CSR unveils multi-radio software stack and new Wi-Fi chips

CSR's UniFi UF6000 chip adds Wi-Fi capability to a phone

Wireless chip firm CSR has announced new Wi-Fi silicon for handsets, which it claims is the smallest and lowest-cost available, along with communications software capable of providing support for a broad range of wireless technologies.

Sampling now with handset vendors, CSR's UniFi UF6000 range of chips is designed to add Wi-Fi capability to a phone without compromising on performance or taking up too much space.

The chips support the 802.11a/b/g and n standards, and can be combined with CSR's recently launched BC7830 GPS and Bluetooth chip to provide a comprehensive array of wireless functions.

With 802.11n, the UniFi UF6000 can support data rates up to 72Mbit/s and is fully compliant with IEEE 802.11e quality-of-service specifications.

CSR has also unveiled its Synergy software, a communications stack supporting all of the technologies in the company's Connectivity Centre strategy, including Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, UWB, eGPS, NFC, and FM transceiver support.

The company said that Synergy is a logical evolution of the BlueCore Host Software (BCHS) stack it has long provided with its Bluetooth chips.

"Synergy is the industry's first multi-radio host software suite designed specifically for connectivity, and provides the intelligence in our Connectivity Centre," said Matthew Phillips, senior vice president of CSR's handset business unit.

The software allows seamless co-operation between connectivity standards that is not possible with a one-stack-per-technology model, according to CSR.

The firm envisions a user's handset being able to switch from Bluetooth to UWB in order to save battery power during large file transfers, or from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi when a user is accessing the internet and a Wi-Fi hotspot is in range.

Synergy is modular, according to CSR, enabling new wireless technologies to be added easily to the Synergy Framework. Like BCHS, it is supplied to vendors as source code in ANSI C for easy integration with handset software builds.

CSR said that it already has several tier-one handset customers developing products around the Synergy environment.