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IoT Kit Unveiled at electronica Integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee Stacks

November 11, 2016 by Majeed Ahmad

Cypress’s WICED Studio 4 connectivity suite aims to simplify IoT design with a single tool and implement cloud connectivity in minutes.

Cypress unveiled its WICED Studio 4 connectivity suite at electronica this week. The kit aims to simplify IoT design with a single tool that allows hyper-fast implementation of cloud connectivity. Get your first look at Cypress's goals and the kit's features here.

Image courtesy of Cypress Semiconductor.
 

A development platform for the Internet of Things (IoT) that enables wireless connectivity in minutes: That's what Cypress Semiconductor's Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED ®) Studio 4 kit claims to offer developers. The kit is designed to be a turnkey IoT connectivity solution with multi-protocol connectivity in a single software environment.

Cypress has unveiled a new version of its WICED development kit at the electronica show which ended today in Munich, Germany. The Studio 4 kit integrates support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee protocol stacks. Furthermore, it's MCU-agnostic and supports non-Cypress microcontrollers to ensure interoperability in a diverse array of IoT applications.

 

Cypress claims WICED Studio 4.0 is the first SDK that integrates supports for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee wireless protocols. Image courtesy of Cypress Semiconductor.

Big Goals for Solving Design Issues

According to Cypress’s Brian Bedrosian, Senior Director of the IoT Business Unit, the key challenges that engineers often face in embedded connectivity applications are the interaction of multiple radios and the integration of the networking stack and cloud agents in the system. Then there are issues such as interoperability and compliance to pre-certification and testing environments.

"WICED Studio 4 is the first all-inclusive, turnkey platform for the broad market that enables IoT product developers to get connected in minutes, not weeks or months," Bedrosian said. "It offers design simplicity, superior integration, faster time-to- market, and access to a broad array of cloud services," he added, noting that these are significant advantages to those making IoT design decisions.

Cypress’s WICED Studio 4 connectivity suite is comprised of a broad set of libraries, APIs, and protocol stacks that run on multiple MCUs in a single integrated development environment (IDE), and that allows developers to quickly implement connectivity stacks. Furthermore, the fact that WICED supports popular cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Alibaba Cloud eliminates the need to implement various protocols to connect to the cloud.

About WICED Studio 4.0 SDK

The main components in the WICED Studio 4.0 software development kit (SDK) are software libraries for wireless connectivity, an automated installer, and a development environment. The development kit runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux through an Eclipse-based IDE.

Cypress’s Bedrosian says that WICED Studio 4.0 is built to reduce design cycle time. "The easy-to-use APIs provided by the WICED Application Framework abstract complexity." He added that the Studio 4.0 SDK manages complexity with a system that is validated from device-to-cloud value chain and is continuously updated.

 

APIs provided by the WICED application framework reduce design cycle time. Image courtesy of Cypress Semiconductor.

The WICED Studio 4.0 kit provides support for Apple’s HomeKit home automation platform to Apple licensees and plans to add support for China’s Weibo social media platform soon. WICED is targeted at the wearable space along with fashion, connected wellness, and clinical health segments.

Moreover, WICED can provide solutions for smart automation and control, leak detection, and climate control for heating and cooling. "These are markets served by engineering teams that usually don’t have experience in the networking space," Bedrosian said, "so they benefit the most from the integration that WICED offers."

The WICED Studio 4 kit is free and developers can access it on the Community page. Design engineers can register on the site and click "License" to start using the IoT development kit.