(iTers News) - Texas Instruments (TI) announced the company's ZigBee RF4CE hardware and software solutions support the ZigBee Remote Control 2.0 standard, which was released today by the ZigBee Alliance.

As the leading hardware and software provider to the RF4CE remote control market, TI has achieved Golden Unit status for the new standard. ZigBee Remote Control 2.0 is available to customers today on the SimpleLink RF4CE CC2533, CC2530 and CC2531 wireless microcontrollers (MCUs) through TI's RemoTI software to enable fast development of new remote controls.

TI's solution for the ZigBee Remote Control 2.0 standard includes sample applications for both the remote control as well as the target (set-top boxes (STBs), TVs, etc.) to further speed time to market. Additionally, customers can upgrade their already deployed ZigBee Remote Control 1.x products to be 2.0 standard compatible via an over-the-air download feature.

The new ZigBee Remote Control 2.0 standard introduces several key features and benefits to the remote control market to improve the consumer experience including:

• Validation based pairing standardization, which will deliver simpler pairing of the remote to the consumer equipment (STB, TV, etc.)

• Pairing proxy for quick pairing to a device or a group of devices with assistance e.g. using near field communications (NFC), HDMI-CEC and UPNP

• Human interface device (HID) command bank gives manufacturers one standard to implement for simple button based remotes and HID functionality like mouse, keyboard and consumer controls

• Home automation command bank enables the remote to control ZigBee Home Automation devices through the STB

• IR code download allows remotes to download IR codes from the STB or TV rather than storing the entire IR database on the remote, which provides more memory resources for other innovative features

• Effective two-way communication standardizes a battery-friendly and standardized approach for several features including "find my remote"

• Enhanced security enables update of security key after binding

• Key re-mapping for dynamic configuration of remote control keys depending on the  context, e.g. keys are re-mapped when entering a gaming application

TI's software for ZigBee Remote Control 2.0 standard is sampling to lead customers now.