THE BLUETOOTH CONGRESS - DON’T FORGET YOUR WISH LIST
by Nicki Hayes, May 29, 2002
With the fourth annual Bluetooth Congress due to take place later this month (12-
14 June, Amsterdam RAI - www.ibctelecoms.com/bluetoothcongress/main.asp), WDN takes a look at the show’s line-up and gives a
sneak preview of one expected product launch.
It hardly seems possible that this could be the fourth annual official congress of the
Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) given that Bluetooth products are only just
making it into consumer’s hands. Still that’s the way of the world and this year it
really is worth attending, and not just because Amsterdam is a nice city.
The show’s organizers have quite a line up planned with 160 speakers and over 100
exhibitors. Such speakers include some of the most influential figures in the industry
from organizations such as Microsoft, Chrysler, FedEx, Sony, Apple, Palm, Nokia,
Ericsson Motorola, Toshiba and Compaq. The sessions they will be leading are firmly
rooted in reality and will be illustrated by many real world development and
implementation case studies. Such insights into industry successes and failures are
sure to be invaluable.
Furthermore, with a list of international exhibitors representing every link of the
supply chain and every line of my Bluetooth wish list at least, there’s sure to be plenty
of networking, spying, job seeking, sales and purchasing opportunities too. And let’s
not forget about the new product launches and associated demos many of these
exhibitors will be touting.
BrightCom is one such organization. It is using the show to launch IntelliBLUE™, its
new family of Bluetooth Application Processors. This range of chips is the first to use
a processor with enough MIPS and data memory to run embedded applications,
together with the Bluetooth baseband and protocol stack, and has been designed to
address problems that the industry is having now but that those clever folks at
BrightCom anticipated two years ago, apparently.
“Product designers have found that implementing Bluetooth wireless connectivity is a
bit more complicated than they originally thought,” advised Yuval Ben-Ze’ev,
BrightCom’s president and CEO in a pre-show briefing.
“Problems they’ve encountered include the need to run embedded applications using
the minimum amount of components, the need to choose an RF vendor according to
each device’s requirements, the need to connect USB accessories designed to
communicate with a host PC, and the need to consume the least power when battery
operated portable devices are used.
“Additionally, emerging Bluetooth device manufacturers have identified an urgent
need to reduce development time for integrated applications and to access Ethernet
LANS via Bluetooth for enterprise applications,” he explained.
The IntelliBLUE™ family of processors, of course, addresses all of these issues. It is
RF-agnostic, offers USB host functionality, includes a mechanism that maintains full
synchronization during sleep mode - reducing recovery to a matter of milliseconds,
and offers programmer friendly APIs that allow developers with minimal Bluetooth
experience to get products to market quickly.
On top of all this, one of the chips to be launched at the show, the BIC2301, is the
world’s first Bluetooth chip to include an embedded Ethernet MAC, enabling the
creation of Bluetooth to Ethernet gateways at a fraction of the cost of existing
solutions. This in itself makes a visit to BrightCom’s booth (number 340 btw)
worthwhile, even if you’re not interested in witnessing its demos of printers, set-top
boxes, multi-chip connectivity and voice and data mobility.
Even if you don’t get to BrightCom’s booth, or to the booths of the other 100 plus
exhibitors, you really should stop at the show’s Bluetooth shop - don’t forget your
wish list though. And if this doesn’t do it for you, I heartily recommend a visit to the
Van Gogh Museum, after all, there’s far more to Amsterdam than sex, drugs and
Bluetooth you know.
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About the author:
Nicki Hayes is The Wireless Developer Network's (www.wirelessdevnet.com) European correspondent. Nicki also takes on freelance writing and corporate communication projects relating to business to business internet and wireless issues and has
contributed editorial to a number of publications including Unstrung.com, Wireless Business & Technology, Guardian Online, Financial Times, Banking &
Financial Training, eAI Journal and Secure Computing.
About the WirelessDevNet (www.wirelessdevnet.com):
The Wireless Developer Network is an on-line community for information technology
professionals interested in mobile computing and communications. Our mission is to assist
developers, strategists, and managers in bridging the gap between today's desktop and
enterprise applications and tomorrow's mobile users communicating via wireless networks.
We are interested in supporting the deployment of these evolving technologies through
high-quality technical information, news, industry coverage, and commentary. This
information is provided within a true on-line community that supports developer/vendor
dialogue through message boards and user-submitted tips, articles, links, and software
downloads.
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