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Contact information:
Ellisys Corporation
Chuck Trefts, VP Marketing
Phone: (866) 724-9185
Email: chuck.trefts@ellisys.com
Web site: www.ellisys.com

New Bluetooth® 4.1 Core Specification Released

Ellisys Bluetooth Explorer 400 Protocol Analyzer Uniquely Designed to Support New Features Early.

Geneva, Switzerland — December 12, 2013 — The Bluetooth Special Interest Group recently announced the availability of an “important evolutionary update” to the Bluetooth core specification. The new Bluetooth 4.1 core specification brings about major improvements for both consumers and developers, and also adds enhancements that address Bluetooth technology’s role in the Internet of Things (IoT). Ellisys, a worldwide leader in protocol test and analysis solutions and provider of the Bluetooth Explorer™ 400 Protocol Analysis System, began implementing support for these new features at an early stage, and is uniquely designed to support feature changes well before the public release of new specifications. With its innovative reconfigurable radio, the Ellisys sniffer can be instantly updated by software to support specification changes, without any change to the hardware, and even without any interaction from the user.

Early Protocol Analysis Support Accelerates Adoption
New features and enhancements brought about by Bluetooth core specification 4.1 have been in the works for more than a year and have been tested for design performance and interoperability through various formal testing events and in the labs of leading, early-adopter Bluetooth developers. Importantly, the Ellisys Bluetooth Explorer 400 was updated early in the conceptual stages to give these developers near instant access to protocol analysis support on proposed, pre-release specification changes. Even features coming down the road, such as Secure Connections for low energy devices, are already supported on the Bluetooth Explorer 400 for those early adopter developers working on the next evolution in Bluetooth wireless technology.

“ This new core specification is a major leap forward for Bluetooth wireless technology," stated Mario Pasquali, Ellisys president and CEO.“ This specification includes a wide ranging set of improvements and enhancements for various aspects of the technology. Early access to protocol analysis support provided by our Bluetooth Explorer Protocol Analysis System greatly speeds the process of finalizing specifications and accelerates the availability of exciting new Bluetooth products in the consumer marketplace. We’re proud to have been a part of these processes and to have worked with some amazingly creative and talented Bluetooth developers during the effort to bring this specification to a released state. We look forward to seeing products supporting the new core specification as they appear on store shelves. ”

Key Enhancements Provided by Bluetooth 4.1 Core Specification
The Bluetooth 4.1 core specification provides new features and benefits in three primary areas: consumer usability, more flexibility for developers of Bluetooth Smart products and applications, and new features that lay the groundwork for Bluetooth to extend its central role in the Internet of Things. Usability enhancements include coexistence improvements with other wireless technologies such as LTE, consumer experience improvements with connection establishment, and improved data transfers for Bluetooth Smart technologies. Developer improvements center primarily on adding design flexibility for technology innovators to create multi-role devices that will act simultaneously as a Bluetooth Smart peripheral and Bluetooth Smart hub. To better enable developers in supporting the Internet of Things, a standardized method to create dedicated channel for future protocols supporting IP connectivity.

“ Bluetooth annual product shipments projections are skyrocketing to more than 4.5 billion in the next five years,” said Suke Jawanda, Bluetooth SIG CMO. “ We updated the Bluetooth Core Specification to address this growth with improvements focused on giving developers more control and improving usability for the consumer. Our members worked diligently to ensure these updates would be easy to implement and ultimately further empower and optimize the developer’s design and build cycle with Bluetooth technology . ”

For more information on Bluetooth 4.1 features and details, please visit:
http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Press-Releases-Detail.aspx?ItemID=197

For the latest Bluetooth 4.1 technical details, please visit:
https://www.bluetooth.org/en-us/specification/adopted-specifications

Revolutionary Digital Radio Enables Immediate Updates as Bluetooth Technology Evolves
Thanks to its revolutionary and proprietary whole-band digital radio, the highly extensible Bluetooth Explorer 400 (BEX400) is able to support test and development of specification updates as they are brought up in developer labs or at industry testing events organized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (www.bluetooth.org). This is done with just a simple software update, and importantly, no need for an expensive hardware upgrade. Best of all, this update is free of charge for Ellisys customers.

Bluetooth Explorer 400 Major Features
The Bluetooth Explorer 400 uniquely supports one-click concurrent capture of:

• Classic Bluetooth BR/EDR
• Low Energy Bluetooth
• 2.4 GHz Spectrum
• USB HCI (1 port), UART HCI (2 ports) and SPI HCI (2 ports)
• Logic signals
• Audio I2S
• Wireless Coexistence Interface 2 (WCI-2)

Availability, Product Photos, and Information
The Ellisys Bluetooth Explorer 400 All-in-One Protocol Analysis System is available in the following configurations:

• BEX400 Standard with BR/EDR only, Low Energy only, or Dual Mode capture
• BEX400 PRO with BR/EDR only, Low Energy only, or Dual Mode capture

For more information, including software downloads, please contact sales@ellisys.com.

A high-resolution photo can be downloaded from: www.ellisys.com/archive/images/bex400.png
A screenshot of the Analyzer software is available at: www.ellisys.com/archive/images/bex400_soft.png
Additional information can be found at: www.ellisys.com/products/bex400

About Ellisys
Ellisys is a Test and Measurement company committed to the design and timely introduction of advanced protocol analysis solutions for USB and Bluetooth technologies. More information is available on www.ellisys.com.

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