Morse Micro Unveils Its Next-Generation Wi-Fi HaLow SoC, the MM8108 — and a Raspberry Pi Dev Kit
Ultra-low-power wireless communications specialist Morse Micro has unveiled its latest-generation Wi-Fi HaLow system-on-chip, the MM8108 — boosting range, throughput, and power efficiency over its MM6108 predecessor.
"Once again, our engineering team has focused on creating the smallest, fastest, and lowest power Wi-Fi HaLow chip in the market," claims Morse Micro co-founder and chief technology officer Andrew Terry. "The MM8108 enables powerful and practical solutions for the evolving demands of IoT. With features like host offloading, integrated amplifiers, and industry-leading security, the MM8108 makes developing long-range, low-power IoT applications more simple and cost-effective than ever before."
Like the MM6108 before it Morse Micro's MM8108 is based around the IEEE 802.11ah standard, also known as Wi-Fi HaLow — a later addition to the Wi-Fi standard family that uses sub-gigahertz bands to deliver longer-range connections at a power consumption designed to compete with rival standards like Bluetooth, LoRa, and Zigbee. This does, of course, mean a trade-off in throughput: The MM8108 delivers up to 43.33Mb/s using what Morse Micro claims to be the world's first 2560-QAM (MCS9) implementation for improved spectrum efficiency.
In addition to the base chip, Morse Micro has also announced the MM8108-RD09 — a USB dongle based around the part that serves as both a development platform and a reference design, fully compliant with IEEE 802.11ah and ready to receive the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi HaLow certification. This, the company says, will also be made available as a full development kit dubbed the MM8108-EKH19, bundled with a power supply, antenna, and Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer.
