The Embedded Systems Conference runs April 3-5, in Silicon Valley. Several new Zigbee products have been announced that let engineers connect their embedded products to the internet (or each other).

ZigBee is a specification for small, low-power digital radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.

The ZigBee Alliance specification is a combination of HomeRF Lite and the 802.15.4 specification and operates over 16 channels with data transmission rates of up to 250kbps.

Wireless links can operate in three unlicensed frequency bands (2.4GHz, 868Mhz and 915MHz). ZigBee’s technology is slower than 802.11b, Bluetooth and UltraWideBand, but it consumes significantly less power and can connect up to 64,000 nodes on one network.

MaxStream announced their XBee Series 2 ZigBee module with full mesh networking built-in. The 2.4 GHz XBee Series 2, in addition to self-discovery/self-healing mesh networking, supports coordinators, routers and end devices, as well as low power sleep modes.

Based on the Ember EM250 system-on-chip, the FCC-pending XBee Series 2 features a 16-bit microprocessor, 128kb Flash memory, and four different antenna options (chip antenna, wire whip, U.FL connector, RPSMA connector).

“MaxStream products together with Ember’s proven ZigBee technology will enable new applications, and help customers bring products to market quicker,” said Nick Finamore, Ember vice president of sales & business development. Development kits will be available starting at the end of April at a price of $339.

Rabbit Semiconductor is offering WiFi and Zigbee integrated with their new RabbitCore modules. The RCM4400W is a Wi-Fi core module while the RCM4510W is a ZigBee/802.15.4 based module. Customers can now connect their embedded products to the Internet and network their devices without wiring.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 9:36 am.