NXP Semiconductors NV announced the availability of the JN516x family of wireless microcontrollers for the Internet of Things, as well as a new evaluation kit which simplifies commercial development of ZigBee(R), JenNet-IP(TM) and other IEEE 802.15.4 applications. The JN516x-EK001 evaluation kit provides all the hardware and software components required for product design, and includes several demos such as a smart lighting system based on JenNet-IP; several energy metering applications using ZigBee Smart Energy; ZigBee Light Link; and an RF4CE remote control system. NXP is showcasing its ultra-low-power, high-performance wireless microcontrollers at the 2013 International CES (Central Plaza 8).

One of the many smart home and energy products using NXP's wireless microcontrollers is a wireless energy harvesting switch from Cherry, which operates without a battery and can be used for any application in the home requiring an on-off switch. Accelerating Commercial Development of ZigBee, JenNet-IP and 802.15.4 Applications The JN516x evaluation kit is specifically designed for use with the NXP JN5161, JN5164 or JN5168 wireless microcontrollers, which feature an enhanced 32-bit RISC processor with best-in-class memory options -- up to 256 kB of embedded flash, 4 kB of on-chip EEPROM and 32 kB of RAM. The JN516x series devices also include an IEEE802.15.4 2.4-GHz transceiver and extensive analog and digital peripherals.