Improved Bluetooth Protocol Stack for Mobile Phones

9th June , 2004

US : Broadcom Corporation announced integration of its industry-leading Bluetooth protocol stack into its mobile phone software platform.

With the broadest range of Bluetooth application usage profiles available, the new software will enable manufacturers of EDGE / GPRS /GSM cellular phones based on Broadcom chips to easily add the short-range wireless technology to their handset designs.

As the most robust and field proven Bluetooth stack in the industry, the WIDCOMM software -- recently acquired by Broadcom -- will ensure broad interoperability between mobile phones and other Bluetooth devices. The new Broadcom(R) Bluetooth protocol stack features the industry's most extensive range of "usage profiles," software components that define and enable Bluetooth operation among various Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as PCs, printers, headsets, keyboards, PDAs, mobile phones and many others.

The Bluetooth software platform has been fully integrated with Broadcom's cellular protocol stack, drivers, and user interface phone software that ships with the BCM2132 EDGE and BCM2121 GPRS cellular baseband processors. Broadcom supplies cellular chips to Sony Ericsson, Ningbo Bird, and PalmONE and with adoption of Bluetooth in cell phones growing at a rapid pace, Broadcom's new software platform will facilitate the addition of Bluetooth into cellular products with very fast time-to-market and minimal development.

"Broadcom is driving the accelerated adoption of Bluetooth in cellular phones, having established ourselves as leaders in the space with our products targeted at the CDMA phone market several years ago," said Scott Bibaud, Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Bluetooth Products. "Our new integrated software platform extends our leadership into the markets for EDGE/GPRS/GSM phones, allowing handset manufacturers to add Bluetooth into their phones without significantly increasing their internal engineering capabilities or costs. Our integrated protocol stack and reference designs enable new features like music streaming and advanced camera functionality, bringing a much richer Bluetooth experience to the mobile phone."

With the new solution, Broadcom's customers and development partners now require minimal development effort to add Bluetooth to their products, a significant advantage given the handset industry's short product lives and demanding development cycles: only minimal user interface software development is needed to complete their designs.

Mobile phone manufacturers will also benefit from a wide array of products that facilitate fast time to market with entry-level and high-end Bluetooth-enabled phones. Broadcom customers can choose from various software and chip combinations and complete reference designs, enabling either development of modules or the direct placement of Bluetooth functionality on the phone printed circuit board.

Broadcom has consistently demonstrated leadership in the wireless industry as the first company to introduce a Bluetooth-certified single-chip radio, the first to market with a single-chip Wi-Fi(R) product, and the first to market with 4-slot EDGE cellular technology. Broadcom's prompt integration of the recently acquired protocol stack from WIDCOMM partners the company's market- leading EDGE solution with its superior Bluetooth silicon, allowing mobile device manufacturers to more fully expose the benefits of EDGE's high data rates to end-users. Bluetooth-enabled PCs, notebook computers and PDAs can now easily connect to the high-speed "always on" connections provided by EDGE phones based on Broadcom baseband processors.

Industry Leading Bluetooth Software
Usage profiles are specialized applications that provide the vital information required by various peripheral and other devices to interact using Bluetooth. The greater the number of Bluetooth profiles that a handset contains, the greater its ability to communicate with a wider variety of other Bluetooth devices. Broadcom offers the most advanced Bluetooth profile portfolio, including audio profiles such as HSP/HFP for headset and hands-free applications; OPP, FTP and BIP for data and file sharing; audio/video for music streaming; CTP for cordless telephony applications, and many more. With multi-point and multi-profile functionality integrated with the highest performance Bluetooth radio in the industry, Broadcom provides the industry's leading Bluetooth solution for mobile phone handsets on the market today.

Availability
The new EDGE/GPRS/GSM software platform that integrates Broadcom's Bluetooth protocol stack is available now and will begin shipping in phones using the BCM2121 and BCM2132 basebands starting in the third quarter of this year.

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