What’s new with TI Bluetooth Smart? See it all at Bluetooth World 2016
Bluetooth® Smart technology is undergoing major enhancements that will enable a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications from connected homes to connected cars to factory automation to asset and people locationing and tracking. These new enhancements, including longer range, mesh networking, higher throughput and higher security, when combined with the huge install base of Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices gives Bluetooth Smart technology an unprecedented advantage to play a pivotal role in IoT applications. At Bluetooth World, Texas Instruments will be showcasing products and demonstrations using the company’s SimpleLink™ Bluetooth Smart CC2640 wireless microcontroller (MCU) platform for mesh networking, home automation, personal electronics, smart cards and also industrial automation applications. Additionally, attendees can experience TI’s new dual-mode Bluetooth CC2564 module that enables developers to get their simple, low-power connectivity solutions to market quickly and easily.
Coming early summer 2016, the SimpleLink™ CC2640 wireless MCU will receive a software upgrade to its certified BLE-Stack™ royalty-free software stack to support all Bluetooth 4.2 core specification features while maintaining an industry leading low power profile. These 4.2 Bluetooth specs include support of all core LE specification feature enhancements:
- LE Secure Connections – Strengthens paring and link-layer security. No longer worry about the security and integrity of your IoT information.
- LE Data Length Extension – Allows up to 2.5 x faster data transfers and improves firmware download times. The CC2640 wireless MCU supports the maximum payload size defined by the specification.
- LE Privacy 1.2 – Keeps devices from being tracked and improves battery usage by filtering out unwanted connections.
In addition to the upcoming support for version 4.2 of the Bluetooth specification, the CC2640 wireless MCU supports all core features from version 4.1 of the Bluetooth specification, including Multi-Role, the ability to concurrently support master and slave Bluetooth low energy (BLE) connections. Useful applications of Multi-Role include automotive, industrial and wearables where simultaneous connections to multiple phones and base stations are desired. Together with the enhancements from version 4.2 of the Bluetooth specification, a robust and secure Multi-Role-enabled Bluetooth Smart system can be deployed using a CC2640 wireless MCU.
SimpleLink CC2650 LaunchPad
As a companion to the popular SimpleLink SensorTag IoT development platform, TI is now offering a SimpleLink Bluetooth Smart CC2650 LaunchPad™ development kit as TI’s complete ARM® Cortex®-M3 Bluetooth Smart development platform. At just $29, the CC2650 LaunchPad kit includes an onboard emulator and ability to interface to evaluation modules (EVMs) and BoosterPack™ plug-in modules via a standardized IO interface thus enabling rapid prototyping and reducing time to market. Use the SimpleLink SensorTag iOS app’s mission control interface to control the LaunchPad kits IOs, LEDs and monitor button states as well as connect your CC2650 LaunchPad kit to the cloud in minutes. As with all TI SimpleLink development kits, a free Code Composer Studio™ integrated development environment (IDE) license is included with the CC2650 LaunchPad kit. The CC2650 LaunchPad kit is also supported by the cloud based IDE with CCS Cloud and enables quick and easy evaluation without downloading or installing any software on your desktop.
Continuing our commitment to providing easy-to-use connectivity solutions, we’ll be showcasing our new dual-mode Bluetooth CC2564 module at Bluetooth World 2016. Featuring an integrated antenna, this module is a simple way for anyone to add Bluetooth to their system with no prior RF expertise necessary. With the flexibility to support multiple MCUs and microprocessors (MPUs), the module delivers best-in-class range and performance for a variety of audio, wearable, industrial, medical and IoT applications. A BoosterPack™ plug-in module for this solution will be available in the near future along with software stack support on the MSP432™ MCU platform.
