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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (50545)	8/14/2001 7:07:50 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Some chip makers backing two-chip route to Bluetooth By Anthony Cataldo and Anthony Capati EE Times (08/14/01 15:19 p.m. EST) SAN MATEO, Calif. — While cramming baseband and RF functionality into a single device has been suggested as the route to low-cost Bluetooth modules, one camp of chip makers says it's more trouble than it's worth. Instead, startup BrightCom Technologies Inc. is concentrating on loading functionality into what it calls baseband "applications processors," and qualifying third-party RF devices to work with them. For its part, Conexant Systems Inc. is counting on advanced process technology to solve issues such as power consumption in its two-chip Bluetooth solution. BrightCom Technologies (Tel Aviv, Israel) believes that integrating the distinct digital and analog functions gives customers little design wiggle room and is too costly. "It's very difficult with current manufacturing to combine the two together and still have a low-cost solution. You can see that in some of the yields," said David Barach, president of BrightCom's U.S. subsidiary in San Diego. "We've looked at single-chip Bluetooth, and we still look at it. But from what's currently available in process technology, Bluetooth doesn't match up. The hype has waned and there's more a focus on getting a good solution." With no RF component to worry about, BrightCom said it can concentrate on the baseband portion of the Bluetooth design and deliver a fully loaded software package, including the protocol stack, profiles and an application programming interface. "The issue is that Bluetooth works well and is a good out-of-the-box experience," Barach said. BrightCom's current BIC2101, which is now available in volume, is a Bluetooth baseband with USB and serial interfaces. Its 230, scheduled for introduction in the fourth quarter, will include an Ethernet media-access controller to enable access to local-area networks. By the second half of next year, BrightCom says it will introduce the 2201, equipped with two ARC-based microprocessor cores: one for the baseband and the other for audio signal processing, such as echo filtering and cancellation. The device will be aimed at consumer and automotive audio applications. The company is also working with programmable-logic vendor Xilinx Inc. to develop an FPGA-based Bluetooth development platform. BrightCom has so far qualified Bluetooth radios from Silicon Wave, Broadcom, Texas Instruments and soon Conexant, Barach said. Issues such as Bluetooth power consumption are being addressed by newer manufacturing technologies. Conexant, for one, has unveiled a two-chip Bluetooth silicon solution based on a silicon germanium-BiCMOS process, along with a Bluetooth development station optimized for ultralow-power portable devices that require extended battery life, small form factors and low system costs. Conexant's CX72303 RF transceiver is optimized for 2.4-GHz frequency hopping in Bluetooth systems. The integrated transceiver includes an on-chip voltage-controlled oscillator, synthesizer, power amplifier, low-noise amplifier, IF filters, received-signal-strength indication and bit slicer. The CX72303 is fabricated using SiGe-BiCMOS technology and is enclosed in a BCC++ 48-pin package. It consumes 14 milliamps during transmit and receive. "The SiGe-BiCMOS process addresses the low-power-consumption applications while meeting the radio specifications of the 2.4-GHz band," said Brian Daly, director of CDMA/ wireless systems at Conexant. "Our main target is portable devices, such as headsets, PDAs and potentially digital cameras, which require minimum battery consumption." The CX81400 baseband device integrates all modem-specific functions as well as on-chip ROM and RAM, which eliminates the need for external components such as flash memory. It also supports UART and USB host controller interface transport layers as well as full point-to-multipoint transmissions. The CX81400 is fabricated using an 0.18-micron CMOS process, and is housed in a 160-pin or 100-pin FPGA package.