Japanese electronics giant Renesas has announced its first development kit that includes support for the Matter protocol.

Renesas also announced that it would offer Matter support on all future wifi, Bluetooth Low-Energy and IEEE 802.15.4 Thread products, including those from recently acquired Dialog Semiconductor and Celeno Communications.

The Matter protocol promises to solve the problem of interoperability for smart home devices. It securely and robustly connects various smart devices with each other across ecosystems, regardless of the manufacturer.

Matter is an application layer protocol that abstracts the underlying connectivity technologies such as wifi, Thread and Bluetooth LE. By using a common software stack, device manufacturers who build with Matter can support various smart home ecosystems and voice services. Smart home users will be able to buy any Matter-certified device regardless of their platform of choice.

Renesas is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the global organisation that creates IoT standards and certification. Chris LaPre, head of technology at the alliance, said: “We’re delighted to see an IoT leader such as Renesas commit to supporting the Matter standard. It’s another indication of the positive momentum the standard is generating across both device and equipment makers.”

Sean McGrath, vice president at Renesas, added: “As the embedded processing leader, connectivity is a critical part of our IoT. With our broad range of Bluetooth and wifi, and Thread products in development, we’re well positioned to take advantage of the Matter standard in a variety of applications working with customers worldwide.”

Renesas has more than a decade of experience in Bluetooth LE and wifi, with more than 600 million wireless devices shipped. It jas a broad range of connectivity SoCs used in IoT, wearables and home networking. The firm’s development tools supporting Matter should result in faster time-to-market for IoT device makers looking to integrate their product into the Matter ecosystem.

The first Renesas product to support the Matter protocol is the DA16200 low-power wifi modules development kit. The DA16200 is a wifi SoC that delivers year-plus battery life for always-connected wifi IoT devices. It also supports Renesas Quick Connect IoT through the low-power wifi Pmod board. It is fully integrated into the company’s e² studio for easy system development using Renesas MCUs, connectivity and other devices.

Renesas is sampling the DA16200 development kit with Matter support to lead customers now and expects to release it broadly by the end of this quarter.