LONDON — Chip makers made a series of announcements about new devices and development systems to support the forthcoming Bluetooth low energy standard at a Developer's Preview this week, held in Tokyo to precede the annual Bluetooth All Hands Meeting.
CSR plc (Cambridge, England) divulged plans to complement their previously announced dual-mode Bluetooth low energy chipset with a new single mode chip; Nordic Semiconductor (Oslo, Norway) announced its nRF8000 family of chips and chipsets, supporting both single mode slaves and masters; and Texas Instruments renewed its commitment to produce both dual-mode and single-mode Bluetooth low energy chips.
TI also put a stake in the ground for an entry price point for developers, with a basic development kit consisting of a coin cell powered single mode slave and USB adapter for only $99.
Taken together with previous announcements from CSR, Broadcom and EM Microelectronics, that brings the tally of Bluetooth low energy chipsets to four single mode chips and three dual mode chips.
Meanwhile test and measurement group Anritsu also came out of the closet and demonstrated a Bluetooth low energy analyzer, showing real time capture of RF packets.
According to Nick Hunn, founder of consultancy group WiFore Consulting, who is attending and presenting at this week's event, the announcements mark a "significant step forward, as it will put development kits in the hands of product designers within the next few months. For the Bluetooth community it signals the transition of Bluetooth low energy from a roadmap item to a reality."
The event, hosted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), is predominantly aimed at Asian manufacturing companies.
According to a blog by Hunn, the meeting "sent a clear message to developers that they need to start designing now to be ready for the first generation of Bluetooth low energy handsets."
Bluetooth low energy, which started out as a Nokia initiative dubbed Wibree, has the potential to be the fastest shipping wireless technology ever, Fiona Thomson, an analyst at IMS Research told the meeting. IMS Research believes that by 2013, 70 percent of all mobile phones being sold with Bluetooth functionality will support low energy Bluetooth.
You can read Hunns blog from the event here.
Meanwhile, the The Bluetooth SIG is scheduled to release version 3.0 of the spec, later today.
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