June 2, 2015, COMPUTEX Taipei, Rockchip announced that it launches the world lowest power WiFi technology RKi6000 jointly developed with a 3^rd party. This technology makes the power consumption of WiFi same as that of BT4.0 LE (Low Energy). The Receiving power consumption is around 20mA during use, which is 85% lower compared with state-of-the-art WiFi devices for IoT. This benchmarking power consumption level should renew the standard for WiFi power consumption in IoT smart hardware globally.

The power of RKi6000 is comparable with that of Bluetooth4.0 LE. And it is possible to use WiFi with coin cell battery in IoT with coin cell battery. The product size can be reduced a lot and the WiFi technology can be used in more and more application with size and current limit.

As a key connectivity technology of IoT smart hardware, WiFi technology gets much attention from semiconductor companies, WiFi is accepted as the most convenient way Compared with BT/ZIGBEE standard. However, high power of WiFi is still a hinder for it to be used on portable device with current limit. RKi6000 can reduce down the power consumption and make it same as BT LE’s in three ways: 

1. Improvement of RF transceiver architecture. The architecture can greatly reduce the active power consumption of IoT smart device during continuous data transfer. Ultra low power can be achieved both in work and standby mode with the architecture.  Dozens of international patents have been filed for this technology.

2. Adaptive dynamic power control technology. Power efficiency is optimized in different working modes and the total power consumption is reduced greatly in different application scenarios by adjusting chip’s power configuration dynamically. So that better energy efficiency could be achieved.

3. RKi6000 can keep the device online without waking up the host processor. It can reduce the wake up time and simplify the application power control design.  Since for most IoT applications, the device should be kept in sleep mode and resume to connect AP due to wake-up event. The reduction of wake-up time further lowers down the power consumption and extends battery life.

WiFi based on traditional RF architecture cannot be used extensively in IoT or wearable devices due to its drawback on power consumption. With much lower power,RKi6000 will be widely applied in smart wearable devices, consumer electronics, mainstream appliances, home safety, automation system, automobile and medical equipment. Those smart devices can benefit from the easy network connection with standard WiFi infrastructure. It can greatly reduce the cost of the application development and speed up the smart hardware commercialization.

As a leading fabless semiconductor company in China, Rockchip has built the complete eco-system successfully in 2015 with partners including those international giants like Google, Intel and ARM. The eco-system covers the area of PC, communication products, tablet and OTT-Box. The launch of IoT technology will definitely enable Rockchip to shape the global IoT and smart hardware market.