Freescale Semiconductor eases customers’ development of ZigBee applications with the announcement of its BeeKit wireless connectivity tool kit. BeeKit provides an easy-to-use interface and framework for developers to configure parameters for their point-to-point, 802.15.4 and ZigBee applications.

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BeeKit includes Freescale’s BeeStack, a compliant ZigBee protocol stack, and developer configuration tool that supports all of Freescale’s ZigBee-compliant platforms based on the HCS08 MCU. The code base includes the BeeStack, pre-configured ZigBee application samples and templates.

Freescale’s BeeStack will be fully compliant with the ZigBee Alliance’s next generation home control protocol stack that includes the Home Automation profile. Other planned updates include support for 802.15.4 MAC, 802.15.4-based applications and Simple MAC (SMAC) based applications.

Once developers have completed the configuration of their wireless solution, BeeKit allows them to export to Freescale’s CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for use in the building and debugging of their application.

BeeKit will be available in the third quarter of 2006. Pricing for both the kit and stack is estimated to start at $995 per seat.