TI Turns Up the Music in Mobile Phones with Integrated FM Audio and Stereo Single-Chip Bluetooth Solution
1 April 2006
Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) (TI) today announced its next generation BlueLink(TM) 6.0 platform that combines the industry's best performance Bluetooth(R) 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. In addition, TI's solution supports streaming FM stereo music from the handset to a Bluetooth-enabled headset. (See http://www.ti.com/bluelink_6 for more information.)
Turn-key Software and Hardware Support
Since both Bluetooth and FM functions are integrated on the same silicon, the solution ensures optimal RF co-existence 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 co-existence hardware and software solution, providing a collaborative interface with TI's WiLink(TM) mobile WLAN solution for optimal bandwidth and resource sharing.
The BlueLink 6.0 platform includes TI's BlueLink Bluetooth and FM Protocol Stacks and all software required to work with TI's OMAP(TM) platforms and OMAP-Vox(TM) 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."
Small and Cost-Effective Solution
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(TM) technology at 90 nanometers. The integration of Bluetooth and FM allows customers to realize 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 percent compared to 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.
Availability
BlueLink 6.0 WSP (wafer scale package) and modules are currently sampling. The WSP option reduces board footprint by 50 percent compared to 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.
Texas Instruments -- Making Wireless
TI is the leading manufacturer of wireless semiconductors, delivering the heart of today's wireless technology and building solutions for tomorrow. TI provides a breadth of silicon and software and 16 years of wireless systems expertise that spans handsets and base stations for all communications standards, wireless LAN, GPS, Digital TV, Bluetooth(R) and Ultra Wideband. TI offers custom to turn-key solutions, including complete chipsets and reference designs, OMAP(TM) application processors, as well as core digital signal processor and analog technologies built on advanced semiconductor processes. Please visit http://www.ti.com/wirelesspressroom for additional information.
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com .
Trademarks
WiLink, OMAP, OMAP-Vox and DRP are trademarks of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Source: prnewswire
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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