Vishay's Royalty-Free Software Protocol Enables Infrared Wireless Communication for Texas Instruments' MSP430 MCU Platform

(Product News, 10 Mar 2008)

Vishay Intertechnology Inc. has released Courier-115, a royalty-free wireless software protocol for devices that are based on the Texas Instruments Inc.'s (TI) ultra-low power MSP430 microcontroller (MCU) platform. Targeted at the data logger, personal biometer, and industrial metering markets, the Courier-115 provides the basis for simple and fast infrared communication supporting data rates up to 115kbps. It enables extremely low-cost, proprietary wireless communication in products like glucose meters or water meters.

As a member of the Texas Instruments Developer Network, Vishay developed the Courier-115 software based on MSP430 MCUs, the industry's lowest-power, 16-bit general purpose MCUs. The combination of the MSP430 MCU's extremely low-power standby current with an instant-on active mode and fully synchronized, high-speed system clock enables the trend toward smaller, lower-cost applications. Vishay's Courier-115 complements this low power consumption with a wake-up-listen-sleep routine, resulting in an average current of 1µA.

Courier-115's small code size and small RAM requirement help ease the adoption of unregulated infrared wireless communication. It also features a flexible software library, which allows direct access to lower layers and simplified subroutine calls.

Click here for more information on the Courier-115 software protocol

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