Baseband chip takes Bluetooth applications onboard

An Alcatel Microelectronics product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Mar 4, 2002

Alcatel and TTPCom have combined to release embedded stack Bluetooth solutions for headset and cellular applications.

Alcatel and TTPCom have combined to release embedded stack Bluetooth solutions for headset and cellular applications.

The combination of Alcatel's MTC-60180 Bluetooth baseband chip and TTPCom's embedded software stacks offers customers a total solution with a complete reference design, allowing them to considerably reduce development costs as well as time-to-market.

With 2Mbit of Flash memory and an on-chip ARM7 processor, Alcatel's MTC-60180 platform is a flexible solution for equipment manufacturers who want to add Bluetooth to their applications.

The MTC-60180 can store all software to run the application, eg for a headset or cellular phone, in the embedded memory of the Bluetooth baseband.

The embedded ARM7 processor can run the complete software stack without the need for an external processor.

Moreover, both memory and processor can accommodate additional simple applications like power management.

With the battery management chip on the reference design, customers have access to a total solution, simplifying their development effort for a mobile application.

"Application-oriented Bluetooth solutions help to boost an OEM's ability to bring new products to market quicker, with more effectiveness, resulting in increased return on investment and market share", stated Joyce Putscher, Director Converging Markets and Technologies, of market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group.

"By delivering standard or custom applications embedded in the Alcatel Bluetooth chip we are together able to deliver a solution that perfectly suits the customers' requirements", stated Neil Werdmuller, Head of Wireless Networking at TTPCom.

"This seamlessly integrated combination of baseband, host protocol stack and application inside the device delivers the maximum integration, at the lowest cost with the minimum impact on Host system in a hosted configuration", he continued.

The Alcatel baseband is fully qualified to the Bluetooth V1.1 specification and offers all functionalities, including scatternet capability and master/slave switch.

The MTC-60180 evaluation kit, available for several radio chips on the market, includes the evaluation board with radio and baseband, all necessary evaluation software and full documentation as well as a headphone for audio testing.

(This was Electronicstalk's Top Story on 1 March 2002).