ICs Harness Two-Way Wireless Messaging Functions

Use of two-way wireless messaging in consumer electronics, computers, automobiles, and a host of other electronic products is expected to boom with the recent launch of the first-generation ReFLEX chipset. Embracing a complete decoding and encoding solution for two-way wireless messaging, the chipset includes the ReFLEX protocol encoder/decoder IC containing the ReFLEX Stack two-way software and a complete transceiver subsystem that works in the 900-MHz band- the ReFLEX protocol supports both two-way paging and confirmation of message delivery. Overall, there are six ICs in the chipset: the codec in an 80-pin Texas Instruments' microBGA (see photo); a 6-pin SC-59 packaged RF mixer; a 20-pin SSOP Sigma Delta A/D converter; a 48-pin QFP I and Q modulator; a 32-pin TQFP frequency synthesizer; a 28-pin QSOP power management IC; and an 8-pin SOIC EEPROM. The protocol codec chip includes memory, peripherals, and a CPU that runs on the ReFLEX Stack driver. For simple applications, the CPU can act as the system host, whereas for more complex ReFLEX uses, an external host can be used.