Texas Instruments Unveils the SimpleLink CC33xx Family of Internet of Things Wireless Chips

Texas Instruments has announced a new family of SimpleLink "companion integrated circuits" which, it says, offers energy-efficient Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (BLE) connectivity "in any environment" — including in temperatures over 220°F.

"Adding a secure and robust wireless connection to an industrial design such an EV [Electric Vehicle] charging system that operates in an outdoor and potentially hard-to-reach environment is challenging and especially costly for designers," claims TI's Marian Kost in support of the company's new launch. "Our new SimpleLink family of Wi-Fi devices makes it significantly more affordable and simpler to implement the latest Wi-Fi technologies in more places than ever before."

The TI SimpleLink CC3300 and CC3301 chips are split according to their functionality. The lowest-cost CC3300 offers Wi-Fi 6 connectivity alone; the CC3301 adds Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (BLE) support. In both cases, they need to be paired with a host microcontroller — setting them apart from TI's combined microcontroller-and-radio SimpleLink designs. Here, though, there's no vendor tie-in: TI says that the chips are happy working with "many other companies' MCUs [Microcontroller Units] and processors that support Linux or real-time operating systems" as well as its own offerings in that area.

Both parts are to launch in a quad flat no-lead (QFN) package, and are to be followed by "pin-to-pin compatible" CC33xx variants which add dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi connectivity later in the year. Parts are now sampling, TI has confirmed, while an evaluation board — the BP-CC3301 — is available to purchase direct from the company at $39, but volume production of the chips isn't expected until towards the end of the year.

More information is available on the TI website, with pricing expected to start at $1.60 in 1,000-unit tray quantities.