CSR gave the first public demonstration of its Ultra Low Power (ULP) Bluetooth silicon at a Luxembourg medical conference. The demonstration set out to prove that CSR’s ULP Bluetooth silicon consumes less power than standard Bluetooth. The demonstrations consisted of two ICs transferring ULP Bluetooth data packets 50 times faster than standard Bluetooth, meaning that the devices were consuming as little as 1/50th of the power.
In establishing the connection, the ULP devices used 1/10th the power required by standard Bluetooth. CSR’s demonstration ICs employed both standard Bluetooth (v.2.1) and ULP Bluetooth radios.
ULP Bluetooth is a complementary Bluetooth technology that can be used to transfer simple data sets between compact devices and can run for up to 10 years on one button cell battery. ULP Bluetooth was previously known as Wibree.
For example, when ULP Bluetooth is used in a wireless heart rate monitor, the monitor simply “advertises” itself to the control/reader using three frequencies (could be a mobile phone or watch) that then connects and sends short bursts of data, then switches off again.
