News

The mouse that got away - wirelessly

When CSR announced that it was moving up to the new version (1.2) of Bluetooth wireless, it promised a mouse that would work before you loaded the Bluetooth drivers - during PC bootup. Here it is ...

Cambridge Silicon Radio today announced that it has added HID Proxy capability to the features a CSR BlueCore based USB dongle can support.

That means that a Human Interface Device - typically, a keyboard or a mouse - will work while a PC is booting - before the main OS has loaded.

"Current USB Bluetooth dongles are generic devices that rely on software running under the main OS to provide the full range of Bluetooth functions - including connections to mice and keyboards," said the company. "The BIOS that allows the main OS to load does not contain similar software and cannot therefore drive a generic Bluetooth dongle to form mouse and keyboard connections."

However, a keyboard must still be used to configure the BIOS, choose the OS on multiple-boot machines, or enter OS "safe" modes. In other words, if your PC needs fixing or setting up, the Bluetooth wireless mouse is dead - caught in the trap.

The new CSR HID Proxy firmware places the dongle in emulation mode when initially powered on. While in this mode, all the required software to allow Bluetooth keyboard and mouse connections runs on-chip, and the dongle is presented to the PC as a non-Bluetooth HID.

Once the main OS loads, a special command switches the dongle from HID Proxy to a Bluetooth HCI mode so that the many different Bluetooth functions can be provided via the normal software such as printing to Bluetooth printers and synchronising to Bluetooth enabled PDAs and phones.

The HID Proxy dongle is suitable for use with all BIOSs that recognise USB keyboards and mice, and all OSs that support Bluetooth, including versions of Microsoft Windows from 95 to XP and Apple OS.X.

More information can be found at CSR's site, or at the partner web site.