San Jose, California and Cambridge, UK –CSR plc (LSE: CSR; NASDAQ: CSRE) today announces the launch of a new low-cost development kit aimed at developers looking to get Bluetooth® Smart prototypes up and running fast then move quickly to production. Based on the proven CSR µEnergy® platform, the Starter Development Kit provides a complete environment for developers who are looking to create their first Bluetooth Smart products and get them to market rapidly with a low initial investment.
Priced at $99 and now available globally via Digikey, Broadband and local CSR authorized distributors, the Starter Development Kit provides excellent value. It offers unlimited compiler and debug tools, removing restrictions from developers and enabling them to innovate with the full power of the CSR µEnergy platform. Some competing offerings require developers to purchase a separate development environment which incurs a significant additional cost.
“This SDK offers a low barrier to entry for developers looking to create fully-featured Bluetooth Smart products such as wearable, human interface, fitness, medical and IoT devices,” says Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President, Business Group at CSR. “We want to give developers access to our highly optimized hardware and software solutions at a cost-effective price so that we can ease their efforts in bringing their innovative ideas for products to market as simply as possible.”
Accelerating hardware development
The CSR Starter Development Kit also accelerates hardware development due to the inclusion of FCC and ETSI RF certified reference module designs which are supported with full design files. In addition, CSR’s Starter Development Kit comes supplied with a hardware development board, aCSR1010™ module, mini USB cable, setup and quick start guides straight out of the box. No additional monetary investment is required from developers and there is no need to download and install additional tools or purchase further software licenses.
Rapid software development support
The CSR Starter Development Kit includes a full suite of profiles and example applications to run on-chip. These are coupled with example source code for iOS and Android to give developers a starting point for their application development. Developer support is provided by the newly launched CSRdeveloper forum and wiki.
Product Highlights
The CSR Starter Development Kit provides a complete set of tools for software development, board design and production testing, including:
- Target board with CSR µEnergy IC on a reference module, a USB programming interface and interfaces for breaking out I/O to application-specific sensors and actuators. The target board is normally powered from the host USB connection but can also be run standalone from an on-board coin cell (not included) to allow power measurements to be made
- Application development is enabled by the CSR µEnergy Software Development Kit which provides full stack support with GATT level interface
- Fully licensed CSR xIDE software development environment
- Example applications for popular Bluetooth Smart profiles such as heart rate sensors, alert tags, mice and keyboards, cadence sensors and many more
- Example host applications for iOS and Android platforms
- Datasheets for CSR ?Energy ICs
- Hardware design guidelines
- Manufacturing packs for module reference designs
- Production test and configuration tools
For additional technical support, visit forum.csr.com or Wiki.csr.com.
Developers can find out how to get started creating innovative products with the Starter Development Kit by attending a CSR webinar, ‘Getting Started with Bluetooth Smart’, on Thursday, January 23, 2014.
