For easy and fast access to Bluetooth wireless technology, NewLogic offers the BOOST Lite processor and development board for Xilinx Virtex FPGA products.

In recent months, many Bluetooth™-enabled products have been slowly appear-ing in the market. The proliferation of these products strengthens the acceptance of Bluetooth wireless technology in the market and as a global standard for short distance wireless communication.

The BOOST Lite™ baseband processor for Bluetooth technology is designed for easy integration into the Xilinx Virtex™ FPGA family. The BOOST Lite processor is based on the popular BOOST Core™ processor and is complemented with the Bluetooth protocol stack and BOOST software to implement a complete Bluetooth wireless system.

BOOST Lite Core Features

• Based on BQB version 1.1 qualified BOOST Core processor
• Interface to most major Bluetooth radios in the market
• Supports co-existence with 802.11b, piconet, and scatternet operation
• Supports Bluetooth low power modes
• Supports all data and voice packet types
• ARM™ processor AMBA-type interface
• Optimized for the Xilinx Virtex family.

BOOST Lite Architecture

The BOOST Lite core has a fixed bus interface to an external ARM processor and external Bluetooth radio (see Figure 1). Some external RAM and ROM (as well as EPROM, EEPROM, and so on) are necessary to host the BOOST software, which is the Bluetooth protocol stack. The CVSD encoder (available as an option) and a voice coder are necessary to support voice operation. For data applications, it is possible to input/output a data stream from a UART.

The BOOST Lite core interfaces to a fast processor bus or the AMBA-type bus. This bus ensures that data is moved quickly between the processor and the exchange memory, which is accommodated internally on the Xilinx Virtex FPGA.

From the architecture, you can see that the BOOST Lite processor is designed as an “out of the box” Bluetooth wireless solution. The BOOST Lite processor can be integrated with any other third-party system, such as a printer or test equipment core, that requires Bluetooth functionality.

Furthermore, you can use the BOOST Lite processor for fast prototyping before committing to a ASIC/ASSP design cycle. This enables an easy progression from an FPGA prototype to a silicon solution. NewLogic offers an option for BOOST Lite users to upgrade to the BOOST Core processor as a full, source code version of a Bluetooth baseband processor.

A BOOST Lite development board is also available (see Figure 2). The board is supplied with an ARM7TDMI™ processor, external Bluetooth radio, and a Xilinx Virtex FPGA as the BOOST Lite core.

Conclusion

With the availability of BOOST Lite processors for the Virtex FPGA family, the process of designing a Bluetooth-enabled system using Xilinx Virtex FPGAs is greatly simplified. For more information on the BOOST™ family and the WiLD™ 802.11 WLAN technology family, visit NewLogic’s website at www.newlogic.com.

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