Why would you need a WiFi four? For its fourteen GPIOs maybe?
WiFi 4 carries a completely standalone WiFi module, the SPWF01SA. This module consists of a single-chip 802.11 b/g/n transceiver, a 32-bit STM32 MCU, and a built-in 2.4 GHz ISM band antenna. Integrated TCP/IP protocol stacks are a given.
To boost its standalone capabilities, the module has 1.5 MB of internal flash and 64 KB of RAM.
We created a Libstock example to demonstrate the web server capabilities of SPWF01SA. A simple interface to turn LEDs on on and off from a browser. Here's how it looks:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btwd2-a3w2A[/embedyt]
A few LEDs as you see, but if you would utilize the 14 GPIOs that line the edges of the board you could light up a christmas tree.
Some of those GPIOs can have alternative functions (SPI, ADC, I2C, DAC). That depends on the firmware version in the module though (you’ll be able to upgrade it by using the onboard BOOT jumper).
Before you proceed to the product page for more details, a bit of trivia.
The term Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for “Wireless Fidelity” as many believe. It’s a meaningless word coined when the inventors of the standard wanted a name that was “a little catchier than ‘IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence'," according to Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance.
To get their catchy name, the Wi-Fi alliance hired Interbrand, the same company that invented the word Prozac, for the drug used (among other applications) to treat anxiety and panic — a mental state many people succumb to when they are left without Wi-Fi access.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika