Via Digitimes.com

Despite initial skepticism from some quarters, Bluetooth has established a growing market presence and continues to assert its viability. One interesting development is the proposed adoption, by the Bluetooth SIG, of Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, which promises a bandwidth and performance boost – enough bandwidth to support streamed high-definition video. This particular technology constellation is scheduled to be available with Bluetooth v3.0.

Bluetooth was, nevertheless, originally mooted as a low-power, audio-centric, cable-replacement technology. Competing with the likes of Wi-Fi on bandwidth and coverage was never the intention, and within the terms of that technology space, Bluetooth has demonstrated that it has a market.

At the forefront of Bluetooth development is CSR, which recently announced its fifth generation of BlueCore devices. DigiTimes.com spoke with John Hodgson, CEO of CSR, when he recently visited Taiwan.

This is the first part of a two-part interview. Part II will follow on 24 October.

Q: The CSR website states that the BlueCore4 products are the only Bluetooth devices with Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) support shipping in volume today. Does that remain the case, today, that CSR is leading the market in support for EDR?

A: The answer is yes. We have over 26 design wins listed on the official Bluetooth qualification website, all with EDR from CSR designed in. Our competition is, at most, no better than a quarter of that. So we’re in a very strong position with EDR, and we’ve had EDR products for longer than anybody else, so you’d expect us to be in a good position. There aren’t very many of our competitors that have EDR products, and every time the specification is re-spun, we lose competitors.

Q: Do your newly announced BlueCore5 products supersede BlueCore4?

A: I wouldn’t say supersede. Our BlueCore4 devices continue to be designed in by customers as we start to move to BlueCore5. With BlueCore5 we do move to a more advanced level. We’re bundling products, so you’ll see that with BlueCore5 we are offering products that incorporate DSPs, much more complex DSPs than we had in BlueCore3. And you’ll see that with BlueCore5, we’ve now got a product where we are putting FM functionality on the BlueCore5 chip. So currently we are expanding the number of bundled products on offer.

Q: The CSR website also states that: “BlueCore features in over 50% of all Bluetooth devices shipped and over 60% of all qualified Bluetooth enabled products and modules listed on the Bluetooth website.” Are these figures still accurate?

A: Yes, unit market share figures compiled by IMS, an independent market research analyst, indicate that BlueCore silicon continues to be designed into over 50% of all Bluetooth devices shipped. We were at 56% in the second quarter, so that’s slightly more than a five-percentage point gain over the first quarter. And we still have over 60% of all Bluetooth qualifications. We were at 61% of qualifications in the first half of the year, and we were higher than that in July and August. And of course we’re aggressively maintaining our position.

Q: Recently the Bluetooth SIG proposed the adoption of Ultra Wideband (UWB) as a specifically Bluetooth technology, and I understand that CSR is now involved in the development of a UWB PHY. Can you characterize CSR’s involvement with UWB and the significance of UWB as an adjunct, or possibly integral, Bluetooth technology?

A: EDR was incorporated with the Bluetooth 2.0 specification. The Bluetooth 2.1 specification includes software enhancements that make it easier for consumers to use Bluetooth products. So as we make more complex solutions available – a simple example of a more complicated solution, among point-to-point solutions, are the stereo headsets that are now available that will work with an MP3 player. With these, you could be walking along listening to a music stream from your MP3 unit, and let’s say your phone rings. At that point, the headset will automatically switch over, pause the music, switch into telephony mode, and when the call is complete, when the caller hangs up, you return to the audio stream.

UWB is going to be incorporated with the Bluetooth 3.0 specification. It’s going to be a year to 18 months before that’s out, but we are working on development of the spec. Basically, it will allow Bluetooth profiles to be used on the UWB physical layer, so you will be able to move large amounts of data very rapidly. This is a rather different functionality from that of Bluetooth radios, where you are very, very power conscious, and the “classic” application is communication with a handset or headset.

You can see the obvious advantage of having Bluetooth profiles over UWB for file transfer between PCs, for example, the movement of video files or Powerpoint files.

At CSR, we are currently in development of Bluetooth 3.0 over UWB. We have a design team working on it, but we don’t expect the specification for over a year yet.

Q: Is CSR involved in the development of Wireless USB (WUSB)? If so, can you characterize your involvement?

A: We are not involved with Wireless USB (WUSB) as such. There are two formats for WUSB, an Intel format and a Cypress format. WUSB was promoted as a solution for the wireless connection of mice and keyboards, but it has not gained any traction. I think that if you’re going to put Bluetooth into a PC, you’re going to want to use that resource, not have to create yet another radio system.

At CSR, we tend to regard WUSB as, in effect, a special case of Bluetooth, and it’s difficult to see what WUSB is going to contribute, now that Bluetooth is shipping in such volumes. We have the Bluetooth cost structure way down the curve now, and we have the profiles working and interoperating. It’s tough to see what role WUSB would have.

Q: You’re claiming that Bluetooth already has such market momentum and presence that WUSB will find it difficult to gain entry to the market?

A: I don’t think it has any traction today.

Q: And you’re saying that a market for WUSB-enabled mice and keyboards has failed to materialize?

A: A market hasn’t developed in comparison with that for Bluetooth today.

Q: WUSB offers data transfer at up to 480Mbps. WUSB proponents are assuming that amount of bandwidth could be quite attractive for many end-users. What’s your response to that?

A: Well, WUSB may offer that bandwidth, but for what applications? There’s always going to be an opportunity, always some use for a standard. The issue is, is it going to develop a large enough market? Will it have a large enough number of applications that a large number of end-users are interested in it? Will it achieve the kind of volumes where price points can come down?

Bluetooth over UWB will, in any case, have a Video Streaming Profile (VSP), which would support a data rate of up to 200Mbps. That means it will support the streaming of high-definition (HD) video. As we see it at CSR, Bluetooth can support streaming audio. Wi-Fi enables streaming video. Bluetooth over UWB will be capable of streaming high-definition video. It would support streaming of high-definition video from a media-center PC to a TV, for example.

Q: We hear varying reports with regard to interference at 2.4GHz between Bluetooth and 802.11b/g. Some say that in practice Bluetooth and 802.11 can coexist because there is always some physical distance between the two in real-world deployments. Other reports suggest the problem can be severe and requires mitigating technologies such as activity signaling and channel skipping. What are your own thoughts on the interference issue?

A: The Bluetooth 1.2 specification was aimed at the co-existence of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, utilizing both spread-spectrum and frequency-hopping techniques. You can actually hear the effect of adaptive frequency-hopping under the Bluetooth 1.2 spec, if say you’re wearing a Bluetooth headset in the presence of Wi-Fi. What you’ll hear, when interference occurs, is a kind of “pop-corn” noise, but that disappears as soon as you turn on adaptive frequency hopping. There, the Bluetooth signal is getting out of the way of the Wi-Fi signal, not the other way around.

CSR’s BlueCore products are unique in that they also integrate a channel-skipping capability. This allows a voice signal, for example, to move to another available channel, to avoid interference. We also support CQDDR – Channel Quality Driven Data Rate, which ensures optimum data throughput. We also make available a type of error correction that permits “graceful degradation.”

To date, Wi-Fi has been used mainly on laptops, but a laptop is a relatively large piece of real estate, and we now have laptops that utilize both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, where, typically, the antennas have been carefully spaced apart.

However, we’re now putting Bluetooth in phones. In a phone today, you’ll find a GSM radio, a GPRS capability, and you’ll find a Wi-Fi radio. In quite a few instances today you also have Bluetooth; Bluetooth is obviously established. Now phones are also incorporating GPS functions and FM radio. People are also talking about DVB. So you’re now talking about a very, very complex case of putting four or five or six radios in a very small space like a cell phone.

This is the first part of a two-part interview. Part II will follow on 24 October.