Watteco, a French System-on-Chip (SoC) manufacturer of “no new wire” Power Line Communication (PLC) modems for energy efficiency and intelligent home control applications, today announced it is collaborating with Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) on an ultra-low-power, intelligent communications solution that will enable the next generation of connected appliances. Designed for Smart Grid applications, the system combines Watteco’s WPC(TM) PLC technology with TI’s MSP430(TM) microcontroller (MCU) for low-power energy-management applications.
The first prototype for the jointly developed multi-chip module will be a SmartPlug reference design created specifically for the HOMES collaborative innovation program led by Schneider Electric and launched by 13 industrial and research partners in 2008.