CSR partners with a leading manufacturer to drive adoption of Bluetooth v3.0 + HS and 802.11n in PCs and netbooks

Partnership with Ralink gives customers flexibility of choice in the PC and rapidly developing netbook markets

Cambridge, UK - 29 October 2009 - CSR (LSE: CSR) today announced that it has partnered with fast-growing PC Wi-Fi manufacturer Ralink to enable a new Bluetooth/802.11n PCI Express (PCIe) design. The design utilises CSR's PC BlueCore, that supports the new Bluetooth v3.0 + High Speed (HS) protocol and which adds the ability to use the PC's Wi-Fi radio to achieve higher data transfer speeds. Alliances such as this are an integral part of CSR's strategy to provide the benefits of the latest Bluetooth standards to a broad customer base. They enable wide adoption of Bluetooth v3.0+ HS in the PC market, which CSR sees as a growth area for Bluetooth. Ralink is already sampling fully designed PCIe half minicards that integrate CSR's PC BlueCore.

With its implementations of the CSR9000 platform already driving the embedded Bluetooth v3.0+ HS in embedded markets, CSR in partnership with Ralink is now enabling complete wireless solutions for the PC market using CSR's PC BlueCore with partner PC Wi-Fi products. Bluetooth is already the most successful short-range connectivity technology in mobile phones, with Bluetooth now integrated into roughly 65% of new handsets in 2009. Whilst Wi-Fi is expected to be integrated into 95% of netbooks by the end of this year.

Bluetooth v3.0+ HS utilises the Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) architecture specification defined by the Bluetooth SIG to increase the ease-of-use for the end-user when transferring larger files. It is a best-in-class combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies. Bluetooth v3.0 combines the best of both worlds; the familiar interface and the option of low-power operation inherent to Bluetooth, and the speed of Wi-Fi. Bluetooth v3.0 + HS is fully backwards compatible with previous Bluetooth versions.

Using the AMP specification, the software stack controls both CSR's Bluetooth and the PC's Wi-Fi radios in order to effect faster and more power-efficient transference of large files. The user need only interact with the usual Bluetooth interface.  The Wi-Fi radio can be activated 'behind the scenes', with no need for the user to worry about which particular radio technology is used, for instance, to transfer a large video file from a handset to a PC.

"The PC and netbook markets represent a growing opportunity for CSR and through our alliance strategy, we are giving our customers the flexibility to combine our best-in-class Bluetooth platform with their preferred Wi-Fi supplier," said Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President of CSR's Audio and Consumer Business Unit. "We look forward to bringing the benefits of our most widely adopted Bluetooth technology and the new Bluetooth v3.0 standard to the mainstream users of PCs and netbooks, thereby making it easier for them to share and transfer data."

Dr. Horen Chen, President of Ralink, commented: "With this partnership we can offer a simple, elegant, low-cost way for customers to quickly integrate the latest standards of both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Users can enjoy a seamless experience, with the potential for certain applications to utilise the Wi-Fi radio for higher transfer speeds without prompting. No longer need a user worry about which technology he needs; our module will 'just work' for optimum speeds."

More information can be found at http://www.csr.com/