People Power Company (http://www.peoplepowerco.com) announced its SuRF
Developer Kit (http://www.peoplepowerco.com/developers/) yesterday.  This
really is the next generation of open source wireless sensor networks, using
an MSP430XV2 core combined with a radio in a single 7x7 mm system-on-a-chip
(http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/cc430f5137.html).  These chips
are not even in production yet, but we got our hands on a bunch, and we're
making them available to other wireless sensor network developers.  And...
they're running TinyOS.

Check out the specs sheet on this SuRF developer platform:
http://www.peoplepowerco.com/developers/SuRFQuickSpec.pdf.  Since the core
of the platform is so small, we made the developer board nice and large so
you can get your hands in there to prototype new wireless devices.


The CC430F5137 SoC featured on the SuRF platform contains all kinds of
goodies:

* MSPGCC4 support (available now on
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mspgcc4/<http://sourceforge.net/projects/oshan/>
)
* RF1A Radio (300 - 900 MHz with SuRF's matching network configured for 900
MHz, up to +10 dBm, 2-FSK / GFSK / MSK / OOK / ASK modulation, data rates up
to 500 kbps, and 255+ byte packets).
* The radio gives you at least 2-3x the range of older 2.4 GHz platforms.
This kind of range is critical for making consumer home wireless electronics
work reliably.
* AES-128 and CRC coprocessor
* USCI (UART, SPI, IrDA- and I2C-capable)
* FLL so you can operate it without an external crystal
* Real-time-clock
* 12-bit ADC's
* 96-segment LCD support is available on the CC430F6137 version of the chip,
which is not included on SuRF.


We've produced a Linux Live DVD with Ubuntu 9.10 and the next release of
TinyOS for the community, and links to the ISO will be posted later this
month.  The Live DVD will also contain an early version of OSHAN, which
stands for "Open Source Home Area Network".  OSHAN, which is also covered by
a BSD license, sits side-by-side with the TinyOS baseline to extend it and
provide functionality developers need to commercialize home consumer
wireless devices.  The SuRF developer kit is a tool to get started with
OSHAN.  The development process for OSHAN is based on the practices used by
Linus Torvalds to guide Linux, with Dr. Peter Bigot as the gatekeeper for
OSHAN and its git repository.


SuRF and OSHAN received a lot of press during its announcement yesterday.
Here are a few articles:

http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/15/people-power-releases-sdk-for-wireless-home-energy-sensors/
http://www.techthefuture.com/technology/surf-sdk-diy-smart-grid/
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/031510-people-power-pushes-green-wireless.html
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/people-power-pushes-green-wireless-apps-664
http://www.earthtechling.com/2010/03/surf-smart-grid-kit-lets-you-develop-own-smart-grid-device/
http://earth2tech.com/2010/03/15/get-your-open-source-home-energy-developer-kit-courtesy-of-people-power/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=10659
http://green.tmcnet.com/topics/green/articles/78637-people-power-intros-wireless-apps-potential-green-apps.htm

Of course, leave it to the press to muddle a few facts:  TinyOS has
thousands of developers, OSHAN is getting ramped up.  If you're interested
in getting involved with the development of OSHAN, which will remain freely
available and strong enough to use in real commercial devices, please
contact me.


Finally, People Power will be hosting SuRF Competition (
http://www.peoplepowerco.com/contest/).  We're giving developers and
researchers several months to produce something cool with SuRF, and the
winner(s) will be selected by our technical advisory board.  The winner will
receive 5,000 shares of People Power stock options (someday worth millions),
$5,000 USD, and a free SuRF Developer's Kit.


You can pre-order your SuRF developer kit here:
http://www.peoplepowerco.com/store/surf-developer-s-kit.html.  We'll keep
you updated as more open source developments are available.  Enjoy,

-David
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