速度更快的蓝牙来了！
Here Is The Faster Bluetooth Coming!
在Bluetooth SIG内协商了两年多之后，最新版的蓝牙2.0规格终于在去年尘埃落定。这对于蓝牙产业而言，无疑是一个令人振奋的好消息，因为新增加的EDR规格，不仅让蓝牙的频宽从原来的1Mbps提升到3Mbps，而且蓝芽2.0与先前的蓝牙1.x版本兼容，更让系统整合厂商在采用蓝牙2.0时减少了许多疑虑。
After the discussion in Bluetooth SIG for two years, latest Bluetooth 2.0 standard finally came out at the second half of 2004. It was an exciting news to this industry. A new Enhance Data Rate (EDR) sub-standard inside the Bluetooth 2.0 allows the bandwidth of Bluetooth to increase from 1Mbps to 3Mbps, without losing backward compatibility to Bluetooth 1.x standard. That helps the industry to migration from previous standard to latest Bluetooth 2.0.
有了更高的传输频宽之后，蓝牙将更适合用来连结PC与其它周边装置，甚至带来其它前所未见的新应用。在PC领域，DELL日前已经验证过CSR的Bluetooth 2.0版芯片，并预计将在今年下半年推出内建Bluetooth 2.0收发器的机种。相信在DELL的带头之下，蓝牙可望将从目前的选购配备成为市场的主流。
With higher bandwidth, Bluetooth could be able to increase it抯 usage in PC peripheral connecting and the other application that we may never see before. In PC segment, DELL Computer had just approved the Bluetooth 2.0 chip solution from CSR, and we may see the new model with Bluetooth 2.0 transceiver come from DELL in the second half of this year. We believe that is just a beginning. Models with Bluetooth will be the mainstream in PC/Laptop market, but not an option anymore in the future.
除了计算机与手机之外，随着世界各国陆续对汽车驾驶在行车中使用移动电话订下严格的处罚条例，车载蓝牙市场的成长力道也不容忽视。CSR CEO John Hodgson指出，目前欧洲各大车厂都已经陆续有CSR的蓝牙解决方案被整合在车用通讯系统中，例如Audi、BMW等。同时，在亚洲市场，随着日本的法案修订工作也在去年完成，相信日系车厂在今年将会在整合蓝牙的动作上更为积极。另一方面，目前已经上市但却没有内建蓝牙通信功能的车款也同样需要具备免持听筒设备。这股商机势必更为庞大。
Besides PC and mobile phone segments, the growth of automotive applications will be very significant. Law regulations in most of the countries around the world will be the major driving force to make this boom happened. From now, car drivers will be fined if they use handheld devices when they are driving. John Hodgson, the CEO of CSR, mentioned that there are a lot of European car makers had integrated the Bluetooth chip from CSR into their automotive communication system, like Audi, BMW, etc. In Asia, Japan had just finish a law regulation about the handheld devices usage in driving. We believe those Japanese car makers will take an action in integrating Bluetooth functionality. On the other hand, those cars which have been sold to the market without Bluetooth built-in will need the hand-free equipment as well, and this business opportunity is certainly bigger.
蓝牙发展迈入新阶段
The History of Bluetooth is Stepping into a New Phase
回顾过去这几年来蓝牙市场的变化，在半导体部份，从芯片组到单芯片化、甚至市场上开始已出现把被动器件也整合到单一封装内，减少外部被动器件使用量的解决方案。除了芯片采购的成本随着制程精进降低之外，从系统的观点，蓝牙的BOM Cost也得以降得更低。Mathew指出，从1997年爱立信开始推广蓝牙技术，到2000年CSR推出业界第一颗单芯片解决方案—BlueCore，到去年蓝牙市场正式起飞，总共花了7、8年的时间。
Have a quick review on the market changes in the past few years, especially focus on semiconductor segment, Bluetooth solutions have a significant achievement in improve architecture complexity. From 3 chips to single chip, even now we can see some solutions have integrated the passive components around the main chip in the module into a single package, to reduce the number of total components used in the market. Not only the purchase price of main chip could be reduced, but also the BOM cost of a system or a module could be reduced more. Mathew says, Since Ericsson began promoting Bluetooth technologies in 1997, CSR had delivered the first single chip Bluetooth solution in the industry: BlueCore in 2000, last year we saw the market takeoff. It takes more than 7 years to make it happen.
John接着表示，展望未来，蓝牙芯片本身的降价情况应该还会持续一阵子，同时外部器件使用量减少的趋势也不会有所改变。不过从过去几年的经验，我们也发现到软件对蓝牙未来发展的重要性。由于蓝牙是一种在不同的装置之间建立连结的无线技术，因此通信协议、软件堆栈这些软件的部份，往往也是决定系统表现好坏与互通性的关键所在。所以，这一、两年来，公司的R&D策略也有所调整。CSR目前在剑桥总部的蓝牙研发团队约有300名研发人员，软硬件工程师的比例约为4:6，我们希望能让这个比例变成5:5。因为唯有软硬兼修，才能够进一步确保公司未来在蓝牙市场上的领先地位，尤其是在硬件相对于软件已大致进入成熟阶段的此刻，软件在未来势必成为竞争的重点。
John says, Outlook on the future, the cost of Bluetooth chips will keep the dropping for a while, and the number of outer components used will decrease, too. On the other hand, we found that the software is getting more and more important to the future of Bluetooth technology when we involved in this market for these years. Bluetooth is a technology used to establish the connection between different devices, and the software and communication protocols are certainly important to the system performance and interoperability. For that reason, our R&D strategies had been adjusted for years. Currently, we have about 300 R&D engineers, and the ratio between software engineers & hardware engineers is about 4:6, we hope we could strike a 5:5 balance in this year. Providing both hardware and software solutions are the keys to make CSRs leading position in this market, since the hardware solutions are relatively mature than software today. In another word, software will be the hotspot for the future competition.
姜是老的辣
A Matured Technologies Never is The Loser
与其它诸如UWB、Wi-Fi之类的新兴技术相较之下，蓝牙有什么独特的优势与之抗衡吗？John与Matthew从不同的面向来回答这个问题。
Comparing Bluetooth with the other new technologies like UWB and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth has any unique advantages to compete with them? John and Matthew answered this question in different aspect.
Matthew说：“从技术的观点，像是UWB这些新兴技术要在硬件的成本架构上达到合理的范围，还有一段颇长的路要走。以蓝牙为例，蓝牙技术花了3年的时间才发展出相对成熟的硬件架构(编按：我想Matthew指的是第一代的BlueCore)，之后又花了4年的时间在减少外部器件的使用量上。这些新兴技术要在主流市场上获得成功，势必也得历经同样的发展历程。这要花多少时间？我并不确定。从另外一个方向来看，数据传输率与功耗永远是必须要做出取舍的。蓝牙技术就其本质上，可以省下更多电力，这点我非常信心。”
Matthew said, In a technical point of view, theres still a long road for these new technologies like UWB to go in achieving a reasonable hardware cost structure. Taking Bluetooth as an instant, it took Bluetooth more than 3 years in developing a relatively matured hardware architecture (Editor: I think he meant the first generation BlueCore), and 4 years to keep reducing the components outside the main chip. Those new technologies must do the same thing before they want to success in the mainstream market. How many years may this cost them? m not sure. On the other hand, there must be some trade off between power consumption and data rate. Bluetooth can be a more power saving technology in it nature, m very confident with that.
John则说：“我非常好奇你所提到UWB到底是什么？姑且不论UWB目前还有两种不同的调变机制在争议当中，在通信协议与软件方面，目前也还没有一个共通的标准。在这个情况下，我能用UWB来作什么应用呢？每一种通信系统都需要这些软件支持才能运作。我认为这或许是整个生态系统的问题，而且并不容易解决。坦白说，我们在总部的研发团队也正在持续密切观察UWB标准的发展状况，但这并不表示我们对蓝牙的未来失去信心而准备转换跑道。CSR在未来仍会持续我们对蓝牙技术与客户的承诺。有时候，我对于专注在UWB上发展的新创公司会感到好奇，他们要如何创造收入？他们的客户又是谁？”
John said, m really wondering about what UWB you mentioned will be. Despite of two different modulation scheme in still arguing, a common communication protocols and software are not available today. What kind of application can I use UWB to do? Every communication system needs those software supports to make it work. I think this may be a question about the entire ecosystem, and its not so easy to be solved. Frankly speaking, we are watching the development of UWB standard very closely in HQ, but that doesnt mean we lost our faith to the future of Bluetooth and changing our focus. CSR will keep our commitment to Bluetooth and our customers. Sometimes, m curious about how could those startup companies focus on UWB can create income? And who will be their customers?
步步为营 迎向成长的2005年
Carefully Moving Forward to A Growing Year
在数年的酝酿与沉潜之后，蓝牙市场已经呈现出从网络泡沫中复苏的迹象。根据IMS的统计显示，2004年具备蓝牙功能的终端装置出货量已达到1.45亿部，而到了今年，终端装置的出货量更可望达到2亿部。John指出，如果这个预估正确的话，蓝牙将毫无疑问地开始成为改变人们的日常生活的一项技术，而不是只局限在高阶产品上的功能。
After years of preparation and development, Bluetooth market is surely recovering from the Internet bubble. According to the data from IMS, there were 145 million units of devices with Bluetooth function shipped last year, and they forecast the shipment will increase to 200 million units this year. John mentioned, If the forecast is correct, Bluetooth will be a technology that really changes everyones daily life, but not a technology to be used in only a few high end products.
但是，距离2005年结束还有10个月，我们也注意到许多分析机构的研究与其它公司的财报都显示出今年是半导体业成长趋缓的一年，因此我们在经营决策上会更加小心。不过，根据Bluetooth SIG官方网站上的资料，截至去年年底为止，CSR所获得的Design in件数大幅超越市场上其它竞争者，甚至第二名与第三名所获得的Design in件数总和都还不如CSR，因此，站在CSR的立场，我们当然希望整个蓝牙市场的成长能够如IMS的预期，但即使情况不如理想，相信CSR在Design in件数上的领先也能确保公司的稳定获利。
But, there are still 10 months before 2005 ended. John emphasized, We had noticed that a lot of reports from various of analyze institutes and the financial reports from the other companies had shown 1 thing: this year is a flat year for semiconductor industry. So, we will be more carefully in running our business. But, according to the data on Bluetooth SIG website, CSR gained the most of design in cases, even more than the sum of the second and third player design in. Hence, from CSR aspect, we do will the market growth as IMS estimated. Even if the market won grow as more as they predicted, I think the design in base we gained last year will keep us being able to be a profitable company this year.
Here Is The Faster Bluetooth Coming!
在Bluetooth SIG内协商了两年多之后，最新版的蓝牙2.0规格终于在去年尘埃落定。这对于蓝牙产业而言，无疑是一个令人振奋的好消息，因为新增加的EDR规格，不仅让蓝牙的频宽从原来的1Mbps提升到3Mbps，而且蓝芽2.0与先前的蓝牙1.x版本兼容，更让系统整合厂商在采用蓝牙2.0时减少了许多疑虑。
After the discussion in Bluetooth SIG for two years, latest Bluetooth 2.0 standard finally came out at the second half of 2004. It was an exciting news to this industry. A new Enhance Data Rate (EDR) sub-standard inside the Bluetooth 2.0 allows the bandwidth of Bluetooth to increase from 1Mbps to 3Mbps, without losing backward compatibility to Bluetooth 1.x standard. That helps the industry to migration from previous standard to latest Bluetooth 2.0.
有了更高的传输频宽之后，蓝牙将更适合用来连结PC与其它周边装置，甚至带来其它前所未见的新应用。在PC领域，DELL日前已经验证过CSR的Bluetooth 2.0版芯片，并预计将在今年下半年推出内建Bluetooth 2.0收发器的机种。相信在DELL的带头之下，蓝牙可望将从目前的选购配备成为市场的主流。
With higher bandwidth, Bluetooth could be able to increase it抯 usage in PC peripheral connecting and the other application that we may never see before. In PC segment, DELL Computer had just approved the Bluetooth 2.0 chip solution from CSR, and we may see the new model with Bluetooth 2.0 transceiver come from DELL in the second half of this year. We believe that is just a beginning. Models with Bluetooth will be the mainstream in PC/Laptop market, but not an option anymore in the future.
除了计算机与手机之外，随着世界各国陆续对汽车驾驶在行车中使用移动电话订下严格的处罚条例，车载蓝牙市场的成长力道也不容忽视。CSR CEO John Hodgson指出，目前欧洲各大车厂都已经陆续有CSR的蓝牙解决方案被整合在车用通讯系统中，例如Audi、BMW等。同时，在亚洲市场，随着日本的法案修订工作也在去年完成，相信日系车厂在今年将会在整合蓝牙的动作上更为积极。另一方面，目前已经上市但却没有内建蓝牙通信功能的车款也同样需要具备免持听筒设备。这股商机势必更为庞大。
Besides PC and mobile phone segments, the growth of automotive applications will be very significant. Law regulations in most of the countries around the world will be the major driving force to make this boom happened. From now, car drivers will be fined if they use handheld devices when they are driving. John Hodgson, the CEO of CSR, mentioned that there are a lot of European car makers had integrated the Bluetooth chip from CSR into their automotive communication system, like Audi, BMW, etc. In Asia, Japan had just finish a law regulation about the handheld devices usage in driving. We believe those Japanese car makers will take an action in integrating Bluetooth functionality. On the other hand, those cars which have been sold to the market without Bluetooth built-in will need the hand-free equipment as well, and this business opportunity is certainly bigger.
蓝牙发展迈入新阶段
The History of Bluetooth is Stepping into a New Phase
回顾过去这几年来蓝牙市场的变化，在半导体部份，从芯片组到单芯片化、甚至市场上开始已出现把被动器件也整合到单一封装内，减少外部被动器件使用量的解决方案。除了芯片采购的成本随着制程精进降低之外，从系统的观点，蓝牙的BOM Cost也得以降得更低。Mathew指出，从1997年爱立信开始推广蓝牙技术，到2000年CSR推出业界第一颗单芯片解决方案—BlueCore，到去年蓝牙市场正式起飞，总共花了7、8年的时间。
Have a quick review on the market changes in the past few years, especially focus on semiconductor segment, Bluetooth solutions have a significant achievement in improve architecture complexity. From 3 chips to single chip, even now we can see some solutions have integrated the passive components around the main chip in the module into a single package, to reduce the number of total components used in the market. Not only the purchase price of main chip could be reduced, but also the BOM cost of a system or a module could be reduced more. Mathew says, Since Ericsson began promoting Bluetooth technologies in 1997, CSR had delivered the first single chip Bluetooth solution in the industry: BlueCore in 2000, last year we saw the market takeoff. It takes more than 7 years to make it happen.
John接着表示，展望未来，蓝牙芯片本身的降价情况应该还会持续一阵子，同时外部器件使用量减少的趋势也不会有所改变。不过从过去几年的经验，我们也发现到软件对蓝牙未来发展的重要性。由于蓝牙是一种在不同的装置之间建立连结的无线技术，因此通信协议、软件堆栈这些软件的部份，往往也是决定系统表现好坏与互通性的关键所在。所以，这一、两年来，公司的R&D策略也有所调整。CSR目前在剑桥总部的蓝牙研发团队约有300名研发人员，软硬件工程师的比例约为4:6，我们希望能让这个比例变成5:5。因为唯有软硬兼修，才能够进一步确保公司未来在蓝牙市场上的领先地位，尤其是在硬件相对于软件已大致进入成熟阶段的此刻，软件在未来势必成为竞争的重点。
John says, Outlook on the future, the cost of Bluetooth chips will keep the dropping for a while, and the number of outer components used will decrease, too. On the other hand, we found that the software is getting more and more important to the future of Bluetooth technology when we involved in this market for these years. Bluetooth is a technology used to establish the connection between different devices, and the software and communication protocols are certainly important to the system performance and interoperability. For that reason, our R&D strategies had been adjusted for years. Currently, we have about 300 R&D engineers, and the ratio between software engineers & hardware engineers is about 4:6, we hope we could strike a 5:5 balance in this year. Providing both hardware and software solutions are the keys to make CSRs leading position in this market, since the hardware solutions are relatively mature than software today. In another word, software will be the hotspot for the future competition.
姜是老的辣
A Matured Technologies Never is The Loser
与其它诸如UWB、Wi-Fi之类的新兴技术相较之下，蓝牙有什么独特的优势与之抗衡吗？John与Matthew从不同的面向来回答这个问题。
Comparing Bluetooth with the other new technologies like UWB and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth has any unique advantages to compete with them? John and Matthew answered this question in different aspect.
Matthew说：“从技术的观点，像是UWB这些新兴技术要在硬件的成本架构上达到合理的范围，还有一段颇长的路要走。以蓝牙为例，蓝牙技术花了3年的时间才发展出相对成熟的硬件架构(编按：我想Matthew指的是第一代的BlueCore)，之后又花了4年的时间在减少外部器件的使用量上。这些新兴技术要在主流市场上获得成功，势必也得历经同样的发展历程。这要花多少时间？我并不确定。从另外一个方向来看，数据传输率与功耗永远是必须要做出取舍的。蓝牙技术就其本质上，可以省下更多电力，这点我非常信心。”
Matthew said, In a technical point of view, theres still a long road for these new technologies like UWB to go in achieving a reasonable hardware cost structure. Taking Bluetooth as an instant, it took Bluetooth more than 3 years in developing a relatively matured hardware architecture (Editor: I think he meant the first generation BlueCore), and 4 years to keep reducing the components outside the main chip. Those new technologies must do the same thing before they want to success in the mainstream market. How many years may this cost them? m not sure. On the other hand, there must be some trade off between power consumption and data rate. Bluetooth can be a more power saving technology in it nature, m very confident with that.
John则说：“我非常好奇你所提到UWB到底是什么？姑且不论UWB目前还有两种不同的调变机制在争议当中，在通信协议与软件方面，目前也还没有一个共通的标准。在这个情况下，我能用UWB来作什么应用呢？每一种通信系统都需要这些软件支持才能运作。我认为这或许是整个生态系统的问题，而且并不容易解决。坦白说，我们在总部的研发团队也正在持续密切观察UWB标准的发展状况，但这并不表示我们对蓝牙的未来失去信心而准备转换跑道。CSR在未来仍会持续我们对蓝牙技术与客户的承诺。有时候，我对于专注在UWB上发展的新创公司会感到好奇，他们要如何创造收入？他们的客户又是谁？”
John said, m really wondering about what UWB you mentioned will be. Despite of two different modulation scheme in still arguing, a common communication protocols and software are not available today. What kind of application can I use UWB to do? Every communication system needs those software supports to make it work. I think this may be a question about the entire ecosystem, and its not so easy to be solved. Frankly speaking, we are watching the development of UWB standard very closely in HQ, but that doesnt mean we lost our faith to the future of Bluetooth and changing our focus. CSR will keep our commitment to Bluetooth and our customers. Sometimes, m curious about how could those startup companies focus on UWB can create income? And who will be their customers?
步步为营 迎向成长的2005年
Carefully Moving Forward to A Growing Year
在数年的酝酿与沉潜之后，蓝牙市场已经呈现出从网络泡沫中复苏的迹象。根据IMS的统计显示，2004年具备蓝牙功能的终端装置出货量已达到1.45亿部，而到了今年，终端装置的出货量更可望达到2亿部。John指出，如果这个预估正确的话，蓝牙将毫无疑问地开始成为改变人们的日常生活的一项技术，而不是只局限在高阶产品上的功能。
After years of preparation and development, Bluetooth market is surely recovering from the Internet bubble. According to the data from IMS, there were 145 million units of devices with Bluetooth function shipped last year, and they forecast the shipment will increase to 200 million units this year. John mentioned, If the forecast is correct, Bluetooth will be a technology that really changes everyones daily life, but not a technology to be used in only a few high end products.
但是，距离2005年结束还有10个月，我们也注意到许多分析机构的研究与其它公司的财报都显示出今年是半导体业成长趋缓的一年，因此我们在经营决策上会更加小心。不过，根据Bluetooth SIG官方网站上的资料，截至去年年底为止，CSR所获得的Design in件数大幅超越市场上其它竞争者，甚至第二名与第三名所获得的Design in件数总和都还不如CSR，因此，站在CSR的立场，我们当然希望整个蓝牙市场的成长能够如IMS的预期，但即使情况不如理想，相信CSR在Design in件数上的领先也能确保公司的稳定获利。
But, there are still 10 months before 2005 ended. John emphasized, We had noticed that a lot of reports from various of analyze institutes and the financial reports from the other companies had shown 1 thing: this year is a flat year for semiconductor industry. So, we will be more carefully in running our business. But, according to the data on Bluetooth SIG website, CSR gained the most of design in cases, even more than the sum of the second and third player design in. Hence, from CSR aspect, we do will the market growth as IMS estimated. Even if the market won grow as more as they predicted, I think the design in base we gained last year will keep us being able to be a profitable company this year.
