The AT3 chipset is a 2 chip solution with the ANT protocol embedded into a MCU along with a separate radio chip. The AP2 and AP1 have the ANT protocol and the radio on a single chip. Although it is a little counter-intuitive, the dual chip solution provides lower power consumption because the radio performance and serial communications between the two chips can be very tightly controlled in ways that are not possible in a single chip + external MCU solution. In addition, the MSP-430 processor used on the AT3 has lower power consumption than the processing core of the AP2.
Because the AT3 is a 2 chip solution it could potentially cost more physical area in your design. The AT3 is also less customizable than the AP2, as you cannot put your own code onto the AT3 MCU (you will need a second MCU in your AT3 design unless you use the SensRcore feature).
The AP2 is the newest product in the ANT line and it offers some features not available on the AT3 (both the AT3 and the AP2 offer more features than the older AP1). Some of the features that the AP2 has that are not on the AT3 include:
- Background scanning channel. This is a dedicated search only channel.
- Receive only channel. This makes it possible to fully observe the network regardless of the message type sent.
- Proximity Search.
- Built in Frequency Agility.
- Deep Sleep power saving mode.
Please refer to the AP2 documentation for more information on these features.
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