It has been year since ARM got into the Bluetooth Smart business with the acquisition of Wicentric, a software company, which was followed up by the purchase of Sunrise Micro Devices, a radio IP company. Both companies became the nucleus of ARM’s new Wireless Business Unit and enabled ARM to offer a complete Bluetooth Smart solution from RF to Applications.
So far, we are the only IP company to offer all the components from one source.
We made a lot of progress but you don’t realize it until you look back, akin to climbing a mountain and taking that rest admiring the view and how much you climbed. Besides getting the two companies integrated into ARM a lot progress has been made on getting products production ready This is not like releasing RTL for a processor core, since the RF is process specific you have to build test silicon to validate the radio specifications and whether the part can be manufactured (corner lots) . You also need evaluation platforms so ARM customers can validate your claims. And let us not forget all the documentation.
The net for year is we have a silicon-proven, production ready, fully Bluetooth Smart Qualified product portfolio called ARM Cordio® BT4 that includes the RF Front-End, controller, link-layer, stack, and profiles.
We climb some more. The Bluetooth 2016 enhancements mentioned by the Bluetooth SIG last November is keeping us real busy, our goal is to have radio IP ready when the specification is released. We are excited about the upcoming changes to the specification that will enable new types of devices and take Bluetooth Smart to the next level. Our approach will be give our customers more choice and flexibility when adding Bluetooth Smart to their SoCs.
Let me know if you want to know more or if you are in the Bay Area March 15-16, we will be a Bluetooth World, come by and see what we are doing, you'll be pleasantly surprised.