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Source at commit 5c5a93686b7e8985872ed451f53933f5303eba1c created 7 years 4 months ago.
By Stefan Schmidt, atusb/fw: update changelog for 0.3 firmware release
1IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)
2============================================================
3
4
5IEEE 802.15.4 defines physical layers and a media access control for
6wireless networks. ZigBee and 6loWPAN are based on IEEE 802.15.4.
7
8This project aims to add experimental WPAN functionality to the Ben
9NanoNote, in order to permit evaluation of overall network performance
10and to examine possible integration into future devices.
11
12This work is licensed under the terms detailed in the file COPYING.
13
14
15Hardware history
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17
18IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver chips are available from several manufacturers,
19including Atmel, Freescale, and Texas Instruments. These chips are similar
20in size, functionality, and cost. The first prototype of this project was
21based on the Atmel AT86RF230.
22
23The initial plan was to place the RF module on the left side of the LCD
24module of the Ben NanoNote, replacing part of the display's PCB. When
25installed in the Ben, the transceiver would connect directly via SPI to
26the Jz4720. For development, a SiLabs C8051F326 microcontroller
27implemented a USB to SPI conversion.
28
29Then Rikard Lindstrom came up with the idea of using the Ben's 8:10 card
30slot as a general expansion interface, which led to the idea of making
31a WPAN card in that form factor, with the benefit of being readily usable
32with any Ben already in existence.
33
34Thus the project was split in two parts: the atben card that had only the
35transceiver chip and would be used with the Ben, and the atusb card that
36would be similar to the original design but abandoned its clear physical
37separation of USB and RF.
38
39Meanwhile, an improved version of the AT86RF230, the AT86RF231, became
40available and the designs were updated for it. It also turned out that
41the clock from the Ben was too noisy to be used as a clock source for
42the transceiver. Therefore, a crystal was added to the atben design.
43
44Finally, the SiLabs C8051F326 was replaced by an ATmega32U2, mainly
45because the latter has a larger Flash memory and greater community
46acceptance.
47

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