Matter

Do you know what Matter is? This is not a deep question about the origins of the universe or something. Perhaps you have heard of Project CHIP. That sounds like something to do with semiconductors, but actually CHIP stands for Connected Home over IP (and IP stands for Internet Protocol). Matter is the new name for Project CHIP. I'm going to use Matter throughout this post even though for most of the existence of the program it was called Project CHIP.

The goal of the project was to create a standard for IoT in smart homes. Today, there is no standardization so each supplier of smart light switches, thermostats, and things like that have their own protocols. To support them, each smart speaker or smartphone has to support that protocol or the manufacturers of the smart devices need to supply Apps. This is obviously a lot of redundant effort, and as the number of devices that need to control devices ("Alexa turn on the lights") grows, and the number of controlled devices grows, the number of combinations grows quadratically and so this is obviously unscalable. So the big players got together a few years ago and planned to do something about it.

In my Semiconductor 101 presentation, I have an old slide showing many of the names in IoT. There are hundreds. You can't really read the slide, the idea is just to show how fragmented IoT is. Matter doesn't do anything to consolidate the industry, but it does strike a blow against fragmentation at the protocol level. If you are anything to do with the smart home, then you need to know about and implement Matter.

The project group, now known as the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), previously the Zigbee Alliance, was started by Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast, and the Zigbee Alliance in 2019. Notable in that list are all the smart speakers, plus iOS and Android. You won't be s surprised to know that the list of members has now grown to include over 400 other companies. Matter is not the only standard that this organization drives. They also seem to be responsible for Zigbee, Smart Energy, Green Power, JupiterMesh, and Rf4ce.

CSA describes Matter as:

Matter is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), Matter will enable communication across smart home devices, mobile app, and cloud services, and define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.

The Matter standard is expected to be finalized this year. New devices will obviously support it soon, and devices like smart speakers and smartphones can be updated automatically, just as happens regularly anyway. It remains to be seen just how existing controlled devices like smart light switches will be handled. It seems that some will be able to be updated and some not. ABI Research forecasts that between now and the end of the decade (admittedly quite a long time, especially in tech) companies will ship over 5.5 billion Matter compliant devices.

The business arrangement is that there is a portfolio of open-source code on GitHub. The standard is royalty-free but the Matter specification needs to be licensed.

In addition to making things easier for software developers by having a single standard, it should be easier for users too, with setup consisting of just aiming your camera at a QR code. That would be a big improvement on the current system where, I remember, you have to press buttons on the device in a special way to get the device into setup mode, where it will then create a WiFi network, you need to connect to that network, run an app and give it the name of your normal WiFi network, then connect back to your normal network, and, all being well, it works. All not being well, it is challenging to debug, and we are talking me, who's been in tech all my life, as opposed to say, my 90-something father. This is important because people like my father can benefit a lot from not having to get up and walk across the room to turn on the TV or the lights.

Matter sums up the benefits of the protocol standard:

• Consumers
  • Matter is the seal of approval that says smart devices work reliably together—taking the guesswork out of the purchasing process. That trust allows you to choose from a wider range of the brands you love, and brings you the comfort of a secure and seamless connected home.
• Developers
  • Matter is a unifying, IP-based connectivity protocol built on proven technologies, helping you connect to and build reliable, secure IoT ecosystems, and keeping your focus on developing innovative products and accelerating paths to market.
• Retailers
  • Matter is the reliable IoT compatibility standard that drives category growth by simplifying the purchasing process, expanding the smart home category to more retailers, and lowering operational costs.

There was a. recent article in the Wall Street Journal Why Apple, Amazon and Google Are Uniting on Smart-Home Tech: Matter Explained about the ecosystem. A great quote is from Samantha Fein, VP Biz Dev and Marketing for Samsung's SmartThings:

 We know we’re competing with a light switch. So if it’s not as easy as that, we’re not going to get anywhere.

Or watch the Matter webinar:

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