Philips Semiconductors hops aboard Bluetooth bandwagon
By Mark LaPedus
Electronic Buyers' News
(10/19/99, 02:04:45 PM EDT)
SUNNYVALE, Calif -- Jumping on the short-range radio frequency (RF) bandwagon, Philips Semiconductors said here that it will develop a line of components for the emerging Bluetooth wireless-technology standard.
Philips, whose U.S. subsidiary is based in Sunnyvale, plans to launch a family of discrete devices, single-chip solutions, and other ICs based on Bluetooth, a technology designed to link PCs, cell phones, and other systems over a short-haul, 1-megabit-per-second wireless network.
The standard's origins can be traced to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (BSIG) initiative kicked off last year by Intel, Ericsson, IBM, Nokia, and Toshiba. The effort has led Ericsson, National Semiconductor Corp., Motorola Inc., and others to separately roll out transceivers designed for Bluetooth applications, and VLSI Technology Inc.--which recently was acquired by Philips--to launch a Bluetooth baseband chip.
Having assimilated VLSI's operations, Philips said it will continue to push the baseband device, but it will now develop a stand-alone Bluetooth RF chip as well as a single-chip product that combines the baseband controller and RFIC.
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