Chipcon Launches Low-Cost 2.4-GHz Chips

Chipcon (Oslo, Norway) announced a pair of radio chips for the unlicensed 2.4-GHz band. The model CC2500 is a multichannel RF transceiver and the model CC2550 is a multichannel RF transmitter. The chips are specifically designed for low-cost wireless mice and keyboards, wireless game controllers and wireless headset as well as a number of other consumer applications. According to Geir Forre, President & CEO of Chipcon, "Over the last two years Chipcon has invested heavily in this new product generation and our expectations are huge. The main focus on this new generation has been to develop the industry's most cost efficient RF-solutions, and we have succeeded!" The CC2500 has typical current consumption as low as 12 to 14 mA in receive mode. The devices are designed to operate on voltages of +1.8 to +3.6 VDC, with current consumption as low as 12 mA at -12 dBm output power. Both devices are rated for maximum output power of 0 dBm. Both devices are capable of burst-mode data transmission. The transceiver's radio features high sensitivity of -101 dBm at 10 kb/s. They support data rates from 1.2 to 500 kb/s. Chipcon --> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0JtlqC0Gth0BCpQ0Al