Texas Instruments today launched the Bluetooth Starter Kit, an evaluation and development platform that enables designers to add Bluetooth functionality to handheld products including cell phones, PDAs and Human Interface Devices (HID).

The BRF6100 Bluetooth Starter Kit includes a form factor reference design Bluetooth module, Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) Host Controller Interface (HCI), and Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) interface for voice. The starter kit package also includes a headset, power supply, documentation and HCI commander software for PCs. The BRF6100 is fully certified to the Bluetooth 1.1 protocol.

Primarily targeted at the wireless device market, the BRF6100 offers a Bluetooth baseband, digital RF antenna switch and power management in a 6x6 millimeter (mm) package and requires four external components and 10 decoupling capacitors. The BRF6100 consumes 30 milliamps in peak transmit mode.

TI's BRF6100 Bluetooth Development Kit was developed in collaboration with Teleca Systems AB and is sampling today.