Blue Gecko, Designed with Cadence Mixed-Signal, Low-Power Flow

Blue Gecko is a system on chip (SoC) created by Silicon Labs to provide wireless connectivity. With the name Blue Gecko, you won't be surprised that it supports Bluetooth. Blue Gecko is actually one of a family of SoCs targeted at IoT applications. The others use ZigBee, Thread, or a proprietary wireless protocol.The SoCs also incorporate hardware-based cryptography, another fundamental requirement for secure IoT solutions. A major focus of all aspects of the SoC was to keep energy use down since the chip is intended for use in battery-powered systems such as wearables and asset tracking, as well as applications where power is available, such as lighting and smart metering.

At embedded world in Nürnberg in February, Craig Cochran, Cadence's VP of Corporate Marketing, interviewed Daniel Cooley, VP of marketing for IoT products at Silicon Labs. You can watch the short (1:50) interview here:

For design, Silicon Labs used the comprehensive Cadence mixed-signal, low-power flow based on the unified OpenAccess (OA)-enabled Incremental Technology Database (ITDB) to seamlessly interoperate between the Virtuoso analog platform and the "-us" digital implementation suite of tools such as Innovus, Tempus and Voltus. For mixed-signal verification, Silicon Labs adopted the Spectre Multi-Mode Simulation solution, which improved productivity by 3X, helped reduce power consumption and extended the connectivity range of the Blue Gecko SoCs with high performance. The mixed-mode, full-chip functional simulation enabled by Incisive Enterprise Simulator with its DMS Option accelerated Silicon Labs’ design verification by up to 10X, compared to the alternative of transistor- or device-level simulation options.

There is a starter module available for $99, including the chip.

Talking of geckos, as an English guy, it seems weird to sell car insurance with a (green) gecko with a London accent. I don't recall ever seeing an ad in Britain with someone having, say, a Bronx or a Boston accent. I just want that guy's job. He does a few ads a year, but his voice is so distinctive that they must have to pay him full-time to keep him exclusive.

More information on Blue Gecko is here.

More information on the Cadence mixed signal solutions is here.

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