News & Analysis
World's first software-based real-time Bluetooth Low Energy data transfer to be demonstrated
Paul Buckley
10/19/2009 1:21 PM EDT
The demonstration, based on the BLE v0.9 prototyping specification, will wirelessly stream real time digitized signals from Triad's new Mocha development system to a PC display.
The system consists of the Z-Focus BLE-Z single-mode BLE stack running on Triad's ARM Cortex-M0 based Mocha development system with the BLE wireless connection enabled by EM Microelectronics' EM9301 BLE radio. Triad's Mocha family of via-configurable arrays (VCAs) combines ultra-low power Cortex-M0 32-bit processor performance with Triad's silicon-proven VCA technology for rapid mixed-signal system-on-chip (SoC) design. The flexible FPGA-based Mocha development system allows customers and partners to quickly port software and develop mixed-signal prototypes of Mocha SoC solutions.
BLE is an emerging wireless standard that will be used in ultra low power medical, fitness and consumer devices. Although the BLE v0.9 is a prototyping specification, BLE is expected to be used in a billion cell phones within a few years, enabling hundreds of millions of wireless devices such as blood pressure monitors, glucose monitors, heart monitors, and fitness loggers to wirelessly provide vital data to health care workers, patients, athletes and fitness devotees.
"Markets have shown a need for wireless devices that use minuscule amounts of power, such as that available from a coin-cell battery, while still being able to communicate with prevalent Bluetooth devices," commented Mikhail Galeev, president of Z-Focus. "We believe Bluetooth Low Energy is the only solution. The Z-Focus BLE-Z stack, complemented by the extreme low power of the new Mocha-family of SoCs containing ARM's Cortex-M0 core, will enable Bluetooth connectivity in even the most power-constrained systems. Working together, Triad, Z-Focus and EM Microelectronics were able to get real-time BLE data transfer working on Triad's Mocha architecture in record time."
"This is exactly the sort of mixed-signal ultra low-power application that our Mocha technology was designed to enable," said Jim Kemerling, CTO of Triad Semiconductor. "Combining Mocha with EM's EM9301RF chip and Z-Focus' BLE-Z single-mode BLE stack and the silicon-proven via-configurable analog and digital technology of the Mocha family provides the fastest, safest and most cost-effective way to design, prototype and produce advanced, power-efficient mixed-signal ASICs."
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