Digianswer A/S, a subsidiary of Motorola (NYSE:MOT), today asserted its leadership in the development and commercialization of Bluetooth technology by announcing its products would form the basis for a supplier agreement with personal computer manufacturer, Toshiba. Additionally, Digianswer announced it is making available its Bluetooth PC software and introducing its new protocol analyzer tool. The PC software stack is the same as that found in the Bluetooth PC Card and USB accessory manufactured and distributed by Motorola. The Digianswer PC Software Stack announcement represents the first time the Digianswer software has been made available separate from a hardware platform.
In a PC environment, Bluetooth wireless technology can support fast and reliable exchange of information, including data, voice, audio, or even video. For example, a PC and a Bluetooth-enabled handheld computer could wirelessly exchange files and synchronize data. Bluetooth wireless technology is predicted to take its first steps as basic cable replacement, but could quickly evolve into more sophisticated applications such as peer-to-peer networking and personal area networking.
PC Software Stack
Digianswer also announced they would begin licensing their Bluetooth PC software suite as a stand-alone product. The Digianswer stack, supporting Windows 95, 98, Millennium and 2000, is the first such product commercially available in the market. It includes the Bluetooth protocol stack and applications for Bluetooth network management and country settings.
"We believe it is important for our success and for the success of other Bluetooth technology solution providers that we make our software widely available as a stand-alone product," said Ole Jensen, Managing Director of Digianswer. "By licensing our PC software stack to third parties, we can achieve critical mass together and realize the tremendous vision which is Bluetooth ".
Digianswer intends to work with BlueWater Systems, a subsidiary of BSQUARE Corporation (Nasdaq: BSQR) of Seattle in bringing the PC Stack to market. BlueWater Systems plans to sub-license the Bluetooth PC Stack. They expect to also provide Software Developers Kits and Driver Developers Kits to facilitate the implementation of the stack by third parties.
Windows CE Support
Digianswer is also demonstrating an early version of a Bluetooth Windows CE 3.0 stack for use in handheld products. The CE Stack is expected to be available commercially in early Q4 and is designed to enable the implementation of Bluetooth in CE based devices such as hand held PC's, automotive PC's and point-of-sale Terminals. Digianswer plans to add support for other Operating Systems in the coming months.
Protocol Analyzer
Digianswer has been a leading supplier of Bluetooth Developers Kits to the industry since the launch of the standard. The company has now launched a Bluetooth Protocol Analyzer. This device enables development engineers working on Bluetooth applications to capture and analyze the digital traffic being generated by their prototypes and identify errors. This could considerably reduce the development time required.
The Bluetooth Protocol Analyzer, consisting of a USB based hardware unit and a software application called Data Collector, can log baseband packets transmitted and received in a Bluetooth Piconet. Together, the hardware unit and the software make it possible to set up a log session during which the data transmitted between Bluetooth devices can be intercepted. A second software module, the Digianswer Bluetooth Packet Analyzer, will then analyze data collected. It is also designed to display baseband packets captured and isolate, decode and display LMP, L2CAP.RFCOMM, and SDP packets as well as OBEX commands, events and packets. The Protocol Analyzer is now available.
[ Home | Contact | MobiChat | Experts database | Let's do it ]
Comments to the content of this page can be posted on the MobiChat discussion group