MegaChips to begin sampling BlueChip wireless sub-GHz band wireless communication LSI

SAN JOSE, USA: MegaChips Corp. will begin sampling its sub-Ghz band BlueChip Wireless communication LSI (Model: MAB0100) LSI at the end of October and begin mass production volume shipping in January 2015.

Since the sub-GHz band has been opened up to Internet of Things (IoT) on a worldwide basis, the new LSI may be used in many countries including Japan, the United States, China, Europe and the Republic of Korea. MegaChips will provide customers with new IoT solutions in the domains of smart grid, home energy management, building energy management systems and others.

"The IoT market requirements for Machine to Machine (M2M)-related products are increasing and there is an urgent need to construct better communication networks," said Akira Takata, president and CEO at MegaChips. "Our innovative BlueChip Wireless LSI meets this demand and provides our customers with devices that provide greater communications distance with lower power consumption."

On July 25, 2012, the 920 MHz radio band was allocated in Japan as an industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band, in addition to the 2.4 GHz band, and was widely available. The sub-GHz band used by the BlueChip Wireless chip provides a longer communication range and higher diffraction properties compared to the 2.4 GHz band and enables communication that bypasses obstacles. Additionally as a newly allocated frequency band, it is not congested with communication traffic.

MegaChips has developed numerous applications that make use of a variety of different sensors. Its extensive expertise in data acquisition from different sensors and in lighting and air conditioning control is incorporated into many different applications. The release of this new product enables the company to offer communication solutions as well.

To support customer development, MegaChips will provide an evaluation kit consisting of a hardware platform as well as a software development kit and a communication performance verification tool. This will allow customers to immediately carry out evaluation and development according to their specific applications. The BlueChip Wireless LSI will be offered as a standalone chip as well as in wireless modules by the company's module vendor.