Silicon Wave Inc., a leading designer and provider of radio frequency (RF) communication system components, and Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (SMA), a U.S.-based division of Sharp Corp., Osaka, Japan, today announced that they have successfully demonstrated a Bluetooth(TM) CompactFlash(TM) (CF) card at the 2001 Wireless Portable Symposium and Exhibition in San Jose.
The project is the result of joint research and development activities by Silicon Wave and Sharp Corp.
The demonstration showed that a new Sharp CF card, incorporating Silicon Wave's Odyssey(TM) chip-set solution for Bluetooth communications, can be optimized for use in several kinds of handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs). In addition, the CF card can be used with a PC Card adapter for use with notebook PCs.
The development of CompactFlash that is compliant with the Bluetooth specification will enable a wide variety of consumer electronic handheld devices to operate with emerging standards for wireless networks.
Silicon Wave's Odyssey chip set provides a low power solution ideal for CF cards used in new battery operated Bluetooth applications such as PDAs, digital cameras and MP3 players. In addition it delivers superior performance over a wide temperature range necessary for mobile products.
"These cards service the installed base of PDAs and other existing products, as well as the ever expanding market of new devices that may not yet have Bluetooth capability," said David Kromer, director of electronic components at SMA. "These new Bluetooth cards will give end-users greater flexibility, by expanding the capability of existing wireless devices."
Sharp and Silicon Wave plan to continue work on the CF card, the first Bluetooth product initiative for Sharp in the CF arena.
"Silicon Wave is pleased to join Sharp Microelectronics in developing the industry's latest Bluetooth CompactFlash card solution," said Steve Brown, vice president and general manager of Bluetooth products at Silicon Wave. "The unique synergy between our two companies is indicative of our commitment to delivering a full-featured, optimized Bluetooth solution to the wireless market."
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