CSR gave the first public demonstration of its Ultra Low
Power (ULP) Bluetooth silicon.
CSR gave the successful
demonstration at the Continua Health Alliance medical conference in
Luxembourg. The demonstrations showed that CSR’s
ULP Bluetooth silicon consumes 10 times less power than standard
Bluetooth when connectable. Other participants in the medical conference
included the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and Nokia.
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CSR’s ULP Bluetooth demonstrations consisted of two ICs successfully transferring ULP Bluetooth data packets 50-times faster than standard Bluetooth, meaning that the devices were consuming as little as 1/50th of the power. In addition, in establishing the connection, the ULP devices used 1/10th the power required by standard Bluetooth. CSR’s demonstration ICs employed both standard Bluetooth (v.2.1) and ULP Bluetooth radios. CSR calls these devices ‘dual-mode’ because they support both flavours of Bluetooth radio
ULP Bluetooth is a complementary Bluetooth technology that can be used
to transfer simple data sets between compact devices and can run for up
to ten years on one button cell battery. ULP Bluetooth was previously
known as Wibree.
ULP Bluetooth technology has very low overheads, which makes it much
faster to connect devices; this means much less power is consumed. End
products based on ULP Bluetooth will therefore have battery standby
times measured in years, not just days or weeks. To connect devices in
standard Bluetooth, the master device has to synchronize to a slave
device by paging a specific device using up to 32 frequencies, it then
issues FHS (frequency hopping spectrum) packets, then it polls the
slave, before negotiating connections at both the Link Manager and L2CAP
layers - all of this essential connection
process takes place before actually sending data. Although this overhead
is essential for standard Bluetooth carrying more complex data
protocols, it does slow down the connection.
When ULP Bluetooth is used, in a wireless heart rate monitor for
example, the monitor simply ‘advertises’
itself to the control/reader using just three frequencies (could be a
mobile phone or watch) that then connects sends its very short burst of
data and then switches off again. This allows ULP Bluetooth to achieve
data transfer 50-times faster than standard Bluetooth; less time spent
transferring data means the ULP radio spends less time active.
ULP Bluetooth is a complementary Bluetooth technology that can be used
to transfer simple data sets between compact devices and is expected to
be able to run for up to ten years on one button cell battery. Because
of its low power requirements, ULP Bluetooth is set to significantly
broaden the applications for Bluetooth. The technology was previously
known as Wibree.
Robin Heydon, CSR’s Standards Architect,
commented from Luxembourg, “CSR is the
industry’s leading supplier of low power
embedded wireless technologies. Today’s
demonstration is the first ever public demonstration of ULP Bluetooth.
CSR customers benefit from knowing they are working with the only
supplier driving the development of Bluetooth, in all of its flavours.”
In 2007, CSR was the first company to sample ULP Bluetooth silicon with
a number of its lead customers. CSR also announced in July 2007 that its
dual-mode (Bluetooth + ULP Bluetooth) Bluetooth silicon would be
available in 2008. Today’s announcement is
proof that CSR not only remains on track and continues to lead ULP
Bluetooth technology, but is also driving its development and its
application in market sectors such as medical devices.
CSR’s Robin Heydon was also presenting at the
Continua Health Alliance event on the future of ULP Bluetooth in medical
applications, and talked for the first time about the Bluetooth Health
Device Profile (HDP). CSR has designed HDP with the Bluetooth SIG to
meet the specific needs of this market. Heydon works closely with the
Bluetooth SIG and is currently the co-chair of the Ultra Low Power
Working Group, the body responsible for driving the development of ULP
Bluetooth technology and its applications.
About CSR
CSR is the leading global provider of personal wireless technology and
its product portfolio covers Bluetooth, GPS, FM and Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11).
CSR offers developed hardware/software solutions, based around its
silicon platforms, that incorporate fully integrated radio, baseband and
microcontroller elements.
CSR’s customers include industry leaders such
as Apple, Dell, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, RIM, Samsung,
Sharp, Sony, TomTom and Toshiba.CSR has its headquarters and offices in
Cambridge, UK, and offices in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India,
France, Denmark, Sweden and both Dallas and Detroit in the USA.