NXP Brings HomeKit Support to MCU, Processor Solutions

NXP Semiconductors has added HomeKit support to its portfolio of MCUs and processors.

HomeKit is Apple’s smart home software framework, designed to allow various devices to connect to Apple products, enabling voice-based control with Apple’s Siri AI platform acting as the interface. In other words, it’s the IT framework underlying Apple’s version of Amazon’s Echo smart home platform, with a growing number of third party partners such as IKEA offering products that are compatible with HomeKit.

Now, with NXP’s Apple HomeKit SDK, OEMs can use NXP MCUs, crossover processors, and application processors to develop HomeKit compatible products, and one already has: NXP Semiconductors has announced that Allegion has leveraged the technology via its Kinetis K11 MCU in its new Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt, allowing iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch users to control door locks with their devices.

In a statement announcing the new HomeKit support, NXP Microcontrollers and Connectivity VP Emmanuel Sambuis called HomeKit “the leading way or consumer adoption of the smart home,” adding later that with NXP’s solutions enable “fast and efficient design for a broad spectrum of home automation products” based on HomeKit compatibility.