Sep 27 2016
Silicon Labs' Simplicity Studio development platform provides faster, easier software tools for the IoT. (Graphic: Business Wire)
Recently, Silicon Labs have launched a major upgrade for its award-winning Simplicity Studio™ software development tools. The new Simplicity Studio release is a vital redesign of the software infrastructure, enabling the tools to be downloaded faster and easier to install and use.
A highly intuitive user interface enhances the total developer experience. Simplicity Studio is the industry’s most comprehensive software tool set designed to suit Internet of Things (IoT) connected device applications. It is also the only embedded development environment that extensively supports multiprotocol and multiband wireless SoCs, 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), and fixed-function devices.
Simplicity Studio makes the IoT development process simple with single-click access to all things required by developers to finish their projects using an in-built development environment (IDE) based on Eclipse 4.5.
Simplicity Studio is provided with a powerful selection of tools to carry out energy profiling, configuration and wireless network analysis, as well as software examples, demos, technical support, complete documentation, and community forums.
These in-built tools and features combine to ensure embedded development is simple and productive for IoT developers with varying skill levels.
Simplicity Studio offers built-in intelligence to graphically configure the device, automatically detect the connected 8-bit or 32-bit MCU or wireless SoC, and show supported configuration options to assist developers in starting their projects within minutes.
I’m happy to see that Simplicity Studio is a cross-platform development environment that’s super-easy to download, install and launch. The Simplicity wizards made it easy to license the Keil compiler without much fuss. It’s a brilliant idea to have Simplicity Studio auto-detect the connected development board, and it was easy to find source code and have the project already configured for my hardware.
Andrew Tergis, Electrical Engineer, LittleBits
LittleBits is a New York-based hardware startup that encourages everyone -of any age, gender, or technical background - to develop inventions with its platform of user-friendly electronic building blocks.
Developer workshops, in-depth market research, and stakeholder interviews with designers who create IoT products help to formulate the most recent Simplicity Studio update.
The main goal behind the update is to make Simplicity Studio more efficient, flexible, and user friendly. The software infrastructure of the latest Simplicity Studio offers customizable installation options, enabling specific tools to be downloaded by developers for the Silicon Labs product portfolio they are currently using.
The download process can be easily streamlined without the overhead of the whole Simplicity Studio suite installation because of this flexibility.
Silicon Labs has improved Simplicity Studio to offer more smart content and document navigation. It allows developers to now use Simplicity Studio from a device or solution perspective.
By clicking on a pre-defined solution, such as a wearable device, Simplicity Studio will automatically fix its context to the main components comprising the solution, such as a Bluetooth module, an EFM32 MCU, and an optical sensor.
In the latest Simplicity Studio, inefficiencies of context switching and switching from tool to tool have been eliminated. Simplicity Studio also simplifies the development effort and preserves the investment of the designer in learning a comprehensive tool set.
With this new release of Simplicity Studio, we’ve completely reimagined the developer experience. Our latest version of Simplicity Studio tackles complex development challenges and gives IoT developers more capabilities and easier access to Silicon Labs’ full range of IoT products. Offering a rare combination of simplicity and sophistication, Simplicity Studio enables developers to create IoT applications that extend from end nodes to the cloud.
Raman Sharma, Director of Simplicity Studio Software, Silicon Labs
The current version of Simplicity Studio can support several Silicon Labs IoT products such as Multiprotocol and multiband Wireless Gecko SoCs, Bluetooth® modules, EFM8 MCU family and other 8-bit MCUs, Xpress fixed-function devices, EFM32 Gecko MCU family, EM35xx mesh networking SoCs, and EZR32 sub-GHz wireless MCUs.
Simplicity Studio Tool Highlights
- Energy Profiler to examine power consumption and improve energy efficiency
- AppBuilder to construct IoT applications with ready-to-use templates
- Xpress Configurator to ease configuration of Xpress fixed-function devices
- Network Analyzer has powerful wireless network analysis features and packet trace analyzer for inspection of network traffic in real time
- Configurator to rapidly configure MCUs and wireless MCUs and generate C-code for pinout, mode and peripherals transitions
- Capacitive Sense Profiler enables developers to tweak cap-touch applications