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Towards a Home Automation Standard: Z-Wave Adds Chip Vendor
Z-wave developers now have a choice of chipset vendors: Z-Wave owner Sigma Designs or Japan’s Mitsumi.
Previously, manufacturers had no choice. They could only buy their Z-Wave wireless technology from Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM), the company that now owns Z-Wave creator Zensys.
Sigma’s lock on Z-Wave chipsets has inhibited Z-Wave’s adoption among major international brands that don’t want to be beholden to a single source. They want competition among vendors and assurances that they can swap providers if something goes awry with one of them.
In other words, they want a model more like ZigBee’s, a rival RF control technology available from multiple vendors including Atmel,
As Sigma notes in its press release:
As a second source, Mitsumi will independently produce and deliver the popular Z-Wave modules, which will make it easier for large multi-international companies and government businesses that require a second source, to adopt the technology; in-turn, this will lead to market growth, as well as adoption by other standards organizations.
Z-Wave has claimed all along that having a single chipset provider would ensure the quality and interoperability of Z-Wave devices … which is not necessarily the case.
What it has done is ensure that Sigma maintains a monopoly on Z-Wave components – a good business move in the short term but not necessarily in the long term, when a worldwide standard for home automation and energy management is at stake … which it is.
iControl, developer of a Z-Wave-centric cloud-based home control solution employed by ADT Pulse and others, understands the stakes all too well.
The company acquired its ZigBee-centric rival uControl in part because cable companies generally embrace ZigBee over Z-Wave.
“Their rationale is that it’s an open standard,” iControl founder Reza Raji told CE Pro last year.
Indeed, Comcast/Xfinity appears to have adopted the uControl ZigBee solution for its remote home monitoring and management system.
Read Z-Wave/Mitsumi press release.
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Article Topics
News · Product News · Home Automation and Control · Control Systems · Energy Management · Z-Wave · Z-wave · Icontrol · Zigbee · Sigma Designs ·About the Author
9 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Julie,
Digi does not make ZigBee chips as you claim, Ember makes the chips that Digi uses. You also left Texas Instruments and Jennic (NXP) off of the list of ZigBee chip makers.
Also, Z-Wave sucks compared to ZigBee which is why cable and utility companies have chosen to use ZigBee. If you actually test the two technologies side by side there is no real comparison ZigBee is clearly superior from a range, speed, ease of installation, and any other metric you can test.
Thanks, Boom ... guess I was a little too hasty. Will amend.
While you are at it add Oki, ST, Samsung, and Microchip to your list. BTW, Wikipedia(where you most likely sourced your list) lists Digi because they offer a ZigBee module rather than a chip.
Nah, that’s not where I got Digi. I’m a long-time follower of the company, not least because they’re local to me.
Julie,
If you are going to list Digi as a module maker you might as well list Control4, HAI, Centralite, Crestron, and just about anyone else who is using ZigBee today.
Story has been edited, thanks.
As long as you’re editing, please note that zwave sucks and zigbee is far superior in all aspects related to professional installation. CePro readers and underwriters would appreciate that too.
Damn, BobbyBrown comes in with 5 across the eyes. I do have to agree with him though.
Zigbee Pro HA Profile with high power radios put zwave to shame. Range on Zigbee stuff is 150ft plus between nodes and it’s a self healing mesh network. Zwave is 30ft per node and the mesh network gets bogged down easily. Also, the setup process with zigbee is automatic whereas the setup process with zwave is beyond cumbersome. Zigbee is better for pro installs, fa sho.