OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation announced the launch of "TC35661SBG-501", a Bluetooth(r) IC that is compliant with both Bluetooth(r) Basic Rate and Bluetooth(r) Low Energy communications. Basic rate communication offers interoperability with a wide range of applications, such as smartphones, while low energy is a newly adopted Bluetooth(r) V4.0 standard that reduces power consumption. Mass production is scheduled to start in November this year.

The two communication methods are not interoperable; they require different devices that match the communication method of the host applications. The new IC incorporates both the Serial Port Profile (SPP) that is used for Basic Rate communication and the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) used for Low Energy communication. This realizes a single device supporting two different communication methods. The product also contributes to efficient development.