[Arm-netbook] CC3000 Wi-Fi for MCU

[jonsmirl at gmail.com]

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 8:29 PM, Bari Ari <bari at onelabs.com> wrote:
> On 01/23/2012 07:10 PM, jonsmirl at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> BTW, this is the wrong module type for the EOMA project. This wifi
>> module is designed to have a microcontroller as the host, not a full
>> blown processor. For a full size processor running a real OS the
>> Ralink chips are a cheaper option. You can do them on your own PCB for
>> under $2.50.
>
> The reason I brought these up is that they are pre-certified so you can
> drop them in a design and not have to pay the extra $$ for certification.
 with FCC approvals

TI only has MSP430 support for these chips. Support for the Ralink
chips is already in the kernel. It is about $10,000 to get the FCC
approval. At a $2.50 delta that is only 4,000 units. For a real CPU
running Linux the Ralink chips are the cheaper option especially since
the complex driver support has already been done in Linux.

Many FCC approved, under $5.00 modules here:
http://ogemray.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-200609573/Wifi_module.html#products

There is not enough data out yet but I think the CC3000 is something
referred to as hard MAC. Hard MAC greatly reduces the burden placed on
the host msp430. The Ralink chips are soft MAC. An A10 won't notice
the difference between soft MAC and hard MAC. A msp430 doesn't have
the flash/RAM to handle soft MAC chips.

We have a design which could be switched to a msp430 so I am
interested in getting some real pricing data on the CC3000 modules.


>
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-- 
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl at gmail.com