News Archive - September 2001

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SEPTEMBER 2001

N27:Telelogic sells Bluetooth PreQual to IAR Systems
Telelogic a provider of solutions for advanced software and systems development have made an agreement with IAR Systems, a leading software company in Bluetooth development. It will consist of IAR taking on the development of Bluetooth PreQual, Telelogic’s market-leading product for testing of the software in Bluetooth applications.

"This is an optimal solution. Telelogic will continue to offer PreQual and our expertise in this area to our key customers. We can concentrate our development efforts to our core products and at the same time continue to generate revenue from PreQual", said Anders Lidbeck, President and CEO for Telelogic. "This is the best solution for both our customers and employees."

"Bluetooth PreQual is a product that Telelogic has sold successfully for about a year, but it is a product that also attracts a far wider target group than Telelogic’s traditional customers. IAR will sell and market Bluetooth PreQual to customers that Telelogic does not reach today. In addition, IAR will distribute a number of other test products that are part of Telelogic’s product family", said Tomas Wolf, President and CEO for IAR Systems.

Bluetooth PreQual is a product targeted towards the growing test market for new Bluetooth applications. The product uses the same conformance test suites as those used for the official qualification of Bluetooth products. By performing in-house pre-qualification of Bluetooth products with Bluetooth PreQual, users will ensure first-time success in the qualification process, eliminating the risk of losing time. The transaction price of 7 MSEK is paid in cash. Bluetooth PreQual will be part of IAR Systems from 1 October 2001.

For the Telelogic press release click here (PDF File).

For details of the Telelogic PreQual product go to our Test Houses Page. 
Telelogic also offer Consulting Services for details see Bluetoothweb's Consultancy Page.

IAR Systems Products and Solutions can be found on our Software pages

N26: Bluetooth @ European Microwave Week
Several companies offering products into the Bluetooth arena were present at this past week's European Microwave Week - conferences and exhibition - held at London's ExCeL conference facility, notably the test equipment companies Agilent, Anritsu, and Rohde & Schwarz . Other Bluetooth component companies were also present.  And indeed, Bluetoothweb itself was well received, with a number of enquiries being received about sponsorship opportunities.  

N25: RTX Telecom receives Bluetooth approval for two new products
RTX Telecom has announced that it has successfully received Bluetooth qualification 1.1 with two Bluetooth products for a major Japanese customer. The products are a Bluetooth USB Dongle and a Bluetooth Terminal Adapter. These are sold together as the Bluetooth Adapter.

The Bluetooth Adapter is intended for use in both offices and homes, replacing the wired ISDN modem connection to the PC. The Bluetooth USB Dongle is an integrated module for the PC that deals with the Bluetooth connection at the computer end, while the Terminal Adapter does the same at the ISDN end of the link.

The Bluetooth USB Dongle incorporates the lower parts of the Bluetooth Protocol Stack (up to the HCI - Host Controller Interface), and a Windows-integrated version of the upper parts of the Bluetooth stack is installed on the PC. This makes it possible to use a Windows-equipped PC for wireless access to the Internet and for e-mail.

The Terminal Adapter supports multiple simultaneous voice and data connections. It incorporates both a Bluetooth and an ISDN protocol stack, which handle the Bluetooth connection to the USB Dongle and the ISDN connection, respectively.

With this solution, wireless access to the Internet will be possible from anywhere in the office or home, with data rates of the Bluetooth connection up to 128 kbit/sec. Unlike most other Bluetooth products on the market, with a range of a mere 10 m, the Bluetooth Adapter has an impressive line-of-sight range of 100m.
"This means that our customer is one of the first on the market to supply a complete Bluetooth connectivity solution with extended range, using a Bluetooth Adapter" said Mr Joergen Elbaek, President & CEO of RTX Telecom.

"The RTX Telecom development team has yet again proven to be a success in creating a product from idea to production within a highly competitive time schedule, giving our customer a competitive advantage," Joergen Elbćk added.

More details on Bluetoothweb's USB Dongles Page

N24:RTX/Penell A/S and Parcorp to issue parking fines 
Penell and Parcorp have announced that they will be launching its next generation of terminals for car park attendants to e known as Ticketman T5. It will use Bluetooth technology to wirelessly transfer data to the car park attendant who always carries a  mobile phone for safety reasons anyway. It will also mean that the product will be smaller, lighter and energy saving than existing products. 
    The Ticketman T5 is also hoped to be able to offer a range of new services including, for example, cordless connection to network, printer, camera and much more, which we will develop further and offer to our customers in future generations of the terminal.    
    Parcorp A/S entered into an alliance earlier this year with Penell A/S concerning the supply of Bluetooth technology for the new generation of terminals.

For details of Penell's and RTX's products see our Design Solutions and Consultancy Pages.


N23:Broadcom claim to have broken $5 Bluetooth chip barrier 
Broadcom claim to be producing Bluetooth radio chips at less than the $5 price, using a standard CMOS process.  The sub-$5 figure has been seen as something like Bluetooth's holy grail - $5 is seen as the cost needed to make Bluetooth really viable for use in low cost consumer products.  Only customers ordering hundreds of thousands of chips will get them for $5, though, according to Broadcom.  

There are several advantages to developing radio chips using standard CMOS process, rather than bi-polar technology, according to Scott Bibaud, Broadcom's Marketing Director. CMOS is the most common, lowest cost semiconductor technology in the world, meaning that in the future virtually any foundry in the world will be able to produce cheap radio chips.  

UK company CSR also uses CMOS but recently forecast another 2 years till this barrier would be breached - however, the CSR chips contain both RF and baseband capability - see story below.

See Bluetoothweb's Semiconductors RF ICs and Semiconductor Single Chip Solutions

For details of the press release source click here.

N22:Broadcom receives Qualcomm's approval for mobile phone Bluetooth chip
Broadcom's BCM2002 chip has been approved by  Qualcomm for low cost cell phone applications.    Qualcomm currently makes CDMA wireless chipsets, licensing those designs to cell phone manufacturers for use in their own phones.    Broadcom's 2002 chip is a CMOS radio transceiver that makes a phone Bluetooth-capable when added to Qualcomm's existing set of chips. 

For details of the press release source click here.

N21:Red-M receives funding from Intel
Red-M, a UK-based Bluetooth company, has received an undisclosed sum of money from Intel to integrate Bluetooth and 802.11 wireless networks into Red-M's Genos software. The Genos software is to be used in notebook and PDA platforms running on Intel-based devices.

See Bluetoothweb's Access Points page and PDA Accessories page for details of Red-M products.

For Red-M's original press release click here.

N20:New funds for Bluetooth Pens
C Technologies' subsidary Anoto, a Lund based producer of Bluetooth-based chips for digital pens, a technology which links the use of a digital pen and paper with the Internet, has secured new funds for  €66.3 million.
   A major investor is PenMex, which represents owners and industrial partners with stakes in Mexican mobile phone operators and telecom distributors, and which will provide €44.2 million in return for a 15 percent stake in Anoto. Its parent company will invest €16.5 million for 60 percent stake,  with Skandia, a Swedish insurance company, chipping in  €5.5 million for 2 percent ownership. Previous investor Ericsson, the telecommunications giant, will not take part in the new funding round, seeing its stake diluted from 30 to 23 percent.
    “This is a terrific result” said Christer Fahraeus, Anoto’s CEO in a conference call held today. “Anoto has been valued at $204 million before the new funding. The new funds are going to fuel the company until positive cashflow, expected in the first half of 2003. Further, PenMex will give us immediate access in Latin America,” he added.

For more details on the Anoto Pen see the Innovative Products page.

For Anoto's original press release click here.

N19:Bluetooth interest increasing fast says Cahners
Consumer interest in short-range Bluetooth technology is rising, according to a new study by Cahners In-Stat Group.  A recent survey of 1,000 consumers recently conducted by the research firm found that almost twice as many respondents were familiar with Bluetooth than was the case a year earlier. In addition, the survey found emerging interest among small and medium-sized businesses and larger enterprises.  The survey also found that a majority of consumers are willing to pay as much as $25 to add Bluetooth to their products. This refutes the widely-held assumption that Bluetooth chipsets must cost manufacturers $5 or less before Bluetooth is widely adopted. Such a price would result, roughly, in a $10 premium to end users.
    As a result of the survey, In-Stat projected that shipments of Bluetooth-enabled equipment will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of about 360 percent between now and 2005. In that year, 955 million Bluetooth-enabled units will ship, the research firm claims.  The report also predicts that adapters and cards intended to make existing systems Bluetooth-ready will dominate the early market, quickly followed by embedded systems.

The findings are part of the study: "2001 Bluetooth Survey: Consumers vs. Enterprise."

See Bluetoothweb's Market Studies page to find out more about Cahners In-Stat Group and this new report.

N18:Qualcomm Demos 3G Video Via Bluetooth at CTIA in San Diego
Qualcomm has demonstrated what it claims is the first streaming video to next-generation wireless devices via short-range Bluetooth technology.  The company said it has demonstrated video streaming at >144kb/s through its CDMA2000 1X technology and a Bluetooth connection at comparable rates to a personal area network. The system used Qualcomm's MSM5100 chip.
    "Integrating Bluetooth wireless connectivity technology with CDMA will provide consumers worldwide with a true wireless multimedia Internet experience as well as a low-cost solution for handset manufacturers," said Luis Pineda, vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

For Qualcomm's original press release click here.

N17:Establish AB to offer supply chain management consulting services using the Anoto concept
The new collaboration agreement between Establish and Anoto concerns services within business consulting and system integration.    "Establish delivers functional IT-solutions within the SCM field and the Anoto concept will become an important part of the mobile solutions we offer. We have initiated the first project which will make daily life procedures a lot easier for the people involved", says Marcus Lidbeck, Partner at Establish AB.

Anoto has created a global de facto standard for digital paper and will launch paper based services enabling handwritten text to be transmitted directly from paper to a computer, mobile phone or fax machine. For more details of this product see the Innovative Products page.

For Anoto's press release click here.

N16:Rumours grow for Palm m525 to have built-in Bluetooth
Palm's follow-up to its m505 PDA, the m525, will connect to the outside world through a Bluetooth wireless link according to a "source who has asked to remain anonymous" - as reported by  'The Register'.

N15:Pocket PC gets Bluetooth Implant
Socket Communications has released a collection of Compact Flash-based communications products for handheld computers, including a Bluetooth add-on for Microsoft Windows CE-based devices.    The Bluetooth card, is one of the first to appear for a PDA (personal digital assistant), taking advantage of what industry analysts say could prove a killer application for mobile devices. Socket is pricing its Bluetooth Connection Kit at $179. The kit is currently available in Europe, and will be launched in the U.S. in October. 

For Socket's press release click here.

N14:Toshiba releases wireless-ready laptops
Toshiba are expected to release what is thought to be the world's first laptop with built-in antennas for both long and short range wireless networking.    Toshiba laptops in the Tecra 9000 and Portege 4000 series will have antennas in their lids for connecting to short-range Bluetooth networks and to longer-range and higher-speed "Wi-Fi," networks, the company said.
    
Bluetoothweb views this as another product coming out combining both Bluetooth and 802.11 technologies together, further indicating  the complementary, rather than competing, nature of the two technologies.

See the Laptops, Notebooks & PCs Page

N13:Silicon Wave licenses ARM7TDMI processor core for integration into Bluetooth devices
Silicon Wave announced at the World PC Expo 2001 that it has licensed the ARM7TDMI processor core for integration into its high-performance, low-power Bluetooth baseband processor developed for cellular phones, PDAs, mobile computing and other wireless products. 
    Dave Lyon, President and CEO of Silicon Wave, said it had chosen the ARM7TDMI processor core because of "its low- power, high-performance and standardized architecture", so that "OEMs can design Bluetooth products that are robust, reliable and provide long battery life."
    The ARM7TDMI core is part of the ARM7 TM family of low-power 32-bit RISC microprocessor cores optimized for cost and power-sensitive consumer applications. Offering up to 130MIPs, the ARM7 family incorporates the Thumb® 16-bit instruction set, which enables 32-bit performance at 8/16-bit system cost. The ARM7 family consists of the ARM7TDMI, the ARM7TDMI-S and the ARM7EJ-S processor cores, and the ARM720T cached processor macrocell.

For details of Silicon Wave's other products see Bluetoothweb's Development Kit's Page and the IP for Silicon Page.

For ARM's press release click here. 

N12:ASAT gets Bluetooth deal with SiGe Semiconductor's
ASAT Holdings limited, a provider of integrated circuit(IC) package design, assembly and test products, are supplying packaging technology for SiGe's PA2423L Class 1 Bluetooth power amplifier.  ASAT's Moisture Sensitive Level One (MSL-1) Leadless Plastic Chip Carrier (LPCC) package will, they claim, allow SiGe to produce the industry's smallest fully encapsulated Class 1 Bluetooth power amplifier.    The LPCC package enables SiGe to achieve a form factor of only 3mm by 1.6mm. The device also achieves MSL-1, eliminating the need for dry storage or baking of the package after exposure to air. This eases manufacturing and reduces costs typically associated with storing and handling devices that use alternative package options.

For further details go to ASAT's press release by clicking here. 
To find out about  SiGe Semiconductors go to our Semiconductors RF ICs. 

N11:Wireless MP3 Connection Launched
A system for delivering streaming MP3 music to wireless devices over wired and wireless networks has been announced.     Sensate Inc. said its 2nR-Musiker works with RealNetworks' RealJukebox software and enables downloading, uploading and streaming of MP3 music by wireless and wired Internet devices that run Windows or Windows CE variants such as Pocket PC. It can operate over 802.11b wireless networks as well as Bluetooth and HomeRF.   The system is based on AoIP, Sensate's platform and middleware for network applications. AoIP supports features such as quality-of-service, discovery, authentication and roaming. The product is available free from popular Web-based download sites.

For further details click here

N10:Toshiba to roll out Bluetooth Notebooks
Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. is set to launch two notebooks with integrated Bluetooth capabilities aimed at traveling business users.   The Tecra 9000 series and Portégé 4000 series will be the first notebooks to have both 802.11b and Bluetooth antennas embedded in the lid of the notebook, eliminating the need for a PC card. 
    "It gives the user the best of both worlds, they can connect to corporate sites and access the Internet in airports," Tanguay said. "Then they can use Bluetooth to (synchronize) to PDAs and not have to travel with any cables."

For the original source on the report click here.
See the Laptops, Notebooks & PCs Page


N9:Bluetooth Enabled Motorola Timeport 270c Cellular Phone Review
This is the first Motorola cell phone incorporating Bluetooth technology.  It has a variety of features including speakerphone, voice recognition, and voice activation, the Timeport™ 270c pretty much allows you to have the conveniences of a pager, cell phone, and limited laptop features all in one device.  As companions to the Timeport 270c cell phone, the customer also receives a FM radio headset and a Bluetooth Connectivity Kit. . The product should be available September 2001 and works on the CDMA 800/1900 and analog 800 MHz networks. 

For the original source on the report and further details click here.

N8:Psion pull out of the consumer markets and Bluetooth
Psion has abandoned the consumer market, shocking many people, not the least its user base. The move has come on the back of many a disgruntled opinion from industry insiders and commentators. It's only recently that Psion showed off its new concept models such as the very impressive Halo device. There was talk at the time of a Bluetooth enabled Revo model which, allied to a Bluetooth enabled Nokia 6210 (Nokia can supply a special version of it's Li ion battery module that contains the Bluetooth transceiver circuitry), would showcase the future of handheld computing.   So, what made Psion pull the plug on it's consumer division? Well, it seems that Psion simply could not compete with Microsoft's new Pocket PC - although Psion has strong sales in Europe, by comparison in the US it had none.

For the original source on the report and further details click here.

N7:Bluetooth chipmaker predicts $5 chip price by 2003
Cambridge Silicon Radio, a leading manufacturer of Bluetooth chips, has said that it expects to have chips on sale below $5 by 2003.   It is also working on a single chip that will combine the world's two main short-distance wireless networks, Bluetooth and WiFi (also known as 802.11b).  "We'll go past $5, not next year probably, but the year after,'' said Simon Finch, in charge of strategic marketing at the UK-based company.
    The company currently sells the chips at between $8 and $10 when ordered in large quantities, which limits usage to expensive electronic products.   If the price drops below $5 a chip, the industry expects Bluetooth to be used much more widely.  The company claimed in June this year to have shipped its millionth Bluetooth chip.

For the original source on the report click here.

N6:Brain Boxes Bluetooth PC card qualified to operate with Norwood Systems Enterprise Mobility
Norwood Systems, developer of office networks for the wireless generation, announced that Enterprise Mobility is now able to interoperate with PC cards from PC communications card manufacturer, Brain Boxes. 
See Bluetoothweb's PC Card Page.   

This enables businesses to create a wireless environment as it allows people to use their laptops as base stations, lowering the overall cost of deploying Bluetooth wireless voice and data networks. The Brain Boxes Bluetooth PC card enables voice connectivity to cordless headsets and mobile phones as well as data connectivity to PDA’s.  Norwood Systems is trialling the PC card with several medium and large companies and it is expected to become commercially available in Q4 2001.

For the original source on the report click here.

N5: "Whoops - sorry, we didn't mean it !" - Intel apologises for Bluetooth gaffe
Intel has apologised for saying that the Bluetooth wireless protocol is dead. It isn't, and this is all a terrible misunderstanding, it seems.    Last month Sean Maloney, executive VP of Intel's Personal Networking Group, was cited by the CNET news channel comparing Bluetooth's retreat from wireless networking to Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Intel helped found the Bluetooth consortium, and has been a staunch advocate of the standard.           

 In an apologetic email circulated to Bluetooth SIG members, Maloney apparently explained: "Unfortunately, the reporter did not grasp that I was addressing a common mis-perception that the Bluetooth specification competes with 802.11b as a wireless networking technology (Bluetooth wireless is not a WLAN).  Intel believes the Bluetooth specification and 802.11b are complementary technologies that address different wireless needs and will coexist in many environments)."     It seems that the report of Intel believing Bluetooth was dead was a misunderstanding on the reporters part.

For the original source on the report click here.

N4:  Bluetooth late, but not at war with 802.11b - Ericsson 
Bluetooth technology is a year late to hit the market, but is definitely not a loser to 802.11b wireless LANs, Ericsson staff said in Boston.    "We are complementary technologies," said Skip Bryan, global area manager for the Americas for Ericsson Technology Licensing, a division of Sweden-based Ericsson. "There is no war" between 802.11b and Bluetooth, "so there is no war to lose," Bryan added in comments during a session on Bluetooth at the Embedded Systems Conference.   Ericsson was the first to unveil a Bluetooth device, in November 1999 at Comdex in Las Vegas. The device was a wireless headset to work with a cell phone. 

It seems the original Bluetooth Special Interest Group did not anticipate the amount of interoperability testing needed between devices, Bryan said. Another cause of the delay is that chips to enable the devices have been too expensive for the hundreds of companies eager to install them. Ericsson officials said it costs $15 to $25 to enable a cell phone or laptop with Bluetooth hardware, but the cost needs to be about $5 for Bluetooth to catch on.     

For the original sources on this report click here and click here.

N3:Proximus team with Intel, Ericsson for mobile Internet
Belgacom's mobile unit Proximus said it is teaming up with Intel and Ericsson to provide continuous high-speed internet access on its GPRS network. The Proximus access will combine Intel's Bluetooth personal computer cards and Ericsson's T39m mobile phone, it said.     

For product details of the Intel's subsidiary Xircom, see Bluetoothweb's Bluetooth PC Cards Page. 
Details on the Ericsson T39 can be found on Bluetoothweb's Mobile Phones Page.

For the original source on the report click here.

N2: WIPRO's Bluetooth Solutions Receive Standards Qualification
Nowadays, more and more companies are receiving Bluetooth Qualification, the latest are Wipro Technologies whom their Bluetooth protocol stack, BlueWave, along with all thirteen profiles, was awarded product qualification status (version 1.1) from the Bluetooth Qualification Body (BQB). The BlueWave baseband controller and software stack had already achieved the same status. The Qualification was achieved conjunction with CeteCom Inc. 
See Bluetoothweb's Test House Page.

N1:Ericsson launches the new lighter, more colourful, Bluetooth Headset HBH-15
The new headset HBH-15 is extended talk and standby times due to a new battery (up to 5 hrs). It incorporates the proven strengths of its predecessor, the HBH-10 Bluetooth Headset which was the first Bluetooth product to reach the consumer market. It's expected to reach retail stores in October 2001. 
For further details of Ericsson's headsets see Bluetoothweb's Headsets Page.