Metering and Smart Energy Amy Ryan | September 2, 2015
Netherlands-based fabless semiconductor company GreenPeak Technologies has announced that it has delivered 100m ZigBee chips to the smart home market to date.
GreenPeak’s IEEE 802.15.4 certified ZigBee chips are integrated into numerous smart home applications such as set-top boxes (home entertainment) and gateways, remote controls, home monitoring devices for security, energy efficiency and lifestyle applications, according to a company statement.
Says Cees Links, CEO and founder of GreenPeak Technologies: “Currently, most homes have about ten wireless devices connected by WiFi.
“However, within a few years, we expect over 100 ZigBee or other IEEE 802.15.4 based connected devices in each home. This includes sensors, appliances and gateways used for monitoring and controlling the home environment for security, energy management and lifestyle applications.”
IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard that specifies the physical layer and media access control for low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs).
The release states that many newly manufactured set up boxes and internet gateways already contain ZigBee connectivity – affording developers of smart home devices the opportunity to introduce new solutions that can be connected to household’s sensor network.
A set-up box or set-top unit is defined as an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that can then be displayed on the television screen or other display.
GreenPeak RF for connected home
GreenPeak Technologies claims to be a key contributor to developing the Wi-Fi wireless connectivity standard providing high speed Internet and network connections for the smart home.
According to the company, ZigBee is the the low power version of Wi-Fi and is “ideally suited for connecting sentrollers (sensors, actuators and controllers) to the internet.”
Mareca Hatler, director of Research at ON World, a US business intelligence company:“ZigBee is dominating the IEEE 802.15.4 ecosystem and is set to lead the Smart Home and Internet of Things (IoT) market.
“Annual shipments for IEEE 802.15.4 low power wireless chipsets doubled in 2014 and are on track to increase by 550% by 2020. ZigBee standards are expected to be used in 80% of the 802.15.4 annual chipset shipments.”