At last week’s CES in Las Vegas, Google and MediaTek announced they were teaming up to develop a Filogic connectivity chipset to power smart homes.

As the smart home industry evolves, televisions are no longer just for entertainment; they now also act as the central hub for controlling smart-home systems. Recently, Google highlighted the integration of Google Home with smart TVs, showcasing how this combination is set to become the central control point for future smart homes.

At CES, Google (www.google.com) and Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek (www.mediatek.com) kicked off a collaboration to build a chipset for the Google Home ecosystem. This chipset will facilitate widespread adoption of Thread and enable developers to provide more robust and responsive smart-home experiences for users.

Known as the MT7903, this MediaTek Filogic-branded chipset is a wireless connectivity offering integrating tri-band Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 6 and IEEE 802.15.4 Thread radios.

The upcoming MT7903, slated for sampling in the first half of 2025, should make it more affordable and seamless for manufacturers to integrate Thread into their devices. Additionally, it will support the Matter standard, allowing devices from different manufacturers to interconnect and bring higher security.

The chipset also offers a low power feature called Thread border router offload, which enables the main SoC to enter sleep mode while maintaining its connection with other smart-home devices, providing a step to achieving sustainability.

Combining Google’s focus on the smart home and MediaTek’s experience in the semiconductor space, this alliance could provide a boost for Google Home and the broader smart-home ecosystem.