WIZnet has unveiled an upcoming product that, it hopes, will make it simpler to construct compact gadgets combining the ability of the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and its personal in-house W5500 Ethernet controller: the WIZnet ioNIC.
“Our ioNIC pattern chip with [Raspberry Pi] RP2040 and built-in Ethernet MAC/PHY is sort of right here,” the corporate writes of its upcoming product launch, alongside a single shot of the surface-mount part itself. “Good for IoT [Internet of Things] and embedded methods. That is [a] SiP [System-in-Package] chip integrating RP2040 and W5500.”
WIZnet is planning to launch a system-in-package which mixes a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller with its W5500 Ethernet controller: the ioNIC. (📷: WIZnet)
WIZnet is not any stranger to the Raspberry Pi RP2040, the favored low-cost dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller that powers the Raspberry Pi Pico and Raspberry Pi Pico W growth boards. The corporate has its personal RP2040-based growth boards, which hyperlink the RP2040 to its W5500 controller chip to supply wired Ethernet connectivity — however now it is taking the mission a step additional by integrating every thing right into a single bundle.
The SiP unveiled by the corporate is, successfully, two separate chips in a single bundle: the RP2040 microcontroller and the W5500 Ethernet controller, which talk over an SPI bus. In use, then, there must be little distinction to a conventional two-package method — although the mixed chip will supply a smaller footprint and, in concept no less than, simpler routing of PCB traces.
The corporate guarantees a “tiny” dev board constructed across the ioNIC, which will likely be related in options to its two-chip W5500-EVB-Pico (pictured). (📷: WIZnet)
WIZnet has additionally pledged to make use of the half in-house on a Raspberry Pi Pico-like growth board, described as “a tiny RP2040 board with Ethernet connectivity” and boasting help for the corporate’s present Energy-over-Ethernet (PoE) add-ons. “We do goal to maintain the usual [Raspberry Pi] Pico pinout,” the corporate notes, “nonetheless as SPI will likely be used to attach with [the] W5500, some pins will not be out there.”
events are suggested to maintain an eye fixed on the corporate’s web site for extra info; on the time of writing, no launch date nor pricing had been publicly introduced.