It will supply its Class I BlueCore single chip modules to components-to-handsets group Alps for use in mobile phones, PC adaptor cards and other consumer items.

Glenn Collinson, marketing director at CSR, told Electronics Times: "We are looking at supplying Alps with hundreds of thousands of the modules a month by the end of the year. We won the deal because we are well ahead of others in being able to supply companies like Alps with a single-chip, cost-effective solution that is made using CMOS technology, which can be made in huge quantities by numerous foundries."

The second deal is with the Mitsumi industrial group. It will use CSR's BlueCore module in a variety of applications.

The deals are a breakthrough for CSR because Japan is likely to become the first market to embrace products using the Bluetooth standard, said Collinson.

"They love their mobile phones, PDAs and MP3 players and other mobile consumer items over there, and this technology will allow them to link it all together," he said. "But you have to be quick into the market, and this is where we have a huge advantage, having developed the single chip cmos device ahead of others."

Volume production of the single chip modules will begin in September. The BlueCore 1 will cost about $10, but the next generation, BlueCore2, which will be a more highly integrated module, will come in at about $5, Collinson said.—John Walko is an editor with Electronics Times, EE Times' sister publication in the U.K.