Atmel Unveils the World’s Smallest Bluetooth 4.1 LE SoC, and BTLC1000 Xplained Pro Development Kit

Atmel has just announced it is now shipping SmartConnect BTLC1000 Bluetooth Smart (BLE 4.1) SoC in production quantities. The chip is remarkable thanks to its size, as the company managed to pack an ARM Cortex-M0 MCU, a transceiver, a modem, MAC, PA, TR Switch, and Power Management Unit (PMU) into a 2.26×2.14 mm package.

Atmel SmartConnect BTLC1000 Bluetooth LE SoC key features and specifications:

• MCU – ARM Cortex M0 @ 26 MHz
• 128KB IRAM/DRAM, 128KB ROM
• Connectivity – Bluetotoh 4.1 Smart with L2CAP service layer protocols, Security Manager, Attribute protocol (ATT), Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) and the Generic Access Profile (GAP). Proximity, Thermometer, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, and others profiles are also included in the protocol stack.
• I/Os – Up to 15, including 2x UART, 2x SPI, and 2x I2C.
• Hardware Crypto – AES-128, SHA-256
• Operating Voltage – 1.8 – 4.3V
• Power Consumption – > 4mA in RX, and >3mA TX at 3.6V
• Package – WLCSP (2.26×2.14mm) or QFN ( 32p 4×4 mm)
• Certified Modules – FCC, ETSI/CE, TELEC
• RoHS compliant

The chip can be used as a Bluetooth Low Energy link controller with external host MCU or as a standalone applications processor with embedded BLE connectivity and external memory.

To get customers started as quickly as possible, Atmel provides BTLC1000 Xplained Pro Starter Kit comprised of ATSAML21-XPRO board with SAML21 MCU, ATBTLC1000-XPRO Bluetooth expansion board, and two USB cables.

I could not find pricing information for the SoC, but the starter kit can be purchased for around $108, and if you already  own an Xplained PRO board, you can instead purchase ATBTLC1000-XPRO module for about $27. More details and documentation are available on Atmel BTLC1000 product page.

Thanks to Nanik for the tip.

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