Australian company Morse Micro MM6104 and MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow SoCs should offer some competition to the Newracom NRC chips found in all 802.11ah WiFi HaLow boards and devices released so far.
Both MM610x chips have similar features, but the MM6104 SoC supports 1/2/4 MHz channel bandwidth for up to 15 Mbps data rate – just like the Newracom NRC7292 chip – while the more powerful MM6108 can handle a data rate of up to 32.5 Mbps thanks to 1/2/4/8 MHz channel bandwidth.
MM6104/MM6108 specifications:
- Optional 32-bit RISC-V Host Applications Processor (HAP)
- Single-Chip IEEE802.11ah Wi-Fi HaLow transceiver for low-power, long-reach IoT applications
- Worldwide Sub-1 GHz frequency bands (850MHz to 950MHz)
- On-chip power amplifier with support for external PA option
- MM6104 – 1/2/4 MHz channel bandwidth for up to 15 Mbps data rate (Note: the datasheet reads “single-stream max data rate up to 40 Mbps”, but it appears to be a mistake based on other information in the document)
- MM6108 – 1/2/4/8 MHz channel bandwidth for up to 32.5 Mbps data rate
- Range – Up to 1 km
- Host interfaces – SDIO 2.0 and SPI host interface Options
- Peripherals – GPIO/UART/I2C/PWM
- Security – WPA3
- Power Management – PMU supporting Ultra-Low-Power operation modes, multi-year battery life
- Pacakge – 6×6 mm QFN48 package
The main benefit of MM6108 is the higher bit rate suitable for streaming HD videos. Applications for the chips include surveillance cameras and sensors, low-power sensor networks, Building Automation Systems (BAS), drone video and navigation communications, rural internet access, WiFi HaLow gateways (Zigbee, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc…), smart city networks, and so on.
There’s not a lot of information about this time, and no development kit or SDK that I could find. Those must exist already since Morse Micro announced the availability of SoC and module samples for customer evaluation in July 2021. This has yet to result in commercial modules, boards, and products based on Morse Micro MM610x chipset, but this should only be a matter of time.
More details may be found on the product page.
Thanks to theguyuk for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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… and HaLow (IEEE 802.11ah) is long-range (1km), low-power, low-bandwidth Wifi. I had never heard of it, so thanks for this article.
I see Aliexpress is already selling HaLow devices. Nice.
I’ve written close to 10 articles about it, including the one yesterday, and devices on Aliexpress.
But maybe it’s easy to miss because it may just look like another WiFi SoC or device in the titles.
Yeah, I only now see the article ” ALFA Network AHPI7292S HAT” which tells more background
Two things. The second – in your m-dash is a comma–right before “while the more”. Also, the 32.2Mbps rate is wrong, should be 32.5 as mentioned later. There’s no 32.2 Mbps rate in HaLow.
Thanks for more articles like this one.
Still, not a single parameter beyond bent speed or range.