Important Disclaimer The project development described here represents the experience of 74ze Engineering's team members before the creation and incorporation of 74ze Engineering, Inc.

Embedded Bluetooth transceiver development

CLIENT

A mid-sized European OEM.

CHALLENGE

To develop a multi-purpose microcontroller chip with an integrated Bluetooth controller.

SOLUTION

• Developed a specification, incorporating a proprietary microcontroller design, Bluetooth version 1.2, and USB 1.1
• Formed a core team of 3 design and 3 verification engineers
• Developed the RTL code (approximately 1 million gates)
• Incorporated built-in self tests and a DFT strategy for interface checking
• Synthesized and performed P&R and floor-planning
• Performed verification using a custom-built testbench
• Prototyped device in a Xilinx Virtex-2E FPGA
• Tested on a custom PCB which the team created
• Chip incorporated USB and UART ports for accessing the internal RAM
• Fabricated ASIC in the 0.25um process
• Utilized Ambit, Silicon, Dracula, DRC & LVS, Calibre, and other EDA tools

BENEFIT

The device was successfully developed and is now being targeted to enter the marketplace.