Silicon Labs New Amazon Sidewalk SoCs to Accelerate Long-Term Adoption

Silicon Labs’ integrated hardware and software platform, intuitive development tools, and its robust expert support has positioned it as an ideal long-term partner in building advanced applications for commercial and industrial environments alike, as well as for smart homes and folks’ daily lives. Its ongoing mission also homes in on empowering developers to create wirelessly connected devices that bolster economic efforts and, at the end of the day, improve lives. (i.e. for connected device securities, energy efficiency, healthcare, infrastructure innovation, sustainable smart grids and cities, etc.)

That’s the backstory. Now, for today’ Silicon Labs (News - Alert)-related news story:

At a recent conference chock-full of boundary-pushing IoT pioneers, Silicon Labs made an announcement. Specifically, the company announced a new family of systems-on-chips (SoCs) that are optimized for Amazon Sidewalk. Silicon Labs also laid out a highly extensive “Developer’s Journey” that provides step-by-step directions and expert advice for Amazon Sidewalk development.

Here are the top takeaways:

• The products: Silicon Labs’ SG23 and SG28 SoCs.
   
• This new Silicon Labs device family gives developers an easier on-ramp for Amazon Sidewalk projects. Given there’s no real one-size-fits-all measure for IoT development in 2023, Silicon Labs has provided a breadth of capabilities via this new family of devices. (e.g. the BG line of Bluetooth SoCs, the ZG line of Z-Wave SoCs, and the aforementioned SG family of SoCs optimized for Sidewalk.)
   
• The always-on, community-driven Amazon Sidewalk network is perfect for Silicon Labs’ new SoCs. The network currently uses three different radios (via Bluetooth LE for device provisioning and nearby device connectivity, sub-GHz FSK for connectivity up to one mile, and a proprietary CSS (News - Alert) radio for long-range use cases. For this, the SG23 provides security and a robust sub-GHz link budget for long-range, end-node devices, and the SG28 includes two dual-band SoCs with radios for sub-GHz FSK and Bluetooth LE.
   
• Developers that require additional Sidewalk-related assistance now have it. Since this past March (when Amazon Sidewalk was opened for developers), what became clear is that – given it’s simply very new – educating developers on how to best create devices for it became a priority. Recognizing this, Silicon Labs has worked with directly with Amazon to create that Developer’s Journey we talked about earlier. Spanning 12 steps (and organized into three stages), Developer’s Journey guides developers through the entire process; from determining if the targeted region has proper Sidewalk coverage, to device deployment as well as how to continually maintenance and support what’s in the field.

"Amazon Sidewalk has brought many unique features for device developers, along with several unique requirements," said Jake Alamat, Senior Vice President of Home and Life IoT at Silicon Labs. "By working closely with Amazon, we've been a leader in how to arm developers with the hardware, software, and development tools they need to navigate the Amazon Sidewalk development process."

The new Amazon Sidewalk SoCs are generally available today through Silicon Labs and its distribution partners.