Cambridge Silicon Radio BlueCore4-External BC417143BU

CSR launched a 4th generation of its Bluetooth silicon, designed for Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) Bluteooth. Bluetooth EDR offers maximum data transfer rates of 2.1 Megabits per second (Mbps) compared to the current 721 kilobits per second (kbps) for v1.2 standard rate. This increase in transfer rate also means that, for a given amount of data, the EDR radio will be active up to 3 times less than a v1.2 radio, hence reducing power consumption (30% less power consumption than BlueCore2), which greatly benefits battery-dependent mobile devices. CDS BlueCore4 is fully backward compatible with existing Bluetooth v1.1 and v1.2 devices. Bluetooth EDR achieves its higher data rates by using a Phase Shift Keying (PSK) modulation scheme in place of the Gausian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) of standard rate. This allows more bits to be transmitted in each symbol of the packet-payload when it is sent over the radio link. However, the symbol rate is still 1 megasymbol per second; the packet timing and structure are both the same; the spectral characteristics of transmission are virtually unchanged; and support for both modulation schemes is mandatory for all EDR capable products. Semiconductor Insights will focus analysis on understanding the design criteria and the new architecture selected by the CSR design team to provide backward compatibility with Bluetooth v2.0 and v1.2 on a single chip.