GainSpan Low-Power, Apple HomeKit Reference Design for Wi-Fi-Enabled Smart Home Accessories

IoT platform is industry's first to offer full Apple HomeKit support on embedded host processor enabling low power, battery-operated HomeKit accessories

Low power, Internet of Things (IoT) solutions leader GainSpan Corporation today announced the industry’s first "hostless" architecture solution with support for Apple's latest HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP) specification release. GainSpan's low power, Wi-Fi module solutions now offer embedded HomeKit support, including a complete Software Development Kit (SDK) and a hardware reference design platform that has completed Apple's HomeKit certification. This enables product manufacturers to greatly accelerate their time-to-market for HomeKit-compatible accessories.

HomeKit from Apple is a framework supported on iOS devices that enables secure communication and control of connected accessories in the home. GainSpan's HomeKit Application Development platform is based on the new GS2200M mini module featuring GainSpan'’s custom Wi-Fi system-on-chip (SoC). This unique SoC architecture contains an integrated 802.11 b/g/n radio, dual integrated Cortex-M3 microcontrollers (MCU), extensive on-chip memory resources and a wide selection of digital plus analog interfaces that can be leveraged to host the entire HomeKit product application without need for additional external MCU’s in the system, thus reducing overall product cost, complexity and power consumption.

The GainSpan HomeKit Application Development Kit (ADK) includes an SDK supporting Apple's latest HomeKit Accessory Protocol specification, application source code examples for creating HomeKit accessories and a hardware development platform based on the GS2200M module with electrical schematics and circuit board design details.

"GainSpan's Wi-Fi SoC architecture is unique in terms of its extended memory, processing power, security and networking features, which make it an ideal platform for developing IoT end-products," says Pankaj Vyas, GainSpan vice president of software engineering. "The addition of HomeKit now provides developers with an ultra-low power Wi-Fi solution to create innovative, connected products for the home that can be managed by Apple devices."

"End product manufacturers using GainSpan's HomeKit SDK and development platform benefit from a Wi-Fi solution that provides not only pre-integrated and certified HomeKit support but is also "pre-optimized" for lowest power over a wide range of operating modes," says Richard Najarian, GainSpan senior director, solutions marketing. "Manufacturers are able to save months on their product development effort and can instead focus on innovative features and improved user experience as differentiators."

For additional product information or technical support, contact Symmetry Electronics, an authorized distributor of industry leading wireless, audio/video and embedded chips, modules and dev/eval tools. www.symmetryelectronics.com/contact-us or call (877) 466-9722.

Source: San Jose, CA. – Aug. 2, 2016