Silicon Wave and RF Micro Devices today announced the release of UltimateBlue Serial Connectivity, a Bluetooth serial cable replacement solution for use with the SiW3500 and SiW3000 UltimateBlue chips. The integration of all the software elements, including Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) and full Bluetooth protocol stack, on the SiW3500 and SiW3000 chips allows OEMs to quickly add wireless connectivity to their existing products. A typical commercial application would be to replace the cable connecting a handheld bar code scanner to a portable printer with a Bluetooth wireless connection. UltimateBlue Serial Connectivity has proven interoperability and is compliant to Bluetooth SPP specifications. The royalty-free software-based solution is Bluetooth specification qualified and available now.

"UltimateBlue Serial Connectivity greatly simplifies the replacement of cables with a Bluetooth wireless connection," said Steve Brown, vice president of business development and product marketing for Silicon Wave. "By leveraging our Bluetooth expertise, OEMs can quickly integrate this off-the-shelf serial cable replacement solution into their products and dramatically accelerate their time to market."

The UltimateBlue Serial Connectivity solution, SiW3500 and SiW3000 Bluetooth chips, and an SPP Evaluation Kit are available exclusively from RF Micro Devices, Silicon Wave's global channel partner for its CMOS single-chip radio processor and stand-alone radio modem Bluetooth solutions.

In May 2003, RF Micro Devices and Silicon Wave entered into a strategic relationship. Within the strategic relationship, Silicon Wave granted manufacturing licenses to RFMD for their single-chip UltimateBlue ICs and stand-alone CMOS Bluetooth radio modem solutions. RFMD is responsible for the supply chain of Silicon Wave's CMOS Bluetooth solutions and is the exclusive global channel partner for these products. Silicon Wave and RF Micro Devices are both Associate Members of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Silicon Wave provides low-power, highly integrated RF communication system components for the global Bluetooth wireless market.

RF Micro Devices designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary RFICs primarily for wireless communications products and applications such as cellular and PCS phones, base stations, WLANs and cable television modems.