Arduino and Silicon Labs have joined hands to both bring Matter-compatible SiLabs wireless microcontrollers to the Arduino IDE and then design an upcoming Arduino Nano based on SiLabs MGM240 Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller with Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Bluetooth LE protocols.
Available now: Arduino Core for Silicon Labs devices
The first phase of the collaboration involves getting Arduino core for Silicon Labs development boards so that compatible devices can be programmed in the IDE. The good news is that it’s available now and works with four existing wireless boards:
- SparkFun Thing Plus Matter MGM240P based on MGM240PB32VNA Arm Cortex-M33 MCU with Matter, Thread, Zigbee 3.0, and Bluetooth 5.3 LE connectivity
- SiLabs xG27 Dev Kit based on EFR32BG27C140F768IM40 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU with Bluetooth LE 5.3, Bluetooth Mesh, Proprietary 2.4 GHz connectivity
- SiLabs xG24 Explorer Kit based on EFR32MG24B210F1536IM48 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU with Bluetooth 5.3 LE, Bluetooth Mesh, Matter, OpenThread, Zigbee, Proprietary 2.4 GHz
- SiLabs BGM220 Explorer Kit equipped with BGM220PC22HNA Bluetooth 5.2 PCB module
You’ll find the source code, instructions to get started, and current known issues/limitations on GitHub.
Upcoming Arduino Nano “Matter” board
The second phase of the collaboration will culminate with the launch of a new Matter-compatible Arduino Nano board based on SiLabs MGM240SD22VNA on Arduino Day in March 2024. The new board should be similar to the Sparkfun board from a software/firmware perspective and will be the first official Arduino board with a Silicon Labs microcontroller and Matter compatibility.
The Matter firmware on consumer devices is normally locked, as I understand that’s a security requirement and also needed for certification, but the Arduino Core for Silicon Labs devices and the new Arduino Nano should make it easier to experiment with the new Smart Home standard and other wireless protocols.
Additional information may be found in the announcement.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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My hopes were high until I came across this sentence: “The Matter firmware on customer devices is normally locked”
Still no good replacement for NRF24…
Oops. I meant to write “consumer devices”. As I understand it, the Matter firmware on the new Arduino Nano won’t be locked, but it is on retail consumer devices or they would not get the Matter certification.
What is Matter? What does it do for me?
It’s a new Smart Home standard that aims to enable interoperability between vendors, so you can get a Matter-compliant gateway (from Google, Apple, or other) and use it with any sensors that’s compatible with the standard regardless of the company that sells it. It’s also (mostly?) independent of the wireless protocol used and works with WiFi, Thread, Bluetooth, etc…