Developers are critical to bringing the next great innovation to all walks of life—but they often don’t want to be locked into vendor-specific tools and they need open-source communities and third-party applications to create the next great technology. They also need someone to come alongside them on the journey to certification and approval. If we want to spark great ideas and enable developers to follow through with those inevitable creations, then we need to make the processes as easy for them as possible. It’s all about collaboration.
Silicon Labs recognizes the importance announcing the Series 3 platform. The goal here is to provide compute, wireless performance, and energy efficiency, with a move to the 22-nanometer process node. With this, Silicon Labs will now be able to continue the acceleration of IoT (Internet of Things) while also meeting the demands for more processing power at far-edge devices like sensors, cameras, blood glucose monitors, and the list goes on and on.
Silicon Labs says the new Series 3 is designed to be more secure, more intelligent, more power-efficient, and more scalable. This will also open significant foundry options for this IoT organization as well.
Supporting Developers
One of the company’s objectives is to help developers and device manufacturers accelerate product designs. As such, the company’s application development and productivity tool, Simplicity Studio 6, separates the configuration and analysis tools from the integrated development environment. This will enable developers to use some of the most favored IDEs (integrated development environments) while also using Silicon Labs’ productivity tools.
Developers require choice, which means not being locked into a certain platform or tool. To meet this need, Silicon Labs has also announced an extension for Microsoft Visual Studio Code, which will enable Silicon Labs applications, new or existing, to be developed from within Visual Studio Code. A Beta release of the Silicon Labs extension is available for download today in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace that works with the latest version of Simplicity Studio 5.
Amazon Sidewalk
In addition, Silicon Labs also recently unveiled an expanded Developer Journey for Amazon Sidewalk as well as an all-new Matter Development Journey. The company says both of these will provide the tools, documentation, hardware, and support for development.
The Amazon Sidewalk network uses three different radios: Bluetooth LE for device provisioning and nearby device connectivity, sub-GHz FSK for connectivity up to one mile, and a proprietary CSS radio for extreme long-range.
In March 2023, Amazon Sidewalk opened for developers, meaning they are still learning how to best create devices for it. To this end, Silicon Labs is working with Amazon to create the Amazon Sidewalk Developer’s Journey with Silicon Labs.
Across 12 steps organized in three stages, the developer’s journey guides developers through the complete process, from determining if their targeted region has Amazon Sidewalk coverage, all the way through device deployment and ongoing support for devices in the field. Ultimately, following the Developers Journey allows device makers to be well-positioned for Amazon Web Services and Amazon Sidewalk certification and approval.
The steps are explained through technical documentation, videos, and code samples, with the option to engage a Silicon Labs expert for support.
This is simply one example of how a company is making the developer’s journey a little bit easier. We have an opportunity to spur innovative creations forward if we have the right technologies and tools to enable it. This is certainly a step in the right direction. Gotta love the developer journey!
Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #green #ecosystem #environmental #circularworld #developer