CSR adds GPS to Bluetooth chips

Chipmaker CSR has confirmed its next generation of silicon will support four separate radio standards including Bluetooth and a GPS receiver, making the devices into a 'connectivity hub' for handsets.

BlueCore 7, available in volume from Q4 2008, features an enhanced Bluetooth radio, plus support for Bluetooth Low Energy (formerly Bluetooth ULP) for linking with small battery-powered sensors, an FM receiver/transmitter, and enhanced GPS (eGPS).

John Halksworth, CSR head of product management, said that adding GPS to its Bluetooth silicon should only add about an extra $1 (£0.50) to the cost of a typical handset design, and that the first models with BlueCore 7 should be available by the middle of 2009.

"Having brought down the cost [of adding GPS], we're hoping adoption will be more widespread, and attach rates will be comparable with Bluetooth," he said.

Bluetooth now features in about 50 per cent of all handsets sold, while CSR is the major supplier of Bluetooth chips with about a 50 per cent share of the global market.

Having GPS built into more handsets will give more users to access applications such as satellite navigation, and will also drive other location-based services.

CSR's eGPS combines the radio signal from a mobile phone mast with GPS reception to give a faster time to get a fix plus a more accurate location, especially when indoors, Halksworth said.

The Bluetooth radio itself has also been tweaked, according to CSR, to give better performance in poor reception conditions, such as when a user takes a call on a headset and their phone may be stuck in their back pocket.

Of the other two radios, Bluetooth Low Energy will enable phones to link with low-power devices such as step counters for joggers, while the FM receiver/transmitter enables users to transmit audio to their car radio when playing digital music tracks.

CSR said that future BlueCore generations may expand their capabilities with Wi-Fi or near-field communications, but that there are no firm plans for such devices yet.