Press Release

18 Sep 2002

Chipcon Launches the CC1010

Oslo, Norway: Chipcon AS, a leading provider of standardized and customized RF-ICs, confirms its leading position within the short-range, low-power RF-IC market by announcing the release of the industry's first single-chip 300-1000 MHz CMOS RF transceiver and microcontroller IC.

Chipcon's award winning CMOS CC1000 RF transceiver has been integrated on a single die with an industry standard 8051 microcontroller core including on-chip flash non-volatile memory.

The CC1010 is designed primarily for FSK systems in the 315, 433, 868 and 915 MHz ISM/SRD bands, but can easily be programmed for operation at other frequencies between 300 and 1000 MHz.

Based on the same proprietary SmartRF^®02 technology platform as the successful CC1000 RF transceiver, Chipcon's customers can now to an even higher degree benefit from the unique features offered by this technology, including low-power, low-cost, high performance, flexibility and maximum integration.

"With the CC1010, Chipcon's designers have once again confirmed the company's strong position in RF technology", says Geir Førre, CEO and President of Chipcon. "The CC1010, like the CC1000 before it will be a winner out on the market for developers of low cost, miniaturized wireless systems that require a low power two-way communication link. The best of all is that the CC1010 has plenty of processing power, flash memory and peripherals to build a complete RF system – with only a single die!" Targeted applications include e.g. home automation, wireless alarm and security systems, automatic meter reading systems, game pad controllers and other intelligent toys and products.

"Our strategy is to focus on providing manufacturers of short-range wireless communication products with the next generation products. The CC1010 and its product family enables our customers to meet the challenge of designing innovative products while minimizing time-to-market," says VP Sales, Sverre Dale Moen. Key features of the transceiver is: very low current consumption, high sensitivity (typically –107 dBm), programmable output power up to 10 dBm, FSK modulation with a data rate up to 76.8 kbit/s, programmable carrier frequency, bit-synchronization, and a RSSI output that can be sampled by the on-chip ADC.

The CC1010 on-chip micro controller is compatible with the industry standard Intel 8051 controller but with approximately 2.5 times improved speed. Data memory for the controller is provided on-chip via two blocks of SRAM (128 byte and 2 kByte). CC1010 has 32 kByte of on-chip, in-system, self programmable, nonvolatile flash program memory. Additional features include a three-channel 10-bit analog to digital converter (ADC), real-time clock (RTC) with it's own 32 kHz crystal oscillator, programmable watchdog timer (WDT), two 8051 timers and two timers/PWM, two programmable serial UARTs, master SPI interface and 26 configurable general I/O-pins.

The supply voltage of CC1010 is 2.7 to 3.6 V and the chip is provided with on-chip power-on-reset (POR) and brown-out circuitry.

The CC1010 is supported by comprehensive world-class development tools that make it quick and easy for designers to evaluate the performance of the chip and develop their own RF products. In-circuit interactive debugging is supported for the Keil µVision IDE through a simple serial interface. A large code library and many application examples are provided. Powered by the SmartRF® Studio Software for easy RF testing, the development kit shortens development time considerably, and makes RF development easier than ever before.

The CC1010 is available in a TQFP 64 package. Pricing is down to 3.6 USD in million quantities. Samples and development kits are available.

For further information contact:

• Sverre Dale Moen, VP Sales
  Tel: +47 22 95 87 92
  Email: s.d.moen@chipcon.com
• Birgit Opland, VP Marketing
  Tel: +47 22 95 83 19
  Email: b.opland@chipcon.com

About Chipcon AS

Chipcon is a leading fabless semiconductor design and manufacturing company. Chipcon's standard RF-ICs provide low cost, low power and high performance RF solutions for a large number of wireless applications. Chipcon also offers turnkey ASIC development, supporting customers from initial project ideas to volume production. Chipcon's single-chip high-performance RF transceivers and transmitters target low-power wireless applications in the 315/433/868/915 MHz bands and are distributed worldwide. Get more information from www.chipcon.com.

About Keil Software

Keil Software makes C compilers, macro assemblers, real-time kernels, debuggers, simulators, integrated environments, and evaluation boards for the 8051, 251, C16x/ST10, and ARM7 microcontroller families. Products available from Keil Software include embedded development tools, evaluation software, product updates, application notes, example code, and technical support. More information is available from www.keil.com.