CSR reaches sixth generation with Bluetooth

DESCRIBED BY CSR CEO, John Scarisbrick, as his company's most important Bluetooth silicon to date, the sixth version of CSR's chip, Bluecore6, concentrates on power saving and voice capabilities.

CSR has added two improved Bluetooth scanning modes into the Bluecore6chip - conditional scan and casual scan. Together they can save up to 86 per cent of Bluetooth's power consumption in scan mode.

It also offers full support for the latest version (v2.1+EDR) of the Bluetooth specifications.

CSR has concluded that Bluetooth is still mainly being used for voice purposes - specifically to connect a handset to a headset. So it has improved radio frequency performance.

This especially helps to improve operation across the body, for example, when a Bluetooth headset connects to a mobile phone worn on the user's belt.

The company has also changed the modulation method used for carrying voice from CVSD to ADPCM. Calling its new technology Auristream, CSR claims to be saving up to half the Bluetooth power on the handset.

All this comes in a compact form with CSR arguing that its wafer level CSP format and is smaller than competing Bluetooth silicon.

Volume production of Bluecore6 should commence in Q1 2008. µ