Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2001-March 2006) | Subject: BlueLink 6.0
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 31 March 2006
Bluetooth and FM coexist in harmonious
RF chip
The BlueLink 6.0 platform combines the industry's best performance Bluetooth wireless technology with high fidelity FM stereo and mono performance on a single chip.
Texas Instruments has announced its next generation BlueLink 6.0 platform that combines the industry's best performance Bluetooth wireless technology with high fidelity FM stereo and mono performance on a single chip The BlueLink 6.0 platform provides complete hardware and software support, enabling ease of design and speeding time to market for mobile device manufacturers
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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As both Bluetooth and FM functions are integrated on the same silicon, the solution ensures optimal RF coexistence between the two functions, and also provides significant power savings in the most commonly used modes of operation, such as page and inquiry scan.
The BlueLink 6.0 single chip also incorporates TI's Bluetooth/WLAN coexistence hardware and software solution, providing a collaborative interface with TI's WiLink mobile WLAN solution for optimal bandwidth and resource sharing.
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The BlueLink 6.0 platform includes TI's BlueLink Bluetooth and FM Protocol Stacks and all software required to work with TI's OMAP platforms and OMAP-Vox chipsets for GSM, GPRS, Edge, WCDMA and UMTS.
The solution offers designers the flexibility to work with Symbian, Linux, or Microsoft Windows Mobile operating systems.
"Microsoft is excited that Texas Instruments is expanding their product line with the release of BlueLink 6.0", said Jonas Hasselberg, Group Product Manager at Microsoft.
"The strong integration between Texas Instruments and Windows Mobile will help device makers sell more smartphones by offering customers a wider range of services and functionality".
"With 60 million Symbian OS-based phones having shipped worldwide, Symbian OS is the world's leading mobile phone platform for Bluetooth", said Jorgen Behrens, VP, Product Management and Strategy, Symbian.
"Bringing BlueLink 6.0 to Symbian OS will not only allow for mass market adoption but by re-using Bluetooth software from TI's previous solution, the integration experience will be much easier for handset designers, reducing time to market".
The BlueLink 6.0 platform (BRF6350) is the industry's smallest Bluetooth and FM single-chip solution providing the lowest total system cost, and is manufactured in TI's innovative DRP technology at 90nm.
The integration of Bluetooth and FM allows customers to realise significant cost and size savings due to shared resources, reduction of external components and shrinkage of the total die size.
The solution cuts board space by 25% compared with discrete solutions.
"Analysts are forecasting that around 400 million FM-enabled handsets will ship by the end of the decade".
"TI is delivering a solution that provides the latest Bluetooth functionality, as well as high fidelity FM, all enabled by our innovative DRP technology", said Marc Cetto, General Manager of TI's Mobile Connectivity Solutions, Wireless Terminals Business.
TI has a long history of digital radio design, and has shipped millions of units of digital radio devices, enabling TI to leverage its experience to provide integrated, high fidelity FM stereo and mono performance for the handset market.
Clean audio quality signal, audio reception without interference, true muting capabilities and stereo separation enable the best stereo user experience for consumers.
BRF6350 also provides RDS (Radio Data Systems) functionality, letting users tune to radio stations immediately without spending time searching.
RDS also enables interactive services that provide visual information on the song and artist currently playing on the radio and lets users vote via their phones, as well as purchase concert tickets and ring tones.
BlueLink 6.0 WSP (wafer scale package) and modules are currently sampling.
The WSP option reduces board footprint by 50% compared with a traditional BGA package.
Mobile devices using TI's BlueLink 6.0 solution are expected to be on the market by the end of 2006.
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