CSR plc has announced that it has selected Agilent Technologies Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) test solution for design verification and quality assurance within its Cambridge, UK facility. The company’s customer application support teams will also use the test solution extensively worldwide. This new agreement coupled with the announcement late last year that Broadcom Corp. has chosen the Agilent N4010A wireless connectivity test set's EDR solution for testing its Bluetooth EDR integrated circuits gives Agilent a significant slice of this market. The test solution is specifically designed as an upgrade to existing N4010A Bluetooth users and directly addresses the cost of testing for adopters of CSR's BlueCore4 and BlueCore5 Bluetooth version 2.0, Enhanced Data Rate chipsets. It addresses the fact that EDR is the fastest-growing part of the Bluetooth market, recognizing that consumers' use of multiple applications is driving the need for ever-increasing bandwidth.


Commenting on the latest agreement, Earl Thompson, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Wireless Division, said, "Agilent's support of BlueCore4 and BlueCore5 in the N4010A test set, coupled with its ability to provide the worldwide support necessary for such leading-edge products, enables us to reach the greatest number of Bluetooth EDR device manufacturers with a test platform that addresses their concerns about the cost of owning test equipment, as well as the overall cost of test issues."

From CSR’s point of view the company’s vice president of strategic marketing, Simon Finch, stated, "CSR's engineering community has been working with Agilent for some time to deliver the functionality required to cost-effectively, quickly and reliably test Bluetooth EDR products. Using this functionality, our customers can minimize time-to-market, while ensuring the quality of their end product is not compromised. We also see this test capability as extremely useful for manufacturers who already own Agilent's N4010A test set. They can easily upgrade to acquire the new functionality, thereby extending the useful life of their manufacturing test product."