 Silicon Laboratories offers a family of optimized microcontrollers,
development kits, modules and software to simplify and speed product
development for IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee applications. IEEE 802.15.4
and ZigBee are rapidly becoming the standards of choice for low data
rate wireless applications. IEEE 802.15.4 defines a robust radio (PHY)
and medium access control (MAC) layer, and ZigBee defines the network,
security and application framework for an IEEE 802.15.4-based system.
Silicon Labs’ industry-compliant 802.15.4 and ZigBee development
platforms benefit customers by ensuring multi-vendor interoperability.
 Silicon Labs offers 802.15.4 and ZigBee development kits that allow
customers to focus on application development rather than hardware
selection. These comprehensive kits include all the hardware and
software needed to immediately begin developing 802.15.4 or ZigBee
network solutions.
- Demonstration GUI
- Graphical representation of 13 ZigBee topologies
- Three demo applications to monitor data from any of the
networked devices: temperature, received signal strength
indicator (RSSI) and thumbwheel (analog)
- 802.15.4 MAC-level application development
- ZigBee application development
- Silicon Labs Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
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Silicon Labs’ highperformance,
8051-based,
mixed-signal MCUs are
ideally suited for 802.15.4
and ZigBee applications.
By combining highprecision
analog
peripherals with a low
current consumption,
high-throughput (up
to 100MIPS) 8051
CPU, and up to 128 kb
of on-chip Flash memory,
these devices provide the
optimum platform for a variety of wireless automation,
industrial, medical and building monitoring and control
applications. 
Silicon Laboratories and ZigBee
protocol stack developer
Helicomm have co-developed
a family of 802.15.4 and
ZigBee-ready modules
that provide customers
with drop-in wireless solutions to
reduce time to market and simplify the task
of adding wireless connectivity to their products.
Each module includes an optimized 8051-based MCU, an
802.15.4 compliant radio, programmable I/Os and flexible
antenna options. These modules support customers to either
embed applications or use them as plug and play modems. 
Star network topologies are commonly referred to as
point-to-point and point-to-multipoint networks.
This topology can be supported by either
ZigBee or 802.15.4. In this network, all
devices are limited to “single-hop”
communications. Typical applications
for star networks include garage door
openers and remote controls.
These topologies specifically utilize
the ZigBee networking layer to
support “multi-hop” communications
which allows data from one device
to be relayed to another device via
intermediary devices. By relying
on these intermediary devices, the
range of a given network can be
significantly increased while at the
same time limiting the power consumption of each device.
Security systems, industrial sensor networks, and lighting
control systems are examples of applications that can benefit
tremendously from ZigBee’s ability to support these dynamic
topologies. 