David Shih and Paul Micallef
QuickLogic

Bluetooth is emerging as the short-range wireless technology of choice. It is a convenient and efficient media for connecting mobile devices and electronic equipment. There are no cables to attach, and no infrared ports to line up, thus enabling a new level of connectivity previously never thought possible.

The QuickLogic 16550 Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) core and Eclipse Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) can provide the required backend infrastructure to design and build these mobile wireless devices. The UART core is software-compatible with systems designed for the 16550 UART interface.

QuickLogic Eclipse FPGAs have programmable Input/Output (I/O) standards to interface to a wide range of systems. Eclipse devices have configurable dual-port Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) blocks that can implement on-chip Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), and First In First Out (FIFO). Eclipse also features embedded arithmetic units that can accelerate local data processing. Furthermore, Eclipse's non-volatile technology makes it powerefficient, fast, and small—characteristics demanded by mobile Bluetooth devices.