Bluetooth starterkit og software kan accelerere 'dual mode' udvikling

Med Toshiba's nye starterkit er det muligt for brugere af den såkaldte 'Chiron-501' dual mode Bluetooth chip'en at få et system hurtigt op at køre (in english).

The starter kit (BMSKTOPASM369BT) is based around a Panasonic PAN1026 module featuring an embedded 'Chiron-501' IC with a dual mode Bluetooth protocol stack and profiles and includes a Toshiba TMPM369 ARM Cortex-M3 based MCU with 512KB flash memory.

The embedded dual mode software has an easy to use, high level Serial Port Profile (SPP) and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) GATT API for device set up, connection and data transfer. A high level driver layer allows access to the function set of the Bluetooth IC. Application examples are provided on the internet that can be compiled to run on the TMPM369 MCU with FreeRTOS integration (OS itself is available from Real Time Engineers Ltd). The application software includes a set of BLE standard reference profiles and a design guide on how to develop a proprietary BLE profiles.

A J-Link JTAG debugger interface incorporated in the starter kit board is compatible with commonly available third party toolchains such as those from Atollic, IAR and Keil. The embedded MCU also supports standard interfaces on the board for Ethernet, CAN, USB (host and device), serial and UART connection.

Compliant with the Bluetooth v4.0 communication standard, Toshiba’s Chiron IC can support both Bluetooth Classic and Low Energy communication methods. The Bluetooth Classic communication method enables serial communication with a wide range of devices such as smartphones, laptops and other (legacy) Bluetooth peripherals, while the low energy 'Bluetooth Smart' method reduces power consumption and shortens connection set up time.

It is designed for portable peripheral devices such as temperature meters, remote switches and controls or various sensors. The two standard Bluetooth communication methods are not interoperable and require different device applications to match the communication method of the host appliance.

By incorporating both the Serial Port Profile (SPP) that is used for Basic Classic communication and the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) used for Low Energy communication into a single IC, Chiron contributes to component reduction and development efficiency efforts. The inclusion of the SPP and GATT profiles on-chip also reduces loads on external microcontrollers and simplifies Bluetooth® certification process significantly.