L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. agreed to cross the pond Monday and provide a large chunk of its Bluetooth wireless technology to Intel Corp.
Stockholm-based Ericsson signed a licensing agreement with Intel to cover the supply of Ericsson intellectual property relating to Bluetooth technology to the chipmaker.
Bluetooth is a standard for short-distance wireless communications. It allows devices to be connected at speeds up to one M bit per second and distances of up to 10 metres. Announced in 1998, Bluetooth technology uses a small radio chip to replace cable connections in many devices, including laptops, headphones, and printers.
For example, a Bluetooth-enabled laptop computer could send pages wirelessly to a properly equipped printer. A Bluetooth connection could also replace the cabling now used to connect a handheld device to a PC.
Intel looks for the deal to broaden its product offerings to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in the wireless space. Intel will use hardware and software related to Ericsson’s Bluetooth Core Product and software for its HOST Stack product. The Bluetooth Core Product consists of baseband software and hardware designs that help put Bluetooth technology into chips. The HOST Stack is a software component that eases communication between devices.
Ericsson teamed with U.K.-based design house ARM Ltd. for the development of Bluetooth-related chipsets and other hardware designs.
Ericsson, in Stockholm, can be reached at http://www.ericsson.com/. Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at http://www.intel.com/.