CSR BlueCore specific information

by Marcel Holtmann

Firmware builds

A build's ID is accessible as the HCI_Revision value returned by the HCI Read_Local_Version_Information command.

The HCI 12.X builds and before use the same Build ID for both the 56 and 128-bit versions.

Build Chip Full Build Name Release Date Build ID HCI 9.8 bc01b January 17, 2001 0x042 (66) HCI 10.3 bc01b March 29, 2001 0x061 (97) HCI 10.5 bc01b April 25, 2001 0x065 (101) HCI 11.2 bc01b hci-branch-11.2 May 31, 2001 0x072 (114) HCI 11.3 bc01b hci-branch-11.3 June 14, 2001 0x073 (115) HCI 12.1 bc01b hci-branch-12.1 July 23, 2001 0x077 (119) HCI 12.3 bc01b hci-branch-12.3 September 13, 2001 0x086 (134) HCI 12.7 bc01b hci-branch-12.7 November 19, 2001 0x0bc (188) HCI 12.8 bc01b hci-branch-12.8 January 4, 2002 0x0da (218) HCI 12.9 bc01b hci-branch-12.9 March 28, 2002 0x11b (283) HCI 13.10 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_13.10_encr56 April 29, 2002 0x135 (309) HCI 13.10 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_13.10_encr128 April 29, 2002 0x136 (310) HCI 13.11 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_13.11_encr56 May 31, 2002 0x15f (351) HCI 13.11 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_13.11_encr128 May 31, 2002 0x160 (352) HCI 16.4 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_16.4_encr56 February 19, 2003 0x20b (523) HCI 16.4 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_16.4_encr128 February 19, 2003 0x20c (524) HCI 16.4.3 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_16.4.3_encr56 March 20, 2003 0x317 (791) HCI 16.4.3 bc01b bc01b_4hci_bt1.1_16.4.3_encr128 March 20, 2003 0x318 (792) HCI 14.3 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.3_encr56 March 7, 2002 0x110 (272) HCI 14.3 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.3_encr128 March 7, 2002 0x111 (273) HCI 14.6 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.6_encr56 May 27, 2002 0x150 (336) HCI 14.6 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.6_encr128 May 27, 2002 0x151 (337) HCI 14.7 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.7_encr56 June 12, 2002 0x175 (373) HCI 14.7 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.7_encr128 June 12, 2002 0x176 (374) HCI 14.8 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.8_encr56 October 2, 2002 0x1e7 (487) HCI 14.8 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_14.8_encr128 October 2, 2002 0x1e8 (488) HCI 15.3 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_15.3_encr56 September 2, 2002 0x1bb (443) HCI 15.3 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_15.3_encr128 September 2, 2002 0x1bc (444) HCI 16.1 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.1_encr56 August 23, 2002 0x1d3 (467) HCI 16.1.1 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.1.1_encr128 September 19, 2002 0x1f9 (505) HCI 16.4 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.4_encr56 November 20, 2002 0x20d (525) HCI 16.4 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.4_encr128 November 20, 2002 0x20e (526) HCI 16.5 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.5_encr128 November 6, 2002 0x235 (565) HCI 16.14 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.14_encr56 April 2, 2003 0x33c (828) HCI 16.14 bc02x bc02x_4hci_bt1.1_16.14_encr128 April 2, 2003 0x33d (829) HCI 18.1 bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_18_0401291945_encr56 January 29, 2004 0x490 (1168) HCI 18.1 bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_18_0401291945_encr128 January 29, 2004 0x491 (1169) HCI 18.x bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_18_0403161655_encr128 March 16, 2004 0x4d9 (1241) HCI 18.2 bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_nj-unified-dev1_encr56 May 4, 2004 0x54a (1354) HCI 18.2 bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_18p2_0405241530_encr56 May 24, 2004 0x570 (1392) HCI 18.2 bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_18p2_0405241530_encr128 May 24, 2004 0x571 (1393) HCI 18.2 bc02x bc02x_8unified_fl_bt1.2_18_0408131143_encr128 August 13, 2004 0x632 (1586)

Firmware features

Build ACL links HCI 11.x Master of up to four slaves or slave of one master HCI 12.x Master of up to seven slaves or slave of one master HCI 13.x Master of up to seven slaves or slave of one master HCI 14.x Master of up to seven slaves or slave of one master HCI 15.x Master of up to seven slaves or slave of one master HCI 16.x Any combination of seven slaves and two masters (but not more than seven devices at one time) HCI 17.x Same as HCI 16.x HCI 18.x Same as HCI 17.x and Bluetooth 1.2 support HCI 19.x Same as HCI 18.x and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support Unified 20 Same as HCI 19.x

The support of eSCO is only available in BlueCore3 (or later) chips from CSR. For the faster data transfer with EDR at least a BlueCore4 chip is needed.

Implementation of the HCI Get_Link_Quality command

This command obtains a value in the range 0 to 0xff, describing the quality of an ACL connection. The values meaning is manufacturer-specific.

The value is derived from an averaged bit error rate (BER) measurement, updated as packets are received. The BER value is derived from parts of radio packets that support FEC error correction:

• All packets headers
• The payloads of DM1, DM3, DM5, HV1 and HV2 packets
• The data parts of DV packets

The technique used to derive BER values is not precise; it is intended only to give an indication of link quality rather than act as a precise, calibrated instrument.

Links BER values are used internally to adapt to changes in link quality, notably to support CQDDR (Channel Quality Driven Data Rate).

The HCI commands values are as follows.

• Between 0xff and 0xd7 each bit distance represents 0.0025% BER. Thus:

  Value BER 0xff 0.0 0xfe 0.0025% 0xfd 0.0050% 0xfc 0.0075% etc., until 0xd7 0.1%

• Between 0xd6 and 0x5a each bit distance represents 0.08% BER. Thus:

  Value BER 0xd7 0.1% 0xd6 0.18% 0xd5 0.26% etc.

• Between 0x59 and 0x00 each bit distance represents 0.64% BER.

As a rule of thumb, a link with a BER between 0 and 0.1% is workable. Trying to run a link with a BER above 1% will give poor results.

Copyright © 2003-2006 Marcel Holtmann	Created on January 14, 2003 Last modification on April 2, 2006