See "About RF remote control" below.)
In operation, the Bellagio RF remote handset utilizes a Nordic 2.4GHz ULP transceiver interfaced to a microcontroller running Nordic Gazell RF protocol software. An nRF24LU1+ System-on-Chip (SoC) 2.4GHz ULP transceiver and USB 2.0 compliant device controller, incorporated into a compact USB dongle, plugs into the host device (the product to be controlled) to form the other node of the wireless link. The Nordic RF technology enables a bi-directional communication link with sufficient bandwidth for rapid screen refresh and seamless navigation.
The Nordic chips utilize a proven nRF24L01+ transceiver core and feature an up to 2Mbps on-air data rate combined with ultra low power (ULP) operation and advanced power management. The nRF24LU1+ integrates a USB 2.0 compliant device controller, 8 bit application microcontroller, and nRF24L01+ compatible 2.4GHz RF transceiver (see "About nRF24LU1+" below). Gazell RF protocol software provides features for advanced navigation, remote data transfers, and advanced pairing schemes while handling up to five remote devices at the same time. In addition, Gazell is a frequency agile protocol that is highly immune to interference from other 2.4GHz radio sources.
"Only RF can provide the bandwidth required to transmit enough information to support seamless operation of an LCD screen on the remote and the use of advanced navigation devices such as scroll wheels," explains Jan van Ee, Senior Manager System Architecture, Philips Home Control, Singapore. "The next generation of remote controls will need such advanced user interfaces to allow convenient browsing of the vast array of media that will be available from TVs, PCs, DVDs and other multimedia devices without having to point the remote at the host."
"The challenge is to select the optimum RF technology to provide the bandwidth, low power consumption, and immunity from other 2.4GHz sources at the low price point demanded by purchasers of remote controls," continues van Ee. "We considered many RF technologies, but the inexpensive ones didn't provide the bandwidth needed, and those with sufficient bandwidth cost too much or used excessive battery power. Only Nordic's technology met all of our design criteria. And Nordic's excellent engineering support enabled us to solve our design challenges in order to get Bellagio to market quickly."
"We believe that the nRF24LE1/nRF24LU1+/Gazell combination - which has been proven in wireless desktop peripherals - is a good solution for companies designing the next generation of remote controls. We're pleased that Philips Home Control has endorsed this view by selecting Nordic technology for Bellagio," says Ståle Ytterdal, Director Sales & Marketing - Asia, Nordic Semiconductor. "The nRF24LE1 incorporates an nRF24L01+ transceiver, 8 bit microcontroller, and flash or OTP memory on a single chip; when running the Gazell protocol stack, it's a comprehensive "silicon solution", shortening development time, and meeting the exacting performance and cost demands of a modern remote control." (See "About nRF24LE1" below.)
"Nordic transceivers' ULP heritage means they can run for up to a year from AAA cells, and a raw data bandwidth of up to 2 megabits per second provides more than adequate headroom for bi-directional remote control using advanced navigation," says Ytterdal. "Moreover, the solution's excellent interference immunity allows it to perform well in the presence of other 2.4GHz sources; this is going to be increasingly important as 2.4GHz Wi-Fi pervades the living room as a standard fitment in set top boxes (STBs) and DVD players to provide wireless connectivity to the TV."
Bellagio from Philips Home Control is now ready for commercialization.
About RF remote control
Inexpensive, reliable infrared (IR) units have dominated wireless remote control since the 70s. Moreover, IR remote control will continue to satisfy markets requiring inexpensive, simple remote control, where line-of-sight communication is not restricted, for years to come.
However, the imminent revolution in the way consumers access media will only be practical through the advanced functionality enabled by an RF link. RF technology provides faster response, bi-directional connection, non-line of sight control, and extended range compared to IR. These are major advantages when accessing the huge array of digital content - including dozens of cable channels, video stored on the hard disks of set top boxes (STBs), music and photo libraries stored on PCs, or movies cached on remote servers - typical of modern consumers.
Accessing this content with a traditional IR remote's basic one-button-one-operation and step-by-step navigation does not meet the challenges of fast browsing and convenient access. Such access demands a remote control equipped with advanced navigation interfaces such as scroll wheels, touch screens, touch pads, movement sensors, track balls or joysticks. Only RF has sufficient bandwidth over a bi-directional link to support advanced user interfaces while consuming modest battery power and meeting cost constraints.
About the nRF24LE1TM
The nRF24LE1 is a ULP system-on-chip 2.4GHz transceiver that enables single-chip implementation of wireless applications. The nRF24LE1's radio is a fully featured nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz transceiver core including Nordic's proven Enhanced ShockBurst" hardware link layer. It delivers true ULP operation with peak currents low enough to run on coin cell batteries.
The nRF24LE1 integrates an enhanced 8051 mixed signal MCU core featuring fewer clock cycles per instruction than legacy 8051 devices. Most instructions need just one or two clock cycles leading to an average performance improvement of 8X using the MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) benchmark. This high performance combined with 16kbytes of on-chip flash and 1kbytes of SRAM ensures the processing platform is powerful enough to run both the RF protocol stack and application layer with ease.
A wide range of peripherals and power saving modes support the RF protocol stack. A ULP 32kHz crystal oscillator provides high accuracy timing for low report rate synchronous protocols and a 16MHz RC oscillator provides fast start-up times from idle. The 32kHz oscillator can provide timing accurate enough for higher report rate protocols without requiring an external crystal. A security co-processor enables AES encrypted wireless communication. The nRF24LE1 provides a range of nanoamp and microamp idle modes specifically designed for ULP RF protocol stacks. Further benefits include higher precision protocol timing, lower power consumption and improved co-existence performance.
For the application layer the nRF24LE1 offers a rich set of interfaces and peripherals including an SPI, 2-wire, UART, 12-bit ADC, PWM and an analog comparator. As such, the nRF24LE1 is the ideal single chip solution for applications including mice, keyboards, remote controls, game controllers, sports/healthcare sensors, toys and active RFID tags.
About the nRF24LU1+
The nRF24LU1+ is a unique single chip solution enabling ultra compact USB dongles for wireless peripherals. By integrating an USB 2.0 compliant device controller, 8 bit application microcontroller and an nRF24L01+ compatible 2.4GHz RF Transceiver it supports a wide range of application including PC peripherals, sports accessories and game peripherals.
The nRF24LU1+ offers full interoperability with the nRF24L01+TM 2 Mbps 2.4GHz transceiver and its Enhanced ShockBurstTM hardware link layer, and integrates a full-speed USB 2.0-compliant device controller, an enhanced 8051 compatible microcontroller, a hardware AES security co-processor, 16 or 32 kBytes of flash memory and 2 kBytes SRAM. The nRF24LU1+ is supplied in a 32-pin 5 by 5mm QFN package.
With an on-chip voltage regulator (covering a 4.0 to 5.25V supply range) that enables the chip to be powered directly from the USB bus, the nRF24LU1+ does not require an external voltage regulator, saving cost and board space. With a fully integrated RF synthesizer and PLL for the USB no external loop filters, resonators or VCO varactor diodes are required, only a low cost ±60ppm 16MHz crystal, matching circuitry and the antenna.
The nRF24LU1 features 6 general-purpose digital input/output pins, hardware SPI slave & master (UART) and three 16-bit timers/counters. It supports firmware upgrade over USB and a FS2 hardware debugger. In addition, the nRF24LU1+ is air compatible with the nRF24LE1, nRF24LU1, nRF24L01+, nRF24L01, nRF2401A, 02, E1 and E2.
The 128 bit AES encryption/decryption co-processor provides industry standard data encryption and decryption at the application level, and the on-chip flash memory features fully configurable write and read back protection, offering complete protection from reverse engineering.
With air data rate of 2 Mbps combined with full speed USB, supporting up to 12 Mbps, the nRF24LU1+ meets performance requirements of a wide range of applications including PC peripherals, advanced media center remote controls, intelligent sports accessories and toys.
About Philips Home Control
Philips Home Control, a global leader in remote control technology, manufactures remotes for OEMs. Philips has developed many of the industry's standard protocols (IR or RF) and offers an extensive portfolio of patents that improve the performance, ease-of-use and functionality of remote controls. Offering complete innovative solutions for all possible applications & segments, ranging from IPTV to cable & satellite, consumer electronics, home automation, and PC-based applications, Philips prides itself with the broadest worldwide customer base. Whether choosing a standard solution or a customized remote that matches your product or brand identity, Philips is the right partner. www.remotecontrol.philips.com.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people's lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle, and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of "sense and simplicity". Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 116,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 23 billion in 2009, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care, and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being, and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment, and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
About Nordic Semiconductor ASA
Nordic Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in ultra low power (ULP) short-range wireless communication. Nordic is a public company listed on the Norwegian stock exchange.
Nordic provides RF silicon solutions including:
- Highly integrated RF silicon
- Sophisticated and flexible development tools
- Application specific communication software
- Complete reference designs
The company's innovative range of wireless solutions includes:
- The nRF24LE1TM single-chip, ultra-low cost and power, fully integrated 2.4GHz transceiver with radio, microprocessor, flash memory and MultiCeiverTM technology supporting up to six simultaneous wireless devices (also available in a lower cost, one time programmable (OTP) variant, the nRF24LE1 OTP);
- The nRF24L01+TM ultra-low cost and power 2.4GHz transceiver with MultiCeiver technology supporting up to six simultaneous wireless devices;
- The nRF24LU1+TM single chip 2.4GHz transceiver with full-speed USB, microcontroller and flash memory enabling ultra-compact USB dongles for wireless peripherals (also available in a lower cost, one time programmable (OTP) variant, the nRF24LU1+ OTP);
- The nRF24AP2TM ultra low power 2.4GHz transceiver for wireless communication with ANT Wireless' production-proven interoperable low-power network protocol, ANTTM, and ANT+TM managed network platform;
- The nRF24E1TM and nRF24E2TM low cost transceivers paired with an industry standard 8051 MCU core, and leading peripherals to create complete low cost SoCs for 2.4GHz operation;
- The nRF24Z1TM single-chip solution for CD quality wireless audio streaming at up to 16-bit, 48-kHz resolution;
- The nRF905TM single-chip multiband radio transceiver for the 433, 868 or 915MHz ISM bands;
- The nRF9E5TM low-cost, single-chip solution with fully integrated RF transceiver for the 433, 868 or 915MHz ISM bands.
Nordic Semiconductor's nRF24xxx range of 2.4GHz transceiver and transmitter devices are aimed at applications including PC peripherals (wireless keyboards/mice/multimedia controllers), game controllers, intelligent sports equipment and wireless audio (for example, MP3 and portable CD player wireless headphones and wireless PC speakers). The latest nRF24LE1 is targeted at ultra-low cost and power applications such as wireless desktops and intelligent (for example, wristwatch-based) sports equipment.
Nordic is a member of the ANT+ Alliance and has successfully collaborated with ANT Wireless of Cochrane, Canada, since 2005. ANT devices such as the nRF24AP2 - using Nordic 2.4GHz transceivers and the proven ANT protocol - have been used in millions of wireless sensor nodes across the world. ANT is perfectly suited for any kind of low data rate sensor network topologies in personal area networks (PANs) and practical wireless sensor networks (WSNs). ANT+ (built on the ANT protocol) facilitates interoperability between ANT+ Alliance member devices and the collection, automatic transfer and tracking of sensor data. Applicable in sports, wellness, and medical health sensors, ANT+ defines device profiles that specify data formats, channel parameters and network key. The ANT+ Alliance is an open, special interest group of companies.
Nordic is an associate member of the Bluetooth SIG, and has contributed core expertise in ultra low power (ULP) RF design to Bluetooth® low energy wireless technology (formerly ultra low power Bluetooth). Bluetooth low energy is a short range RF communication technology featuring ultra low power consumption, a lightweight protocol stack and simple integration with Bluetooth chips. It is a hallmark feature of the latest Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. The technology will support the next generation of RF communications by opening up many new opportunities for ULP wireless data links between suitably equipped mobile handsets or computers and small (typically coin cell) battery-powered devices such as sports, wellness, and medical health sensors.
Nordic's products are all manufactured in state of the art semiconductor process technologies through strong, long-term relationships with world-best manufacturing facilities. Sales are primarily made through a carefully selected worldwide distribution network. The company has offices in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway, the U.S. (West Coast), Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Nordic is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSX: NOD). All operations are managed according to the ISO 9001:2000-approved quality assurance system.
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