Updated: 29-Mar-2023
Some integrated circuits or modules providing wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Public Land Mobile Radio aka 2G/3G/4G, etc.) or satellite positioning, can host some customer code. Below, some of them.
Note (on the 29-Mar-2023): I haven’t been updating this post for almost a year now. It may contain some old references that are no more valid. I will review it some time soon.
Wi-Fi
- SPWF04SA and SPWF04SC, from STMicroelectronics – STM32F4 microcontroller, UART/SPI, GPIO, HTTP, MQTT, SMTP, WebSockets, MicroPython scripting engine
- ESP-WROOM-32 and ESP32, from Espressif Systems – Bluetooth as well – ESP-WROOM-32 is at 6.00 € at Olimex (Jan-2017)
- ODIN-W2, from u-blox – Wi-Fi/BT gateway, with ARM mbed OS 5 – evaluation kit for 129 € (Oct-2016)
- muRata LBWA1ZZ1JQ
- NL6621 from 新岸线(Nufront) – user forum – Y1 module available on Taobao for US$2.21 (Jan-2016)
- LinkIt Smart 7688, from seeed and MediaTek – US$ 12.90 (Dec-2015)
- FlyportPRO Wi-Fi – open source – 35€ (Jun-2015)
- Photon, from Particle (formerly Spark), for US$19 (May-2015)
- Econais modules
- a module based on ESP8266, from Espressif Systems, for US$6.95 (Dec-2014)
- SAM W25 from Atmel
- CC3200 from TI
- Carambola from 8devices, on open source module
- SX-570 and SX-580 from Silex
- WF121 from Bluegiga (Bluegiga acquired by Silicon Labs – 03-Feb-2015)
- Rabbit 6000 from Digi
- WL11 from NPE
- AX22001 and AX22011 from ASIX
LoRaWAN
- KG100S, from Quectel NEW
- FMLR RF module, from Miromico – Renesas S3A6 ARMCortex-M4 microcontroller, LoRaWAN stack, GPIO, SPI, I2C, USB, UART
- SAM R34/R35, from Microchip – Arm Cortex-M0+ – around US$ 5 in 5000 quantity (Nov-2018)
- Type ABZ module, from Murata – FSK, OOK, LoRa, LoRaWAN – STM32L0 MCU
AcSIP modules– Cortex core + SX1276 or SX1278- MultiConnect xDot, from Multitech – run ARM’s mbed OS – LoRaWAN 1.0.1 – Sep-2016
- RM1xx, from Laird – LoRaWAN + Bluetooth 4.0 – around 16 € (Aug-2016)
- LoPy – implements LoRaWAN. Can be used as a nano gateway. Pre-order for shipping Aug-2016: 29.95 €
- LoRaONE – on Kickstarter – GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer, I/Os… – 89 € (Apr-2016)
- Adafruit Feather 32u4 RFM95W LoRa Radio – 900MHz – US$ 39.95 (Apr-2016)
- MultiConnect mDot, from MultiTech – runs ARM’s mbed OS
Sigfox
- WS2118-00 SIGFOX BLE module from Jorjin
- AX-SFEU-API from ON Semiconductor
- the Sigfox list of dev kits
ZigBee
- Mighty Gecko from Silicon Labs – supports Thread – US$2.11 in 100,000-unit quantities (Feb-2016)
- SAMR21 and ATmegaRFR2 series from Atmel
- CC2650 from TI – ultra low-power – supports other 2.4 GHz technologies – around US$7 in 1000-unit qty (Mar-2015)
- CC2630 from TI – ultra low-power – around US$5 in 1000-unit qty (Mar-2015)
- CC2538 from TI – around US$4 in 1000-unit qty (Feb-2015)
- JN516x from NXP
- Kinetis KW2x from Freescale
- STM32W Series from STMicroelectronics
Bluetooth
- CC2340 from TI
- CC2642R from TI
- see ESP-WROOM-32 and ESP32, in Wi-Fi section
- NINA-B1, from u-blox – BLE, ARM mbed OS 5 – evaluation kit for 69 € (Oct-2016) – starting from 6.78 € (250 – 499 pcs) (Apr-2017)
- Kinetis KW41Z MCU family from NXP – Cortex-M0+, up to 512 KB Flash and 128 KB SRAM, Bluetooth low energy v4.2, IEEE 802.15.4 based Thread protocol
- SmartBond DA14681 from Dialog Semiconductor – can recharge batteries over a USB interface, hardware crypto engine, external memory interface, Cortex-M0
- BlueNRG-1 from ST – Cortex-M0, 160 KB Flash – digital microphone input, DAC, SPI, I2C, UART, I/O – budgetary pricing: US$ 1.50 (Jul-2016)
- OSHChip – open source module – Cortex-M0, 256 KB Flash, 32 KB RAM – UART, ADC, I/O, SPI, I2C, etc. – US$ 25 (Jan-2016)
- BTLC100 from Atmel – ultra-low power Bluetooth SMART – from US$1.54 at 1K qty (Oct-2015)
- RL78/G1D from Renesas – BLE – under development (Jul-2015)
- Bluz, an open-source project on Kickstarter – US$19 (May-2015)
- BT121 from Silicon Labs – around 18 € (Mouser – Aug-2015)
- Blue Gecko wireless SoCs from Silicon Labs – US$0.99 in 100,000-unit quantities (Feb-2016)
- CC2640 from TI – ultra low-power – around US$3 in 1000-unit qty (Mar-2015)
- CC2541 from TI
- DA14580 from Dialog Semiconductor (OTP memory)
- EZ-BLE Module from Cypress
- PRoC BLE from Cypress
- nRF52 from Nordic Semiconductor – BLE with NFC
- nRF51822 from Nordic Semiconductor – Development Kit: 79 € (Mouser – Jul-2014)
- nRF52832 from Nordic Semiconductor – Bluetooth LE + ANT, Cortex-M4F, on-chip NFC tag – Development Kit: 39 € (Mouser – Dec-2016)
- ISP130301 from Insight SiP
- TC35667 from Toshiba
- OLP425 from connectBlue
- CSR µEnergy® Product Family: for keyboards, mice, remote controls, watches, sports equipment, health sensors and home automation
- BlueCore5 Multimedia from CSR
- BLE112 from Bluegiga (Bluegiga acquired by Silicon Labs – 03-Feb-2015)
6LoWPAN
- LTC5800-IPM from Linear, with SmartMesh IP On-Chip SDK
Misc. short-range radio
Misc.
- CC1310 from TI – sub-1GHz ultra-low-power – Cortex-M3 – Cortex-M0 dedicated to RF – on-chip DC-DC converter
PLMN (i.e. cellular)
- Qualcomm 9205 LTE Modem – Cat-M1, Cat-NB2, IPv4/IPv6 stack, location (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo), security support, ADC, SPI, I2C, PWM, UART, GPIO, USB, LTE IoT SDK
- Exynos 7 Dual 7270, from Samsung – Cortex-A53, GPU Mai-T720, LTE category 4, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, FM radio, GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou), camera, video codecs
- FlyportPRO GPRS – open source – 40€ (Jun-2015)
- Electron, from Particle (formerly Spark), for US$39 (May-2015)
- rapidM2M M120 and rapidM2M M220 from Microtronics
- some cellular modules from Gemalto
- GE910, HE910, UE910, UE866 and UL865 cellular modules from Telit, using either Python or C/C++ with ARM compiler
- AirPrime Embedded Wireless Modules from Sierra Wireless
- c4evo and other c4 modules from Mobile Devices
Unlicensed bands
GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System)
To be continued…