Renowned Bluetooth specialist CSR has this week announced the launch of its latest BlueCore chip for mobile devices, which breaks new industry ground insofar as it is being described as the world’s first single chip capable of playing host to four separate radio technologies.
Bluetooth specialist CSR reveals new BlueCore7 chip. Image: CSR.
Specifically, the new seventh-generation BlueCore7 integrates Bluetooth v2.1+EDR, Bluetooth low energy, eGPS (enhanced Global Positioning System), and FM transmit and receive (Tx and Rx) onto a single piece of silicon, delivering marked reductions in energy use, physical sizing, manufacturing cost, and the complexity of embedding multiple radio technologies through a mobile phone handset.
According to Cambridge-based CSR, the four-way chip integration helps BlueCore7 “to extend the overall range and across-body performance to provide better audio quality,” which the company equates to having a handset on one side of the body and a headset on the diagonally opposing ear.
That performance is also bolstered by the inclusion of CSR’s proprietary AuriStream voice CODEC, which delivers the same quality as experienced during a fixed-line call, when used with a Bluetooth connection. The use of AuriStream also promotes up to a 30 percent reduction in power consumption.
From an ecological standpoint, the incorporation of CSR’s Bluetooth low energy, which was previously known as Ultra Low Power Bluetooth or Wibree, also enables the new chip to operate alongside the commonly robust reputation of Bluetooth while requiring fewer connection frequencies. This, in turn, increases connection speeds and also enhances energy efficiency during calls.
“We have seen high demand from our customers for Bluetooth, GPS and FM functionality, coupled with an industry need to keep cost, size and power consumption of embedding such technologies to a minimum,” commented Matthew Phillips, senior vice president of CSR’s Mobile Handset Connectivity strategic business unit. “CSR’s core focus is and always has been in embedded wireless connectivity and due to customer demand we have now developed a connectivity centre that reduces the complexity of integrating multiple radios into mobile phones and other consumer portable electronic devices.”
CSR also notes that current mobile GPS technology “only meets the basic needs of consumers,” while the chip integration of its eGPS system has reduced costing and also enabled “significant power and performance improvements” by sharing resources with Bluetooth radio and leveraging memory and processing already available through the host platform. Those improvements should result in faster and more accurate position data, on demand in all environments -- even when the user is deep indoors.
BlueCore7 is expected to be available for handset integration before the close of 2008.
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