Texas Instruments Bluetooth Low Energy Remote Control Solution Delivers on Compatibility Promise

Texas Instruments, a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors, recently extended its remote control solutions offering with the release of a new Bluetooth low energy advanced remote control kit. Bluetooth low energy is a technology that supports remotes of any kind — from those with mouse-like pointing and keyboard capabilities to gesture, touch and motion-based input.

Texas Instruments' Bluetooth low energy solution also offers direct control over Smart Ready devices — PCs, laptops, tablets — while also enabling Bluetooth Smart devices like smartphones to configure the remote control solution over the air. As such, this solution has seen broad support from various manufacturers and software providers.

In fact, the Bluetooth low energy solution builds upon Texas Instruments' successful ZigBee RF4CE technology. This allows manufacturers to complement their ZigBee RF4CE remote designs with Bluetooth low energy technology easily because of pin-to-pin and SoC digital domain compatibility with the CC253x ZigBee technology and the CC254x Bluetooth low energy SoC.

"Expanding our remote control portfolio to incorporate Bluetooth low energy complements the investment manufacturers have already made with our RF4CE platform, and creates adjacent market opportunities that encourage the growth of new applications and services for consumers," said Stig Torud, product manager for Wireless Connectivity Solutions at TI. "We are excited to work with the market leaders in remote control technology to bring Bluetooth low energy-based remotes to market."

Texas Instruments first introduced the ZigBee RF4CE remote control solution back in January 2012 alongside the Bluetooth low energy CC254x SoC. The company promised a future-proof design with these offerings and this promise has now been delivered upon with the release of the Bluetooth low energy advanced remote control kit.

Various Texas Instrument remote control solutions customers — including 4MOD, Hillcrest Labs, Movea, Philips Home Control Business, ruwido and Universal Electronics — expressed their delight at the release of the Bluetooth low energy solution and expressed interest in implementing the technology into their remote control designs.