Silicon Labs Launches the Next-Gen Z-Wave 700 on the Wireless Gecko Platform

The IoT (Internet of Things) is not only here to stay, but growing rapidly. As the industry matures, however, both consumers and developers are demanding more robust and versatile platforms. The next generation of IoT devices will need to be more powerful, more sophisticated, and more energy-efficient. Yesterday’s IoT showed consumers the potential of the technology, but Silicon Labs’ new Z-Wave 700 is designed to realize those possibilities.

In April of this year, Silicon Labs acquired Z-Wave technology, which was known for its wide interoperability with IoT devices across the market. That’s an extremely vital quality in today’s ecosystem of competing IoT standards and protocols. Consumers don’t want to worry about whether their new smart home device will be compatible with the rest of their network; they just want it to work seamlessly. Now, Silicon Labs is expanding on that proven Z-Wave technology and launching their smartest IoT platform yet.

The Z-Wave 700 is based on the Wireless Gecko platform, which is a line of SoC modules built around the Arm Cortex-M4 MCU. The Wireless Gecko SoCs are available with a range of connectivity options, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, Thread mesh networking, and proprietary communication ranging from 2.4GHz down to sub-GHz frequencies. Developers are free to use whichever SoC best suits their application.

With the Z-Wave 700’s powerful Cortex-M4 processor and generous integrated memory, developers can create systems with greater intelligence at the edge and with secure inclusion. The Z-Wave 700 has no requirements for external memory or regionalized SAW filters, so a single SKU can be used globally — improving logistics and reducing the cost of global production. More importantly for consumers, the Z-Wave 700 platform is very energy-efficient and offers 10-years of battery life from a single coin-cell, which will free them from their electrical sockets.

Silicon Labs is shipping Z-Wave 700 units to 150 beta customers within the Z-Wave Alliance, and full-scale production is planned for the end of Q1 2019. For product pricing information, contact your local Silicon Labs sales rep or authorized distributor. Further details on the Z-Wave line of products are available at silabs.com/z-wave.