CSR has developed new Bluetooth firmware and complementary Windows software

Tag : Bluetooth

Cambridge, UK. - CSR (LSE: CSR) today announced it has collaboratedwith Intel Corporation to redesign how its integrated Bluetoothdevice interacts with a laptop PC. Laptops employing the newtechnology from CSR and Intel will save up to 1 Watt**, providingnext-generation Intel-based laptops with up to an extra 30**minutes of battery life. Bluetooth Advanced Power Management (APM)can now be designed into Intel mobile processor-based laptops.

As part of the collaboration, CSR has developed new Bluetooth firmware and complementary Windows software which implements anIntel-developed power-saving technique called USB SidebandDeferring. The objective is to eliminate the power drain caused byfrequent polling of the Bluetooth chip by the USB subsystem.

Intel mobile processors implement many techniques to save power.One of the most important is switching to low power sleep stateswhen idle. An important sleep state is called C3. An integrated USBBluetooth device can prevent the processor from entering the C3state because it needs to be constantly polled to check whether ithas any data to send to the system. This constant polling preventsentry into C3. Bluetooth APM lowers power consumption by makingsure that the Bluetooth device is only polled when it has data topass to the system. The rest of the time the processor can enterC3.

"Laptop PCs are increasingly becoming an integral part ofcontemporary mobile lifestyle. Bluetooth technology furtheradvances the paradigm of unwired computing. CSRs implementation ofIntels USB sideband deferring technology makes this possible whilesaving system power" said Kamal Shah, manager, Mobility EnablingInitiative, Mobile Platforms Group, Intel Corporation.

"By working closely together, CSR and Intel have readdressed theway that Bluetooth interacts with the main system and therefore howmuch power is consumed within the notebook PC. said Bill Nayavich,PC Market Manager at CSR. "This collaboration between Intel and CSRallows us to offer OEMs an innovative approach to enabling longerbattery life for laptops"

Bluetooth Advanced Power Management is available now using firmwarefor the Flash memory-based BlueCore4-External. Equivalent ROM-basedsilicon will be sampling to lead customers in September 2008. Related Links Source
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