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Royalty-free Bluetooth code will mean cheaper phones - CSR

Mobile device makers who have, in the past, found that taking full advantage of Bluetooth would add development time to new products, may now be more tempted to take the plunge into wireless, according to Cambridge Silicon Radio, a leading Bluetooth chip maker.

CSR has announced it is providing it customers with an extended version of BlueCore Host Software (BCHS), which could mean products can be prototyped faster, and reach the market quicker, without compromising on Bluetooth features.

The extended version is called BCHS-HCI (host controller interface) because it includes the source code for all layers down to the host controller interface (HCI).

CSR has what it calls a "buyout option," where customers are given full access to the source code. This can enable "a much more complete software-based Bluetooth offering which is royalty-free and hence very price competitive for mass market applications such as mobile phones, access points or PDAs," says the company.

Simon Finch, vice president of Marketing (software) commented, "The higher performance of a HCI split on our leading BCHS software is likely to be very attractive, especially to the price sensitive mobile device manufacturers who demand the maximum Bluetooth performance".

CSR's BCHS-HCI "presents an ideal offering for large volume mobile phone, PDA and access point manufacturers," says the company. "They will appreciate access to Bluetooth's full data rates and full Bluetooth network support whilst still benefiting from the cost and ease-of design advantages presented by BCHS."

The HCI split brings performance advantages, because it allows developers to implement their own solutions with full Bluetooth data rates up to 721Kbps and the full piconet support of 7 slaves.

BCHS-HCI is available now from http://www.csr.com CSR's web site.

CSR's full shrink-wrapped offering is intended to complement BlueCore hardware. It incorporates the necessary Bluetooth profiles and demo applications to give manufacturers a much faster time to market.

BCHS together with the BlueCore IC with embedded Bluetooth core stack is a complete Bluetooth solution from RF to qualified Bluetooth profiles. BCHS includes most of the Bluetooth complexity - the profiles, security, connection manager and application layers. Users are also given a simple, standard API that remains intact even with the new HCI split. The guide supplied makes it easy to port BCHS to the target platform. These features make it possible to develop a Bluetooth product using BlueCore and BCHS without the requirement for in-depth knowledge of Bluetooth.

BCHS-HCI complements CSR's existing lower cost option BCHS-RFCOMM. This requires less of the host's resources - only 100KB ROM and 50KB RAM. At half duplex, BCHS-RFCOMM has a lower data rate of 360kbps and support for 3 slaves on a piconet - this compares to the 721kbps and 7 slave support offered by BCHS-HCI. Because both the RFCOMM and HCI variants use the same interface, it is possible for customers to easily upgrade to HCI without the need for complicated redesigning.