Intel Corp, which is hosting the fourth in its series of industry conferences for developers working on Bluetooth wireless networking technology next week in London, says its still on track to have products out on the market in 2000, two years after the original launch in May 1998. The final 1.0 spec of Bluetooth is expected to be finalized within two weeks.
According to Simon Ellis, marketing manager, communications at Intel’s Mobile Handheld Products Group, 721 companies have now joined the Bluetooth effort, the latest to sign up being Lucent Technologies Inc. The members come from diversified industries, says Ellis, not just PC and mobile phone vendors, but automotive firms such as Volvo, Johnson Controls and BMW, package tracking companies such as Federal Express, and camera companies such as Casio and Fuji Film. At the event, developers will hold a final review and debate on the proposed specification before release 1.0 comes out over within the next few weeks, freezing the technology so that real product development can begin.
Bluetooth is intended to offer low-cost radio technology for worldwide use, with voice and data capabilities and low-power operation for mobile devices. It can be implemented onto a single CMOS devices for high volume and very low-cost production. Intel itself says it is working with Bluetooth partners, but hasn’t announced its product plans yet.
Meanwhile, the Infrared Data Association is fighting back, with plans of its own for a faster version of the current infrared standard. The Air Advanced Infrared Protocol will operate at speeds of up to 4Mbps, with future plans for up to 6Mbps, compared with 1Mbps for Bluetooth. It will also operate, like Bluetooth, without having to establish line of sight, and is compatible with existing infrared-enabled devices. It doesn’t, however, support voice as well as data. Ellis says that the 1Mbps speed of Bluetooth is still twice as fast as the typical access speeds from a hard wired dial-up modem (currently 56Kbps) and claims the technology will continue to track those speeds. He believes that some devices will support both Bluetooth and infrared, to give users a wider set of options.
Vendors can license Bluetooth royalty free, but must agree to a set of interoperability tests, currently under development, to use the logo. Some 650 developers are expected to turn up to the London event. More details at http://www.bluetooth.com.
