Beijing, China-based IVT Corp. announced the availability of what it claims is the world's first Bluetooth 3.0+HS commercial stack for the Linux-based Moblin and Android mobile device platforms. Bluetooth 3.0 uses AMP (alternate MAC/PHY) technology, which enables Bluetooth to piggyback on WiFi transmissions when available.

IVT claims to have released the world's first commercial Bluetooth host stack back in 1999, and has developed upgrades that have formed the basis for its BlueSoleil application software. BlueSoleil runs on Linux, as well as Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and CE. Release 6.0 of the Linux version (pictured below) is said to support Xandros, Ubuntu, Debian, and Moblin.

The new “Bluetooth V3.0+HS” stack will form the foundation for IVT's upcoming BlueSoleil 7.0 release. This “multi-wireless connection manager” can support multiple radios with various Bluetooth-related applications, and can run on Window 2000, XP, Vista and Window 7, Moblin, and Android, says the company.

BlueSoleil 6.0 for Linux
(Click to enlarge)
IVT has been Intel's mobile Internet device (MID) Bluetooth solution provider for the Intel-sponsored (and now Linux Foundation-sponsored) Moblin open source Linux stack since 2008, says the company. IVT says it has supplied the Bluetooth stack and BlueSoleil Linux version for the Compal JAX 10 MID and the BenQ S6 MID (pictured at top). With the recent arrival of Android 1.5, the Google-sponsored open source stack finally offers full support for Bluetooth.

IVT has been an active member of the Bluetooth Technical Working groups, as well as one of the major Bluetooth SIG contributors to the recently released Bluetooth 3.0, says the company. IVT also sells Bluetooth-based fixed-mobile convergence terminal solutions, proximity marketing systems, and mobile healthcare systems.

Bluetooth 3.0 formally released

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group SIG formally released Bluetooth 3.0 on April 21st. The technology incorporates AMP (alternate MAC/PHY) Bluetooth, a revision to the Bluetooth specification targeting devices that have both Bluetooth and WiFi (802.11) radios on board.

AMP's promoters say the technology means users gain speed, without needing to know how to set up an ad hoc WiFi network. Once a file transfer is concluded, the WiFi radio falls silent and control passes back to Bluetooth, saving power, according to the SIG.

According to the Bluetooth SIG, AMP works by taking Bluetooth's protocols, profiles, security, and other architectural elements and allowing them to “jump on top of an already present 802.11 radio.” In other words, a pair of devices discover each other and shake hands using Bluetooth, but file transfers take place using the WiFi hardware layer.

Availability

The Bluetooth V3.0+HS stack for Moblin and Android is available now. (IVT says that it “can offer the ANSI C source code of its Bluetooth host stack and all profiles.”) No details were offered on the pricing or availability of the upcoming BlueSoleil 7.0. More information on the previous Linux version 6.0 of BlueSoleil may be found here. For more on Bluetooth 3.0, see our earlier coverage, here.

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