CSR Achieves Volume Bluetooth Production

Electronic News, Nov 20, 2000

CAMBRIDGE SILICON RADIO (CSR) announced at Comdex in Las Vegas last week that it has begun volume production of its single-chip, low-cost Bluetooth solution, called the BlueCore 01. The Cambridge, England-based company said it already has orders for more than 100,000 devices and that it expects to ship more than 50,000 chips this year and more than 5 million in 2001.

CSR says its BlueCore 01 chip is manufactured in standard CMOS process, which should help drive the costs of Bluetooth solutions down to $5 sometime in 2001. The $5 price target for Bluetooth devices was established by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group as a goal for getting Bluetooth modules into widespread deployment for consumer electronics systems designs. Bluetooth is a wireless personal-networking standard that is intended to allow PCs, cell phones, PDAs and other devices to connect and communicate without the need for cumbersome cables. CSR has listed Xircom, Fujitsu Media Devices, ALPS, Alcatel and Mitsumi as customers that have decided to use the BlueCore chips in PCs, digital cameras, mobile phones and PDAs. CSR orders for its BlueCore01 chips are on a lead-time of six to eight weeks.