TI enables over-the-air Bluetooth firmware updates

3 April 2013 News

Answering the growing need for devices that update seamlessly, Texas Instruments announced a truly wireless solution with a unique over-the-air-download (OAD) feature in its BLE-Stack 1.3 software for use with the CC2540 and CC2541 Bluetooth low energy systems-on-chip (SoCs).

Single-mode Bluetooth low energy or Bluetooth Smart is increasing in popularity because it allows consumers to connect to their smartphones and tablets to automotive, home office, medical and health, sports and fitness as well as mobile and PC accessories.

However, the always evolving smartphone and tablet market and its regular firmware updates can cause a Bluetooth Smart device to no longer connect, which poses a user experience challenge for accessory manufacturers. Currently, a user would have to plug their device into a computer via USB and download an update from the manufacturer’s site.

The OAD feature helps manufacturers better support users with a simple software upgrade process shortly after smartphone and tablets receive their own Bluetooth low energy firmware updates. Additionally, updates to firmware can be downloaded wirelessly from numerous central devices, including smartphones, tablets or PCs onto TI’s CC2540/1 SoCs, making device updates even more accessible for consumers.

For customers using Bluetooth low energy and proprietary implementations, TI’s unique Boot Image Manager (BIM) allows multiple firmware stacks to reside on a single CC2540/1 SoC. BIM enables an end-product to support two different Bluetooth low energy stacks or a single Bluetooth low energy stack and a single 2,4 GHz proprietary stack.

TI’s BLE-Stack 1.3 Bluetooth low energy application software is available royalty-free to all customers using TI’s CC2540/1 Bluetooth low energy SoC family.

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