EYE ON NPI - Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC33xx Family

This week's EYE ON NPI is a super connector - it's the Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC33xx Family (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/texas-instruments/simplelink-wi-fi-cc33xx-family) with 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi 6 support, plus optional Bluetooth LE, in a low cost co-processor you can add to any microcontroller project you have to instantly IoT-ify it. This family of chips is a big upgrade in the CC3 family, and looks like a very competitive solution to existing market chips - we're excited to see how TI has adapted to the existing market to bring this compelling offering. Oh the TI CC3x series, how you've grown! We first met you back when it was the CC3000, a radical WiFi co-processor with the (at-the-time) astonishing price of ~$10 per module. At the time, we crafted an Arduino-compatible shield and a breakout board (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/overview) as well as an Arduino port of the TCP/IP mini-stack so that folks could do amazing things like get the time (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/internettime), read a web page (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/webclient) or even send a Tweet (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/sendtweet). The big thing was making it so you weren't spending the $50 it cost up-till-then to add a full-linux-system-as-peripheral (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1498). Since then, TI has released some updated versions, such as the CC3100 (https://www.digikey.com/short/9cp431pr), which added 802.11n and lower power draw - we saw it featured in a few micropython projects (https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/08/24/micropython-name-badge-from-emf-2016/) thanks to the core driver support (https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/drivers/cc3100). And after that, the CC3200 series (https://www.digikey.com/short/9289jcq3), which added TLS/SSL support and had an internal ARM Cortex-M4 that could run code on its own, like MicroPython! (https://github.com/micropython/micropython/blob/master/ports/cc3200/README.md) So it's no surprise that TI is continuing to press their WiFi family forward, to now the CC33xx! The new Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC33xx Family (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/texas-instruments/simplelink-wi-fi-cc33xx-family) comes with 4 variants: the CC330x have 2.4GHz WiFi only, where-as the CC335x add 5GHz for an additional cost. Likewise, the CC33x0 have only WiFi, and the CC33x1 have WiFi+BLE. Since all the chips / modules are pin-compatible, you can develop with one and then change in production to whatever final setup suits your product. Like the earlier chips, these chips are expected to be connected to a main processor: either a microcontroller or microcomputer, over SPI or SDIO. SPI will work great for your smaller micros, SDIO is great when you have the speed and bandwidth to shift a lot more data around. When connecting over BLE, use the UART-with-flow control - that's the standard for a "BTLE Host Controller Interface" communications (https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specification/HTML/Core-60/out/en/host-controller-interface/uart-transport-layer.html). Of course, there's no way you'll want to write a driver for this kind of complex chip - so visit the CC33xx software download page (https://www.ti.com/tool/CC33XX-SOFTWARE) which has software in the form of Linux kernel patch/drivers for beefy chips, or an microcontroller with an RTOS - follow their porting guide to get it running on a non-TI chipset (https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=A__AEIJm0rwIeU.2P1OBWwlaA__CC33XX-RTOS-MCU__dzPVh4K__LATEST) Now you're probably saying "OK cool but I don't want to do a bunch of RF layout, I want a nice tinned module i can slap down and connect my RP-SMA or chip antenna" - and not surprisingly, it looks like there's a CC3301 module (https://www.ti.com/product/CC3301MOD) in pre-production with an optimistic budgetary price of $2.88 - that's for 2.4GHz + BLE. For the 5GHz CC3351MOD (https://www.ti.com/product/CC3351MOD) the price is $3.50. Sans BLE the CC3350MOD (https://www.ti.com/product/CC3350MOD) is $3.13. If you want a peek at what the CC3301 module might look like, the BoosterPack product page has a tantalizing glimpse (https://www.ti.com/tool/BP-CC3301MOD). You can sign up at TI's site for updates on the release schedule, or chat with your DigiKey sales rep and they'll let you know when the part makes it into general distribution. Until then, you can get plenty of TI CC3350 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3z7tqtrp) and CC3351 (https://www.digikey.com/short/hmqzwv5j) bare chips: they're both in stock at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Order today and you'll quickly add low-cost WiFi 6 + BLE support to your next design, with 2.4/5 GHz support so you're ready for any customer or configuration. With ready-to-go software, and great low prices, you can get your design set up with cutting-edge networking without breaking the BOM bank.