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Does anyone know of any (reasonably low-cost) SoC which combines all of:

  • Microcontroller (any architecture, at least 4KB RAM/8KB flash)
  • Radio transceiver (433MHz - 915MHz or 2.4GHz)
  • Ethernet MAC + PHY

(For a wireless sensor application - connecting to low power sensor nodes)

I can find examples of micros with either peripheral, but not both:

Eg.

Micro + ethernet:

LM3S9B9x = ARM Cortex-M3 + Ethernet MAC and PHY

PIC18F66J6x = PIC18 + Ethernet MAC and PHY

Micro + radio:

CC430 = MSP430 + Sub-1GHz radio

EM250 = XAP2b + 802.15.4/ZigBee

Please only answer this question if you can name a chip.

Toby Jaffey
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  • I'm very interested in knowing if there is anything as well. – Kellenjb Oct 26 '10 at 23:53
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    I could give you a good example of two chips that would accomplish this but I know of none that do both. – Michael Eakins Oct 27 '10 at 13:42
  • It's a shame that no one knows of a chip. Might just have to go with a 2 chip solution. – Kellenjb Oct 27 '10 at 17:15
  • which wireless? zigbee? what data rates for the ethernet? – smashtastic Nov 01 '10 at 13:44
  • 802.15.4 would be ideal, but Bluetooth, 433MHz/866MHZ/915MHz (DASH7 type stuff) is interesting too. 10mbit/s or higher for the ethernet – Toby Jaffey Nov 01 '10 at 13:49
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    Wow, big bounty, I wish I had an answer. – Kellenjb Nov 01 '10 at 14:37
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    @Kellenjb I wish I had an answer too – Toby Jaffey Nov 01 '10 at 14:43
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    Maybe I should pull some strings with a friend at TI and have them post a fake part that is the CC430 with ethernet built in. – Kellenjb Nov 01 '10 at 14:46
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    low power radio AND ethernet seems an odd combination. I don't think it's something that's common enough that there would be profit to be made to build a generic off the shelf part which combines them both. Pretty much any complex device is going to have multiple ICs in it, it's not something to avoid at all costs. – davr Nov 03 '10 at 04:56
  • Could it be that it isn't possible to get one crystal frequency working with both? – Thomas O Nov 04 '10 at 17:01
  • @Thomas O two crystals would not be problem the LM3S9xxx uses a separate crystal for the ethernet to the processor – Toby Jaffey Nov 04 '10 at 17:09
  • True, but adding an additional oscillator section adds cost, as does the crystal (for the end user.) – Thomas O Nov 04 '10 at 17:24
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    @Joby: I'm curious why you want such a device; unless you are *extremely* space constrained it will command an enormous premium in cost due to being incredibly application specific (low-volume). – Nick T Nov 04 '10 at 17:28
  • @Nick I work for a company which produces a high volume, low cost device featuring radio and ethernet. We currently have a 2 chip solution. I can't find a single chip and thought people might be able to help. Hence, the very specific question and bounty :-) – Toby Jaffey Nov 04 '10 at 17:39
  • TI has some Micro + Wireless + USB. None with ethernet though. – Kellenjb Nov 07 '10 at 18:36

3 Answers3

5

The MediaTek RT3050 has what you need.

PeterJ
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Shawn J. Goff
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Both together I've never seen.

ST has STM32W that integrates a 2.4GHz transceiver and Freescale has MC1322x that integrates ARM7/Coldfire with 2.4GHz transceivers, but both don't have the ethernet PHY.

Daniel Grillo
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0

Not really a chip, but would a Digi ConnectPort be a turnkey solution for what you have in mind? You can run custom software (Python) on them to manage your wireless devices and communicate over Ethernet.

Nick T
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