MFi Dev Kit Streamlines iOS Accessory Designs

A 32-bit hardware and firmware development kit created by Silicon Labs helps accelerate the design of Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad (MFi) accessories as well as hasten time to market. The MFI-SIM3U1XX-DK kit, leveraging the company’s ARM Cortex-M3-based SiM3U microcontroller (MCU), supports the increasingly popular all-digital Lightning connector and protocol stack. The kit includes tools needed to begin developing Lightning-based accessories (e.g., entertainment accessories, device-powered dongles, game controllers, docking stations), such as a hardware development board, firmware libraries, and an example iOS application. The app supports Appcessory-style communication between the iOS device and development board. The SiM3U MCU features fully specified analog peripherals, an integrated capacitive touch-sense controller, an internal 5-V regulator, and crystal-less USB support. With full analog operation, the MCU power consumption is as low as 1.8 V.

SILICON LABS