Silicon Labs includes Z-Wave in its arsenal of radio technology
Last week, a deal between Silicon Labs and Sigma Designs about buying a Z-Wave business was completed. In fact, all the developments, services and employees of Sigma Designs related to Z-Wave (and Sigma Designs had two more directions: PLC chips and media chips for STB consoles) were transferred to SiLabs.
The deal was being prepared a year, and the cost of the deal was about $ 240 million.
Even non-specialists can see that Z-Wave has become the most popular protocol in the DIY segment and is rapidly entering the security market. It is enough to compare how CES looked this year and three or four years ago: if three years ago, the “islands” of Z-Wave and ZigBee facing each other were about the same size, introducing unhappy consumers into a stupor with their similar offers, then this year, ZigBee was almost invisible, and the “island” of Z-Wave looked like a big city.
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This does not mean that ZigBee is no longer used, or that it is leaving the market. It is just that Sigma Designs and Z-Wave Alliance could make an independent brand from the Z-Wave protocol recognized by consumers in the USA and Europe. At the same time, the alliance manufacturers of the ZigBee devices, which were barely united, did not seem to set such a goal, and use the protocol as a mere transport in their solutions, without investing in the marketing of the protocol and the development of the ZigBee ecosystem.
Even at the Moscow Hi-Tech Building in 2017, the Z-Wave logo was replete with every third stand, and ZigBee was not visible at all, although the technology itself is no less popular.
It is safe to say that Sigma Designs has been able to gather around Z-Wave many powerful manufacturers, forming together a powerful ecosystem with the highest level of compatibility between themselves.
Being one of the leading manufacturers of chips for IoT, SiLabs understand how to develop protocols, how to attract and train specialists to work with their chips. Silicon Labs also has a vision of an “over-protocol” solution combining several technologies in one chip.
Z-Wave perfectly complements Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and will stand next to the virtually failed Thread and leaving for a clean ZigBee transport.
In the end, giving manufacturers the opportunity to use both Z-Wave and ZigBee simultaneously and transparently is a great idea!
Many will say, but why should they Z-Wave. There is BLE, which will soon become steeper. There are 6LowPAN and NB-IoT that will come and kill everyone in this market. But this is all about the future - we have already seen more than once how the emergence of a steep standard either does not lead to the emergence of new products at all (Thread-devices, where are you?) Or it takes 2-3 years until the first 10-15 devices appear and two more before the appearance of a whole line (this happens, for example, with HomeKit). During this time, Z-Wave itself will change. There is a counter movement: Z-Wave increases the range and speed, reducing and so low power consumption, and soon will be in the same segment, where Bluetooth LE and others like them from the class of more energy-consuming, but fast protocols are moving.
For those who have read this far, but still don’t know what Z-Wave is, I advise you to read an old, but still relevant, article A little about Z-Wave technology .
For Z-Wave, the event is definitely positive. SiLabs are not one of those companies that buy to break up. I’m sure we will see the first announcements already in 2018, and by the middle of 2019 we’ll have the radio combine chips themselves, which include several protocols right under the dome of the general SDK.
The last few years, Sigma frankly did not have enough resources to develop the protocol, to implement, FAE was not enough. Rumors say that SiLabs will fix this for sure - in terms of the scale of Sigma Designs, the new Z-Wave department will get almost unlimited resources into its own hands and many FAEs for working with customers.
In terms of reliability, this is also an important step. SiLabs is not just a more reliable and experienced manufacturer compared to Sigma Designs. SiLabs will probably be able to more successfully agree with the market players on multiple source chip production. For a while, Sigma Designs collaborated with Japanese Mitsumi, but then Z-Wave again became a single source chip, which became an obstacle for some projects of large telecom operators.
{UPD}
Along with the move to the platform, the SiLabs SDK and developer tools became available to any registered user. Not only with words, but also with the SiLabs affair shows a change in the development vector of Z-Wave.
{/ UPD}
All Sigma Designs resources have already moved to Silicon Labs.
Brief introduction
Detailed description of Z-Wave
Portal of those. support
Until now, Z-Wave has evolved as a protocol-brand. Starting in 2014, this was the Sigma Designs targeted policy: all devices on Z-Wave chips had to be certified for compatibility and had to wear the proud Z-Wave or Z-Wave Plus logo both on the device and on the box. Z-Wave chips can not be used except to create Z-Wave devices.
Obviously, this added to the recognition of Z-Wave and "filled" the price of the asset Sigma Designs, which soon became the main one.
Will Silicon Labs pursue the same policy? Is not a fact. Strict restrictions on the use of the chip prevent the manufacturer from selling these same chips. It is possible that Silicon Labs will even consider it possible to open parts of the protocol that are not yet open (see. The Z-Wave protocol is becoming open ). They understand that it is not the protocol itself that is important, but the decisions on it.
By the way, it is interesting that at about the same time, Ring, which, in addition to doorphone calls, makes a decision on Z-Wave and is one of Sigma Designs main customers, Amazon was bought for 1 billion. This means that a finished consumer solution is, of course, more valuable than the technology on which it is based.
The deal was being prepared a year, and the cost of the deal was about $ 240 million.
Why does Silicon Labs need Z-Wave?
Even non-specialists can see that Z-Wave has become the most popular protocol in the DIY segment and is rapidly entering the security market. It is enough to compare how CES looked this year and three or four years ago: if three years ago, the “islands” of Z-Wave and ZigBee facing each other were about the same size, introducing unhappy consumers into a stupor with their similar offers, then this year, ZigBee was almost invisible, and the “island” of Z-Wave looked like a big city.
')
This does not mean that ZigBee is no longer used, or that it is leaving the market. It is just that Sigma Designs and Z-Wave Alliance could make an independent brand from the Z-Wave protocol recognized by consumers in the USA and Europe. At the same time, the alliance manufacturers of the ZigBee devices, which were barely united, did not seem to set such a goal, and use the protocol as a mere transport in their solutions, without investing in the marketing of the protocol and the development of the ZigBee ecosystem.
Even at the Moscow Hi-Tech Building in 2017, the Z-Wave logo was replete with every third stand, and ZigBee was not visible at all, although the technology itself is no less popular.
It is safe to say that Sigma Designs has been able to gather around Z-Wave many powerful manufacturers, forming together a powerful ecosystem with the highest level of compatibility between themselves.
Being one of the leading manufacturers of chips for IoT, SiLabs understand how to develop protocols, how to attract and train specialists to work with their chips. Silicon Labs also has a vision of an “over-protocol” solution combining several technologies in one chip.
Z-Wave perfectly complements Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and will stand next to the virtually failed Thread and leaving for a clean ZigBee transport.
In the end, giving manufacturers the opportunity to use both Z-Wave and ZigBee simultaneously and transparently is a great idea!
Many will say, but why should they Z-Wave. There is BLE, which will soon become steeper. There are 6LowPAN and NB-IoT that will come and kill everyone in this market. But this is all about the future - we have already seen more than once how the emergence of a steep standard either does not lead to the emergence of new products at all (Thread-devices, where are you?) Or it takes 2-3 years until the first 10-15 devices appear and two more before the appearance of a whole line (this happens, for example, with HomeKit). During this time, Z-Wave itself will change. There is a counter movement: Z-Wave increases the range and speed, reducing and so low power consumption, and soon will be in the same segment, where Bluetooth LE and others like them from the class of more energy-consuming, but fast protocols are moving.
For those who have read this far, but still don’t know what Z-Wave is, I advise you to read an old, but still relevant, article A little about Z-Wave technology .
How will a change of ownership affect Z-Wave?
For Z-Wave, the event is definitely positive. SiLabs are not one of those companies that buy to break up. I’m sure we will see the first announcements already in 2018, and by the middle of 2019 we’ll have the radio combine chips themselves, which include several protocols right under the dome of the general SDK.
The last few years, Sigma frankly did not have enough resources to develop the protocol, to implement, FAE was not enough. Rumors say that SiLabs will fix this for sure - in terms of the scale of Sigma Designs, the new Z-Wave department will get almost unlimited resources into its own hands and many FAEs for working with customers.
In terms of reliability, this is also an important step. SiLabs is not just a more reliable and experienced manufacturer compared to Sigma Designs. SiLabs will probably be able to more successfully agree with the market players on multiple source chip production. For a while, Sigma Designs collaborated with Japanese Mitsumi, but then Z-Wave again became a single source chip, which became an obstacle for some projects of large telecom operators.
{UPD}
Along with the move to the platform, the SiLabs SDK and developer tools became available to any registered user. Not only with words, but also with the SiLabs affair shows a change in the development vector of Z-Wave.
{/ UPD}
Where to read?
All Sigma Designs resources have already moved to Silicon Labs.
Brief introduction
Detailed description of Z-Wave
Portal of those. support
Protocol is not the most important thing.
Until now, Z-Wave has evolved as a protocol-brand. Starting in 2014, this was the Sigma Designs targeted policy: all devices on Z-Wave chips had to be certified for compatibility and had to wear the proud Z-Wave or Z-Wave Plus logo both on the device and on the box. Z-Wave chips can not be used except to create Z-Wave devices.
Obviously, this added to the recognition of Z-Wave and "filled" the price of the asset Sigma Designs, which soon became the main one.
Will Silicon Labs pursue the same policy? Is not a fact. Strict restrictions on the use of the chip prevent the manufacturer from selling these same chips. It is possible that Silicon Labs will even consider it possible to open parts of the protocol that are not yet open (see. The Z-Wave protocol is becoming open ). They understand that it is not the protocol itself that is important, but the decisions on it.
By the way, it is interesting that at about the same time, Ring, which, in addition to doorphone calls, makes a decision on Z-Wave and is one of Sigma Designs main customers, Amazon was bought for 1 billion. This means that a finished consumer solution is, of course, more valuable than the technology on which it is based.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/374441/
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