The Testing Blog

Enables faster, more reliable RF remotes and provides freedom to operate devices Removing ‘line-of-sight’ barrier of today’s infrared remotes

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CES — Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a leader in touch- and microcontroller-based solutions, today announced that Atmel’s RF4Control platform has received ZigBee® RF4CE certification using the new ATmega128RFA1 wireless AVR® microcontroller. Atmel can now offer its customers an immediate, low-cost, easy-to-implement solution for various remote control applications using the ATmega128RFA1.

The ZigBee RF4CE specification is a standardized specification for radio frequency (RF) remote controls promoted by the ZigBee Alliance. The specification enables flexible control from nearby rooms, enables unique two-way communications between the remote and device, and delivers improved remote battery life for a variety of consumer electronic (CE) devices such as HDTV, home theater equipment, set-top boxes and other audio equipment.

“We are pleased to be among the first to have our wireless platform ZigBee RF4CE certified,” said Magnus Pedersen, product marketing director of MCU wireless solutions at Atmel Corporation. “With this certification, Atmel’s recently launched ATmega128RFA1 can now offer customers more flexibility, reliability and freedom to operate their devices from greater distances. The two-way communication between the device and remote, and by removing the ‘line-of-site’ barrier, enables our consumers to enjoy an even richer experience.”

“The certification of Atmel’s RF4Control platform is another step towards spreading ZigBee’s reach in homes everywhere,” said Benno Ritter, vice president of marketing for the ZigBee Alliance. “ZigBee RF4CE will offer manufacturers a number of advanced remote control features while offering increased flexibility and ease of use.”

“As the authorized ZigBee test lab, we are pleased to certify Atmel’s ATmega128RFA1 to develop products based on the RF4CE standard,” said Osman Sakr, chief technology officer of National Technical Systems Inc. “We look forward to testing more products and platforms to move towards interoperable RF products across multiple vendors based on this new standard.”

More Information

For more information about Atmel’s ZigBee RF4CE solutions, please click the following link: http://www.atmel.com/RF4CE.

For additional information on Atmel’s wireless microcontrollers, please click the following link: http://www.atmel.com/wireless.

ZigBee: Control your world

ZigBee is the global wireless language connecting dramatically different devices to work together and enhance everyday life. The ZigBee Alliance is a non-profit association of more than 300 member companies driving development of ZigBee wireless technology. The Alliance promotes worldwide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer electronic, energy, home, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: http://www.ZigBee.org.

About NTS

National Technical Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of engineering and testing service to the defense, aerospace, telecommunications, automotive and high technology markets. Through a world-wide network of resources, NTS provides full life-cycle product integrity support, offering world class design engineering, compliance, testing, certification, quality registration and program management. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at http://www.ntscorp.com/ or call 800-794-0926.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of capacitive touch solutions, microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry’s broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.

From http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/atmel-receives-zigbee-rf4ce-platform-certification-using-atmega128rfa1-80893507.html

Many of you who are trying to get your ZigBee product (Platform, Smart Energy, MSP or other) ready for certification might be confused with all the documents to read – the specifications, the appendices, errata, etc. All you want is to run the tests and make sure the behavior is what it’s expected to be before you go to get your product certified. In ZigBee, like in many other standards, the easiest way to do that is to emulate the Golden Unit (GU) behavior. They are, after all, the reference and they are what the tests run against so why not just do as they do?

Unfortunately, the GU’s might be a little hard to obtain. The manufacturers rarely give them out, and when they do, it’s usually at a pretty hefty price. Fear not! The Alliance has made available, through authorized test labs, the logs for those GUs. What does this mean to you? Well, now you can get these logs and just compare them to what you are observing on your own devices. Since the tests for ZigBee are conducted over the air, if you ensure that the behaviors are similar, your chances of success in certification will be pretty high. From there on, all that will be left to do is correct a few small glitches, if any, once you start your official certification testing.

If you’re looking to get any platform, product, etc. ZigBee certified, you probably know that you need to check for 802.15.4 compliance before you move on to the higher layers. However did you know that ZigBee does not mandate the implementation of the full 802.15.4 MAC layer? Some functions of the 802.15.4 MAC are actually even prohibited in ZigBee and their use will cause your platform to be non-compliant. This not only reduces the testing you have to do, but also reduces code size and complexity that is not needed for your stack. Features such as GTS, MAC security, beacon networking, and PAN ID conflict on the MAC layer are just thrown out. In other words, ZigBee will only ask that you test a relatively small portion of the 802.15.4 MAC which should come as good news to all of you out there worrying about fitting all of this code in small memory chips to cut cost!