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Rockchip Announces RKi6000 WiFi SoC for ULP IoT
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Rockchip Announces RKi6000 WiFi SoC for ULP IoT

Today at Computex in Taiwan, Rockchip announced a ultra-low-power WiFi SoC for IoT devices. The RKi6000 promises huge jumps in power efficiency, and the ability to provide WiFi connectivity at the levels of Bluetooth Low-Energy. The RKi6000 is a 802.11b WiFi combo-chip with up to 11Mbps data transfer rates. Rockchip explains that it achieves such drastic improvements in low power in the following ways:

– Improvements in wireless communication and radio-frequency architecture:  Rockchip’s patented technology greatly reduces an IoT smart device’s power consumption by receiving and transmitting data continuously, enabling devices to achieve ultra-low power consumption while in standby and in use. 
 
– Adaptive Dynamic Power Control Technology:   improves power efficiency in different working modes, greatly reducing all-over power consumption in different application scenarios and adjusting the chip’s power configuration according to data transmission requirements and actual transmission quality, achieving the best energy efficiency ratio. 
 
– Technological innovation – connects to Wi-Fi without waking up the main-control processor:   for IoT applications requiring long standby times while remaining online, the Rockchip RKi6000 maintains its Wi-FI connection without waking up the main-control processor, simplifying the power consumption system’s design and extending battery life.   
 
Comparing the RXi6000 to other competing solutions from Broadcom, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments or Gainspan shows significant reduction in Rx power, with up to 3 times less power than the next-best WiFi solution.

While Rockchip has a clear advantage in power over other LP WiFi chipsets, it’s the comparison with other low-power transmission technologies that Rockchip is able to show its true strength:

When comparing the RKi6000 running WiFi 802.11b at 11Mbps, the chipset is able to present an order of magnitude of improvement over other technologies such as Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate, Bluetooth LE or Zigbee. The fact that this is a WiFi technology simplifies deployment and development of IoT application as it is able to use connections provided by standard infrastructures.  Applicable product categories include wearables, home appliances, home automation and safety. The RKi6000 starts availability in Q3 2015.

Rockchip Announces RKi6000 WiFi SoC for ULP IoT
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Rockchip Announces RKi6000 WiFi SoC for ULP IoT

Today at Computex in Taiwan, Rockchip announced a ultra-low-power WiFi SoC for IoT devices. The RKi6000 promises huge jumps in power efficiency, and the ability to provide WiFi connectivity at the levels of Bluetooth Low-Energy. The RKi6000 is a 802.11b WiFi combo-chip with up to 11Mbps data transfer rates. Rockchip explains that it achieves such drastic improvements in low power in the following ways:

– Improvements in wireless communication and radio-frequency architecture:  Rockchip’s patented technology greatly reduces an IoT smart device’s power consumption by receiving and transmitting data continuously, enabling devices to achieve ultra-low power consumption while in standby and in use. 
 
– Adaptive Dynamic Power Control Technology:   improves power efficiency in different working modes, greatly reducing all-over power consumption in different application scenarios and adjusting the chip’s power configuration according to data transmission requirements and actual transmission quality, achieving the best energy efficiency ratio. 
 
– Technological innovation – connects to Wi-Fi without waking up the main-control processor:   for IoT applications requiring long standby times while remaining online, the Rockchip RKi6000 maintains its Wi-FI connection without waking up the main-control processor, simplifying the power consumption system’s design and extending battery life.   
 
Comparing the RXi6000 to other competing solutions from Broadcom, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments or Gainspan shows significant reduction in Rx power, with up to 3 times less power than the next-best WiFi solution.

While Rockchip has a clear advantage in power over other LP WiFi chipsets, it’s the comparison with other low-power transmission technologies that Rockchip is able to show its true strength:

When comparing the RKi6000 running WiFi 802.11b at 11Mbps, the chipset is able to present an order of magnitude of improvement over other technologies such as Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate, Bluetooth LE or Zigbee. The fact that this is a WiFi technology simplifies deployment and development of IoT application as it is able to use connections provided by standard infrastructures.  Applicable product categories include wearables, home appliances, home automation and safety. The RKi6000 starts availability in Q3 2015.

Google Announces Project Brillo and Weave for IoT
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Google Announces Project Brillo and Weave for IoT

As part of today’s announcements at I/O 2015, Google announced a new operating system and API targeted at the Internet-of-Things (IoT) space.

Starting off with the new OS, under the codename of Project Brillo, Google promises a very stripped down Android-derivative operating system. Google explains that it keeps the lower-level components of Android such as the specific Linux kernel modifications and hardware abstraction layers. Device, and most importantly SoC manufacturers can reuse and continue basing their software stacks on the Android frameworks that have been standardized in the mobile space. Project Brillo is meant to offer a versatile OS with minimal system requirements for IoT devices such as for example your thermostat or light switch.

To make use and interconnect the IoT ecosystem, Google also announces WEAVE, which is an API framework meant to standardize communications between all these devices. We still don’t have much technical information yet, but from code-snippets given in the presentation it looks like a straightforward simple and descriptive syntax standard in JSON format. WEAVE is a platform-agnostic API that can be implemented by any vendor and developer if they wish to do so.

Google plans to release the developer preview of Project Brillo in Q3 while the WEAVE API standard is supposed to see its publication in Q4 later in the year.

T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers
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T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers

T-Mobile has become a very different company under CEO John Legere. Since his appointment in 2012, T-Mobile has gone through several phases of their Uncarrier campaigns which aim to differentiate them from Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Both he and their advertising campaigns are not afraid to directly attack other carriers in the United States for policies that have long been dreaded by consumers.

Today they launched a new campaign targeted at Verizon users in the United States. The campaign pokes fun at the “Never Settle” tagline and #NeverSettle hashtag that Verizon has been using in their recent ad campaign to promote their LTE network. T-Mobile’s new Twitter hashtag for their campaign is #NeverSettleforVerizon, and the Never Settle Trial is a free trial of T-Mobile’s service that current Verizon customers can sign up for.

The Never Settle trial will begin on May 13, and it will work as follows. Verizon users will port their number to T-Mobile for the trial period, but hold on to their current Verizon phone. If the user was happy with their service on T-Mobile then T-Mobile will cover their Verizon Early Termination Fee (ETF) and remaining device subsidy up to a maximum of $650 when they trade in their existing Verizon phone and sign up for one of T-Mobile’s plans. If they were unhappy with the service, they can port back to Verizon and T-Mobile will cover their activation fees by sending them a prepaid Visa card for that amount, and they will also waive cost of their service while on T-Mobile.

I would assume the system is such that you keep your Verizon line during the duration of the trial, and when you port your number to T-Mobile a new number gets assigned to your Verizon account until you either leave or port back. I know on my carrier in Canada a number port request usually goes along with an account closure, so hopefully T-Mobile has planned all this out.

T-Mobile has made eight videos to promote this new campaign, and you can check those out in the source below.

T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers
  • Comments are Closed

T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers

T-Mobile has become a very different company under CEO John Legere. Since his appointment in 2012, T-Mobile has gone through several phases of their Uncarrier campaigns which aim to differentiate them from Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Both he and their advertising campaigns are not afraid to directly attack other carriers in the United States for policies that have long been dreaded by consumers.

Today they launched a new campaign targeted at Verizon users in the United States. The campaign pokes fun at the “Never Settle” tagline and #NeverSettle hashtag that Verizon has been using in their recent ad campaign to promote their LTE network. T-Mobile’s new Twitter hashtag for their campaign is #NeverSettleforVerizon, and the Never Settle Trial is a free trial of T-Mobile’s service that current Verizon customers can sign up for.

The Never Settle trial will begin on May 13, and it will work as follows. Verizon users will port their number to T-Mobile for the trial period, but hold on to their current Verizon phone. If the user was happy with their service on T-Mobile then T-Mobile will cover their Verizon Early Termination Fee (ETF) and remaining device subsidy up to a maximum of $650 when they trade in their existing Verizon phone and sign up for one of T-Mobile’s plans. If they were unhappy with the service, they can port back to Verizon and T-Mobile will cover their activation fees by sending them a prepaid Visa card for that amount, and they will also waive cost of their service while on T-Mobile.

I would assume the system is such that you keep your Verizon line during the duration of the trial, and when you port your number to T-Mobile a new number gets assigned to your Verizon account until you either leave or port back. I know on my carrier in Canada a number port request usually goes along with an account closure, so hopefully T-Mobile has planned all this out.

T-Mobile has made eight videos to promote this new campaign, and you can check those out in the source below.