Multiband transceiver supports Bluetooth 5

Silicon Labs has introduced a multiband version of its Wireless Gecko system-on-chip device which now supports full Bluetooth 5.

Designated EFR32xG13, the device family supports all Bluetooth 5 features which means twice the speed and eight times greater broadcasting capacity than Bluetooth 4.

The chips feature a 2Mbit/s PHY and also integrate a new 125kbit/s and 500kbit/s coded PHY for longer range communications links.

According to the supplier, there is sufficient on-chip flash memory (512kB) and RAM (64kB) to run applications using ZigBee, Thread and Bluetooth 5 in single-protocol mode.

It will also support multi-protocol combinations of Bluetooth with ZigBee, Thread or proprietary stacks (running on sub-GHz or 2.4GHz networks).

Also on-chip is an oscillator that eliminates the need for an external 32kHz crystal typically required for Bluetooth low energy devices.