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CC3120MOD: CC3120MOD

Shalaka Shinde
Prodigy 230 points

Part Number: CC3120MOD
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC3220R, CC3120

Hi,

I am really confused regarding features of CC3120MOD.

Could you please answer below questions?

1. What exactly is the difference between CC3120MOD and CC3220MODS?

2. Comparison Table 3-1 in CC3120MOD datasheet says that Integrated MCU is not available in CC3120MOD unlike CC3220MODS.

How does it make a difference from design point of view?

what are the extra advantages because of integrated MCU?

3. What is the condition for TCP/ IP stack?

Do we require any external TCP/ IP stack support from external host MCU point of view?

Or everything required regarding WiFi interface is integrated in CC3120MOD and only thing necessary from external host is SPI interface?

4. Is encryption engine available in CC3120MOD by default?

What is the type - symmetric or asymmetric?

5. Is there any built in RAM/ non-volatile memory in CC3120MOD?

datasheet says "The device driver minimizes the host memory footprint requirements of less than 7KB of code memory and 700B of RAM for a TCP client application."

What exactly this means? External host needs to assign this much memory for WiFi application? and there is no on-chip RAM available at all?

Thanks,

Shalaka

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 31055 points

    Hi Shalaka,

    1. Yes, the difference is the inclusion of the microcontroller (which is built into the QFN device) in the module. The microcontroller is available in the CC3220R/S and it is not present in the CC3120. The CC3120 requires an external MCU host to control it.

    2. In terms of design, there are a few factors to consider -

    • With an external MCU you will need to create the thin porting layer (software) for the simplelink host driver in order to communicate with the CC3120 and bring up the examples from the SDK on that platform (note this is already implemented for the MSP432 in an SDK plug-in). The advantage is ease of use, the on-chip interface, and potentially cost.
    • The CC3120 may allow you to tune your design depending on your application needs, if you need a device with less or more memory, different peripheral capabilities, different performance specs (power / processing), etc.

    3. No additional TCP/IP stack is required on an external MCU. The external MCU only needs the host driver implemented for sending commands to the network processor. The TCP/IP stack is provided/integrated into the network processor firmware present on both the CC3120 and CC3220. This provides the advantage of offloading this function from the main application. The main MCU can perform necessary application tasks without being burdened by the stack and can even sleep while the networking state is retained in the network processor. This makes a bigger difference when transport layer security is used. 

    4. Yes, there is a hardware encryption engine in all the variants. The primary use is to accelerate the creation of secure sockets. Refer to section 7.6 of the Network Processor Programmer's guide for details on the supported cryptographic algorithms used by secure sockets. Note that the file system also provides features for securing data stored on the SFLASH using the cryptographic algorithms.

    5. There is no RAM / non-volatile memory in the CC3120 that can be programmed by a user. It is a ROM based device that requires an external serial flash for non-volatile storage. The host must set aside some application memory for the host driver code that is used to communicate with the CC3120. The host driver is designed to have a small memory footprint though so it does not overburden the microcontroller host and can be useful for embedded applications.

    Best Regards,

    Ben M

  • 0 in reply to Benjamin Moore
    Prodigy 230 points
    Thanks Ben. That was useful.

    One more question:

    - Antenna is internal or external in CC3120MOD?

    - Crystal oscillators are built in for CC3120MOD, right?

    Thanks,
    Shalaka
  • 0 in reply to Shalaka Shinde
    TI__Mastermind 31055 points

    Hi Shalaka,

    The antenna is external for the CC3120MOD. The crystal osciallators are built in. Everything inside the dotted box in figure 1-1 of the datasheet is internal to the module.

    http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc3120mod.pdf

    There will be a variant of the CC3220MOD with an internal antenna though. For your reference, there is a LaunchPad with it -

    http://www.ti.com/tool/launchcc3220modasf

    Best Regards,

    Ben M

  • 0 in reply to Benjamin Moore
    Prodigy 230 points
    Hi Ben,

    Thanks.
    One more question:

    I am curious about on-chip payload memory (on-chip memory to queue up incoming and outgoing data).
    What is the specification in CC3120MOD?

    Thanks,
    Shalaka
  • 0 in reply to Shalaka Shinde
    TI__Mastermind 31055 points
    Hi Shalaka,

    This is proprietary information about the design of the SoC and it can't be shared on the forum.
    Let me know if you have a specific concern about managing data that needs to be transmitted/received at the application level that I can address.

    Best Regards,
    Ben M