Bluetooth makes its mark
By Nicholas Cravotta -- EDN, January 23, 2003
Many companies made announcements at the Bluetooth Developer's Conference last month in San Jose. Among them: Mobilian (www.mobilian.com) announced its TrueRadio combination Bluetooth/Wi-Fi chip set. Implementing the necessary analog and digital functions for both radios in two chips, TrueRadio allows simultaneous operation of both RF technologies. For example, the chip set provides simultaneous operation in a PC connected to the Internet over 802.11b and to a PDA via Bluetooth. The device uses deferred transmission to support colocated coexistence. Because the same host controls both networks, the device can work as a master to switch between Bluetooth and 802.11b packets and thus avoid destructive interference.
To support simultaneous operation, the device employs active cancellation, applying echo-cancellation design techniques to reduce adjacent-channel interference. For example, if the device is transmitting Bluetooth while receiving 802.11b or vice versa, it subtracts the transmitted signal from the incoming signal, clearing the received 802.11b signal of Bluetooth interference.
Other features include receiver sensitivity of –91 dBm and a hardware WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) security-encryption engine. Currently available for sampling, the TrueRadio chip set should have a bill-of-materials cost of less than $35 (volume quantities).
New test products include CATC's (www.catc.com) BTTracer/Trainer Version 1.2 verification system, which combines a protocol analyzer and an exerciser for testing Bluetooth at the protocol layers, and IAR Systems' (www.iar.com) PreQual, a PC-based Bluetooth-compliance test suite that can generate results that the Bluetooth Qualification Body accepts.
On the market side, Philips (www.philips.com) claims to have shipped 10 million Bluetooth ICs (not necessarily nodes) worldwide and has acquired Systemonic (www.systemonic.com), a provider of two-chip 802.11a/b/g technology.
ParthusCeva (www.parthusceva.com) has introduced the BlueStream 3000 Bluetooth Version 1.1 baseband, royalty-free IP (intellectual-property) core, and Newlogic (www.newlogic.com) has announced support for the pending AFH (adaptive-frequency-hopping) standard in its Boost Bluetooth IP family.
New modules include National Semiconductor's (www.national.com) LMX9820 serial-port module, which enables Bluetooth connectivity via UART. The module measures 10.1×14.0×1.9 mm and costs $15 (10,000). Philips' BGB201 TrueBlue module targets mobile applications, such as PDAs, laptops, and mobile phones. It includes an ARM7 microcontroller and 224 kbytes of embedded flash and sells for less than $8 (volume quantities).
On the chip front, Toshiba (www.toshiba.com) has announced the single-chip TC35654 CMOS Bluetooth IC measuring 7×7×0.08 mm with an internal ARM7TDMI processor. The device will become available for sampling in February for $5 (100,000). Motorola's (www.motorola.com) single-chip MC72000 CMOS device (Picture) comes in a 7×7-mm BGA package and features the DragonBall MX1 processor. It is available for sampling at $4.20 (1 million).
