WIZnet Puts the Raspberry Pi RP2040 and Its W5500 Ethernet Chip in a Blender, Pours Out the ioNIC
Designed to do in one chip what earlier attempts did in two, the ioNIC is a system-in-package for those needing wired Ethernet connectivity.
WIZnet has unveiled an upcoming product that, it hopes, will make it easier to build compact devices combining the power of the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and its own in-house W5500 Ethernet controller: the WIZnet ioNIC.
"Our ioNIC sample chip with [Raspberry Pi] RP2040 and integrated Ethernet MAC/PHY is almost here," the company writes of its upcoming product launch, alongside a single shot of the surface-mount component itself. "Perfect for IoT [Internet of Things] and embedded systems. This is [a] SiP [System-in-Package] chip integrating RP2040 and W5500."
WIZnet is no stranger to the Raspberry Pi RP2040, the popular low-cost dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller that powers the Raspberry Pi Pico and Raspberry Pi Pico W development boards. The company has its own RP2040-based development boards, which link the RP2040 to its W5500 controller chip to provide wired Ethernet connectivity — but now it's taking the project a step further by integrating everything into a single package.
The SiP unveiled by the company is, effectively, two separate chips in a single package: the RP2040 microcontroller and the W5500 Ethernet controller, which communicate over an SPI bus. In use, then, there should be little difference to a traditional two-package approach — though the combined chip will offer a smaller footprint and, in theory at least, easier routing of PCB traces.
WIZnet has also pledged to use the part in-house on a Raspberry Pi Pico-like development board, described as "a tiny RP2040 board with Ethernet connectivity" and boasting support for the company's existing Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) add-ons. "We do aim to keep the standard [Raspberry Pi] Pico pinout," the company notes, "however as SPI will be used to connect with [the] W5500, some pins won't be available."
Interested parties are advised to keep an eye on the company's website for more information; at the time of writing, no launch date nor pricing had been publicly announced.