The AI / ML engine in the third-generation platform can improve performance by more than 100 times
Simplicity Studio 6 software development kit brings developers to third-generation platform with new development environment
China, Beijing - August 22 , 2023 - Silicon Labs (also known as "Silicon Technology", NASDAQ: SLAB), a global leader dedicated to building a more connected world with secure and intelligent wireless At the 4th Works With Developer Conference , they announced the launch of their next-generation and third-generation wireless development platform for embedded Internet of Things (IoT) devices. With the migration to the 22-nanometer (nm) process node, the new Silicon Labs third-generation platform will deliver industry-leading computing power, wireless performance and energy efficiency, and the highest level of IoT security built into a chip. To help developers and device manufacturers simplify and accelerate product design, Silicon Labs also announced the next version of its developer tool suite , Simplicity Studio . Simplicity Studio 6 supports Silicon Labs' entire product portfolio, including third-generation platforms, allowing developers to take advantage of some of the most popular integrated development environments (IDEs) on the market, while providing developers with the latest tools to support them in Development continues on second-generation platforms as well as on third-generation platforms.
"Our third-generation wireless development platform is built for a more connected world that requires development flexibility and pushes more intelligence to the edge," said Silicon Labs CEO Matt Johnson. "The third-generation platform not only meets the needs of developers and device manufacturers today, but is built to meet their needs for the next 10 years."
Third Generation Wireless Development Platform Brings New Levels of Performance, Efficiency and Diversified Supply Chain
The original first-generation platforms and the current second-generation platforms continue to be successful in helping to scale the Internet of Things, connecting more and more devices and opening up new applications. In large part, that's because they form a platform with common features that many developers can leverage, and third-generation platforms follow the same pattern.
Third-generation platforms will be able to address the challenges posed by the continued acceleration of the Internet of Things: the need for greater processing power in far-edge devices for all IoT applications in important areas, including but not limited to smart Urban and civil infrastructure, commercial buildings, retail and warehouses, smart factories and Industry 4.0, smart homes, personal and clinical healthcare; and the need for increasingly portable and secure compute-intensive applications. The third-generation platform further enhances Silicon Labs' industry-leading wireless platform:
- More secure and energy-efficient: Based on Silicon Labs' industry-leading Secure Vault™ technology, the first security suite to receive PSA Level 3 certification, the third-generation platform will include all the security features in the second-generation platform, while implementing new enhanced, making it the most secure platform in the IoT market. By making specialized improvements to key power points, the third-generation platform aims to extend the battery life of devices by years.
- A New Level of Computing: The third-generation platform will bring more than 100 times the processing power, including the integration of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) accelerators for edge devices, which enables the integration of system processing power on the wireless chip system (SoC). In other words, in third-generation platforms, developers can remove microcontrollers (MCUs) that take up space and add to system cost as programmable computing power increases. This will include advanced digital and analog peripherals to support high-performance systems.
- More scalable: The third-generation platform will be the only IoT platform to cover multiple radio frequencies, with a common code base for more than 30 products across major wireless protocols, including but not limited to Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, Wi-SUN, 15.4, multi-protocol and proprietary protocols. This will allow developers to use a common set of tools to build applications and program countless devices. In addition, the third-generation platform will support a scalable and scalable storage architecture, including support for external flash memory.
Migrating to 22nm will also bring important flexibility to third-generation platforms. Several events and trends that have occurred over the past few years have put pressure on the semiconductor supply chain across the industry, and the IoT space has also been affected. To minimize risk and disruption to customers due to geographic issues, the third-generation platform will be produced in multiple foundries in multiple regions.
Silicon Labs Simplicity Studio 6 Enhances Developer Tools with Support for Visual Studio Code
Silicon Labs continues to invest in the customer's developer experience, including documentation, cooperation with external tool vendors, and integration of new plug-ins and extensions in existing software development kits (SDKs). In addition to the third-generation hardware, Silicon Labs today announced Simplicity Studio 6, the latest version of its award-winning application development and productivity enhancement tool. Simplicity Studio 6 will bring the latest development tools to Silicon Labs' complete product portfolio, including first- and second-generation platforms, and provide developers with a bridge to third-generation platforms.
One of the most common feedbacks from developers is that they don't want to be locked into vendor-specific tools, but increasingly want to leverage the open source community and third-party applications to enhance their development capabilities. Because of this, the biggest and most impactful change in Simplicity Studio 6 is the decoupling of the IDE from our productivity tools. With the introduction of Simplicity Studio 6, Silicon Labs will enable developers to use some of the industry's most demanded IDEs without being locked into a vendor-specific IDE.
“We realized that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to development,” said Michael Norman, senior product manager for IoT development at Silicon Labs. "That's why we want to give developers the most complete toolset, with support for a wide range of vendors, and then let them choose. We want to provide a great platform, a variety of tools and support to clear the way for them .”
To achieve this goal, Silicon Labs announced an extension to Microsoft Visual Studio Code, the most popular software development tool in the world today. This extension will enable new or existing Silicon Labs applications to be developed in Visual Studio Code. A public beta release of the Silicon Labs extension tools, available today in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace, works with the latest version of Simplicity Studio 5.
In addition, as a support partner in the development process, Silicon Labs today released an expanded Developer Journey tool for Amazon Sidewalk and a new Matter Development Journey tool. Both are built on the power of Silicon Labs, providing the tools, documentation, hardware, and expert support needed to develop with both technologies.
Silicon Labs Works With developer conference brings together the best and most prominent institutions and people to discuss embedded IoT development
The above-mentioned platforms and tools were announced at the 4th annual Works With developer conference held by Silicon Labs . The conference will be held in a free and online manner from August 22nd to 23rd, US central time (August 22nd to 24th, Beijing time). All conferences will provide on-demand playback service shortly after the premiere. This year, Works With covered everything from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to Matter and Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) , and explored the latest advances in security and AI/ML . Those interested in attending the conference on August 22 and 23, and those interested in watching an on-demand replay of the conference at a later date, can register for the Works With 2023 developer conference here .