NXP Semiconductors recently introduced the MCX W series of wireless microcontrollers, which claims to have the industry's first integrated wireless microcontroller with Bluetooth channel detection technology. the MCX W series adds multi-protocol, software-upgradeable connectivity to its MCX product line, designed to provide greater future-proofing and flexibility for industrial and IoT devices. the MCX W series of microcontrollers can provide secure wireless connectivity for edge devices supporting protocols such as Matter, Thread and Zigbee. series microcontrollers are capable of providing secure wireless connectivity to edge devices supporting protocols such as Matter, Thread, Zigbee and Bluetooth Low Power. This series optimizes and extends on NXP Semiconductors' FRDM development platform and the MCX portfolio of device architectures, core processors, peripherals and MCUXpresso development tools to create a scalable microcontroller platform. This platform is designed to simplify the rapid development process for new products or to quickly position new application scenarios in the industrial and IoT markets.
NXP Semiconductors announced in their latest announcement that their new product portfolio includes the industry's first wireless microcontrollers to support the new Bluetooth channel detection standard. This new standard significantly improves the accuracy and security of distance measurements compared to traditional Bluetooth technology, which is an important advancement for a wide range of applications including, but not limited to, security access control, asset tracking, and indoor navigation systems.
In addition, the MCX W-series microcontrollers are able to perfectly complement NXP's Trimension family of products, which is a series of ultra-wideband (UWB) security radar and precision ranging products. NXP said the launch of the MCX W series will help drive environmental computing technology to a wider range of market segments and applications, opening up more possibilities. NXP Semiconductors' MCX W-series wireless microcontrollers support standalone or host architectures and remain pin- and software-compatible, making it easy for developers to migrate to the component that best suits the needs of their particular application. The MCX W71x and W72x series of microcontrollers are powered by a 96MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor core. Both series are equipped with a separate wireless subsystem that has dedicated cores to share the load of the main CPU, ensuring that the main CPU can focus on the main application, while additional memory resources are available to support software updates. In addition, they integrate the NXP EdgeLock Secure Enclave core profile to provide advanced security.
This new family of microcontrollers is capable of operating over a wide operating temperature range of -40°C to 125°C and is designed with a wide range of peripherals for industrial applications, including CAN interfaces. They are also part of NXP's 15-year product long-term supply program, ensuring that they can support long-term stable use in industrial applications.
The MCX W71x family provides a single-chip solution for simplifying IoT devices or for use as a co-processor in host architectures. This family of microcontrollers can work seamlessly with NXP's extensive MCX microcontroller family, i.MX RT crossover microcontrollers and i.MX application processors to operate as a network or wireless co-processor through a complete software solution.
The MCX W72x series has been further enhanced with the addition of Bluetooth channel detection technology and a dedicated on-chip positioning computation engine gas pedal to reduce ranging latency. In addition, the family incorporates additional memory to support application-specific code, connectivity stacks and over-the-air firmware updates. The wireless subsystem is also able to process the full Thread or Zigbee stack while running the Bluetooth low-power stack. This means more reliable wireless performance is provided as the real-time operations of the wireless can run independently on a different core than the application.
