CEL Announces ZigBee Module And Development Kit For High Performance, Low Cost Applications

Santa Clara, CA - California Eastern Laboratories (CEL) recently announced they are shipping FreeStar Pro, the world's first 32-bit ARM7 ZigBee radio module along with an enabling development kit. Based on the Freescale™ MC13224V 802.15.4 Platform-in-Package (PiP), the FreeStar Pro combines extensive processing capability with expansive on-chip memory and extremely low power consumption. The FreeStar Pro module enables designers to eliminate the external host processors typically required by 8 and 16-bit solutions, which helps simplify board designs, reduce component count, and lower overall system costs. Consequently, the module enables product designs that benefit from high performance but require low costs to make economic sense.

System designers will be able to take immediate advantage of the new evaluation and development kit for the FreeStar Pro. The kit includes three individual evaluation boards with mounted FreeStar Pro modules, plus all the peripheral accessories necessary to simulate a point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, or mesh network. Also included is Freescale's BeeKit™ wireless connectivity software. BeeKit provides developers an easy-to-use graphical user interface, plus a comprehensive code base of networking libraries, application samples, and templates. These code libraries enable development of applications in ZigBee and ZigBee PRO, as well as Simple MAC (SMAC) and IEEE 802.15.4. Developers already using BeeKit can easily port existing designs to the FreeStar Pro platform.

FreeStar Pro evaluation kits include a quick-start software package developed by LS Research, CEL's ZigBee design and development partner. This software allows system designers to quickly set up and configure a network, then run tests for range and packet error rates.

SOURCE: California Eastern Laboratories