Two-year-old Transilica rolls out single-chip Bluetooth solution in small BGA

Two-year-old Transilica rolls out single-chip Bluetooth solution in small BGA
By Semiconductor Business News
May 2, 2001 (11:27 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010502S0029

SAN DIEGO--Transilica Inc. here claimed development of the world's smallest system-on-chip solution for Bluetooth wireless systems. The company's OneChip device features flash memory, radio-frequency (RF) transceiver, baseband modem, microprocessor, and SRAM.

All of these functions are contained on an IC that's packaged in a ball-grid array (BGA), taking up an area of 8 mm², said Transilica, which debuted OneChip at last week's Bluetooth Expo 2001 in Tokyo.

According to the two-year-old startup, OneChip supports serial port, USB or codec interface applications, depending on the software stack implementation. It is targeted at a range of Bluetooth connection applications in consumer and business applications--including notebook computers, PDAs, headsets, and other portable systems.

Based on the reaction at the Tokyo trade show, developers of both consumer and enterprise systems are pushing harder for reduced size and cost with single-chip implementations of Bluetooth, said Hock Law, chief executive officer of Transilica.

The San Diego-based fabless chip company said it plans to move OneChip into volume production at an unidentified silicon foundry in the fourth quarter of 2001. Evaluation kits are available for $950.