The World’s First* HD-PLC Inside Compliant Baseband IC -Configure high-speed broadband home networks using existing power lines-

*ROHM June 26 survey

ROHM has recently announced the availability of a baseband IC that complies with HD-PLC^*1 Inside, a new high-speed broadband power line communication standard developed for home appliances and industrial equipment.

Integrating compatible baseband ICs in M2M, IoT, and smart equipment makes it possible to configure a communication network using existing power lines. The BU82204MWV includes an ARM7TDMI core along with multiple interfaces to perform HD-PLC Inside baseband operations as well as TCP/IP processing and other functions. This eliminates the need to make significant modifications to existing systems and equipment, such as home appliances, lightening user development load considerably. In addition, intermittent operation^*4 is enabled, significantly reducing power consumption compared with conventional PLC devices.

In recent years, as the awareness and importance of energy conservation continues to permeate all aspects of our daily lives, smart homes and smart communities are garnering increased attention as a way to efficiently utilize existing infrastructure to save energy, for example by creating systems and networks that can monitor, control, and process environmental data and power expenditure to increase efficiency and minimize energy consumption.

Although the ROHM Group has developed a number of products that provide wireless communication, from specified low power radio modules to wireless LAN ICs, they exhibit a number drawbacks, including communication failure due to security protocols and interference as well as poor communication quality caused by obstacles such as infrastructure and buildings made of reinforced concrete and steel.

To compensate for these weaknesses, the ROHM Group has focused on utilizing HD-PLC to take advantage of power line networks and complement existing wireless communication standards. In 2012 ROHM joined the HD-PLC Alliance, and have now developed an HD-PLC Inside compliant baseband IC utilizing the collective technological strengths of the ROHM Group companies.

Pricing: $25/unit (Samples)
Availability: Now (Samples), September 2014 (OEM Quantities)

Key Features
1. Built-in TCP/IP protocol stack
An ARM7TDMI core is included for performing not only HD-PLC Inside baseband operations, but TCP/IP processing as well. Both UART and SPI interfaces ideal for embedded applications are included for communicating with the host CPU. This minimizes the amount of modifications required to existing sets, lightening development load considerably for users wanting to integrate HD-PLC functionality. In addition, software customization is enabled to provide compatibility with the ECHONET Lite^*3 communication standard for smart homes, SSL encryption, and other middleware.

2.Multiple interfaces
In addition to the UART and SPI interfaces for communicating with the host CPU, I2C, PWM, and GPIO I/F are included for connecting to different sensors, LED drivers, and other peripheral devices. Control operations are performed by the internal CPU, making system configuration easy.

3.Low power consumption
An intermittent operation function is incorporated that cuts power consumption during standby significantly compared with HD-PLC Complete^*2.

● Block Diagram

● ROHM Communication Solutions

Terminology
*1: HD-PLC (High Definition Power Line Communication)
A power line communication standard developed by Panasonic Corp. that enables high-speed transmission up to a theoretical limit of over 200Mbps, making it possible to transmit large amounts of data (i.e. movies) over the network – unlike conventional PLC.
Besides being IEEE 1901 compliant, HD-PLC has been approved by major standards organizations around the world, including CENELEC in Europe and IGRS in China.

*2: HD-PLC Complete
The original standard proposed by the HD-PLC Alliance. Compared with HD-PLC Inside, which is a lower power option for embedding in home appliances and industrial equipment, HD-PLC Complete features faster communication speeds and is intended for use in PLC communications backbone equipment, such as routers, and devices designed to handle large amounts of data.

*3: ECHONET Lite
A communications protocol developed by the ECHONET Consortium that enables control and management of home appliances through a network to minimize energy consumption.

*4: Intermittent Operation
This function eliminates unnecessary operations, such as standby, and works by stopping specific circuits within the IC to reduce power consumption.