CSR enews - CSR's Synergy is …

CSR's Synergy is one of the world's first Bluetooth v3.0-ratified products

- CSR9000 now powered by Bluetooth v3.0 for high speed file transfer

Cambridge, UK - 21 April 2009 - CSR today announced that its Synergy wireless systems software is one of the world's first products qualified to the newly ratified Bluetooth v3.0 standard. Synergy operates at the heart of CSR's Connectivity Centre products, including the successful CSR9000 product, which features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi alongside several other technologies. Bluetooth v3.0 offers a number of significant enhancements, including the potential for hugely increased speed and faster reactions to changing radio conditions.

Bluetooth v3.0, adopted today, features 802.11 a/b/g AMP (Alternative MAC and PHY). AMP is featured in CSR's Synergy and CSR9000, and allows Bluetooth to conduct high-speed, power-efficient file transfer in co-operation with IEEE 802.11. When a Bluetooth device needs to transfer a large file, CSR's Synergy AMP has the ability to wake up the IEEE 802.11 radio to transfer files. Not only does this provide faster transfer times, but can also allow Bluetooth to transmit large files between devices using the most efficient radio technology available.

Bluetooth v3.0 also features support for Enhanced Power Control, which optimises the transmit power used in a connection even when a phone and a headset are suddenly moved apart from each other, or the phone is placed into a pocket. This not only lengthens battery life, but ensures that important phone calls are not lost.

"CSR has always worked very closely with us in establishing the future of Bluetooth standards," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. "CSR continues to stay abreast of the latest developments in Bluetooth, and has constantly demonstrated an ability to develop this versatile and useful technology in interesting new directions. Synergy is a highly innovative piece of systems software and we're delighted to be able to qualify it as one of the first Bluetooth v3.0 products."

"Bluetooth v3.0 marks the next stage in the evolution of Bluetooth," explained Matthew Phillips, Senior Vice President for CSR's Handset Business Unit. "By combining the low power standby and familiar user experience of Bluetooth with the fast data-rates of IEEE 802.11, users can enjoy the ability to easily share files in a tenth of the time it currently takes. With music, picture and video files all increasing in size, there is strong demand for a high speed wireless solution for peer-to-peer and sideloading use-cases. We've been demonstrating our Bluetooth high speed technology behind closed doors to our tier one customers for nearly a year and the response has been good. There is definitely an appetite for this type of solution."

Raj Gawera, Vice President of Marketing for CSR's Handset Business Unit, added, "Optimising Bluetooth protocol layers to operate at vastly increased speeds requires strong host software; something CSR has wrapped up with its innovative Synergy architecture. Another challenge is to ensure that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi do not interfere with each other. CSR is already recognised by its customers as the leader in advanced Bluetooth + Wi-Fi coexistence schemes. We know these areas are where our competitors struggle. CSR expects to have the highest performance implementation of Bluetooth high speed."
 
CSR's Synergy features in several of CSR's recently launched products, including CSR9000, which offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth low energy, GPS and FM Rx/Tx. As the software behind such a comprehensive product, CSR's Synergy not only complies to the Bluetooth v3.0 spec and supports all Wi-Fi variants, but also offers support for additional technologies such as Bluetooth low energy, FM and GPS.

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