Imagination and Packetcraft announce partnership for low energy audio

Combining IMG iEB110 hardware with Packetcraft Bluetooth host stack to deliver a complete Bluetooth Low Energy IP solution

London, England -- September 17, 2020 – Imagination Technologies and Packetcraft announces a partnership to enable a complete Bluetooth Low Energy audio solution using the new Low Complexity Communication Codec (LC3). Combining Imagination’s iEB110 hardware and Packetcraft’s host stack, the solution is designed for applications such as broadcast audio, high quality multi-stream audio and hearing aid support. A demonstration of the solution is available here.

Imagination and Packetcraft have created a complete solution that can be easily integrated into a system on chip (SoC). Using this integrated hardware and software solution, customers can gain significant benefits through reduced development time and ultimately, time to market.

The newly announced LC3 codec brings superior performance compared to Sub-Band Codec (SBC), which is used in Bluetooth Classic. LC3 delivers better quality audio than SBC at only half the data rate, enabling it to bring substantial reductions in power consumption without compromising on the audio quality.

Gerry Conlon, Executive Vice President, Ensigma, Imagination, says; “By combining Imagination’s Baseband Controller and RF with Packetcraft’s host stack and advanced solution for LE Audio, customers can license and rapidly design state-of-the-art Bluetooth Low Energy 5.2 SoC’s, enabling the shortest time to first revenue available on the market today.”

John Yi, CEO, Packetcraft, says; “Together we are able to bring a world-class hardware and software offering to the market. Our Bluetooth version 5.2 qualified host stack has already been licensed to multiple customers developing LE Audio products. This partnership provides customers with a solid foundation for their technical needs and offers an incredibly flexible solution for the next generation of Bluetooth audio.”

The Bluetooth v5.2 specification has brought major innovation by supporting high quality audio over Bluetooth Low Energy for a range of new use cases.

Imagination’s iEB110

The iEB110 is a complete Bluetooth Low Energy v5.2 solution, including RF, controller software and Bluetooth Low Energy host stack. It supports advanced Bluetooth 5.1 features such as Angle of Arrival/Angle of Departure (AoA / AoD) allowing sub 1m location and tracking accuracy, Bluetooth v5.0 features such as LE long-range operation for extended indoor and outdoor coverage, and LE-2M PHY for higher throughput and reduced power consumption. With industry leading RF performance, iEB110 delivers robust connectivity while extending the system battery life.

For more information, watch Imaginations webinar Introducing iEB110: Bluetooth Low Energy v5.2 IP

Packetcraft’s Host Stack

Packetcraft’s Bluetooth 5.2 qualified host stack is the premier embedded software solution for Bluetooth low energy. It is designed to be efficient in memory, CPU, and power, and for portability to different CPUs, radios, and operating systems. Packetcraft’s host stack supporting LE Audio is available today to its enterprise customers.

About Packetcraft

Founded in April 2019, Packetcraft's mission is to create faster, better, and easier embedded stacks for all. As a leader in Bluetooth Low Energy technology we deliver software and services that are leading-edge, open, commercially proven, and qualified. In March 2020 Packetcraft became the world’s first company to achieve Bluetooth version 5.2 qualification for its host stack and link layer supporting sophisticated new features like LE Isochronous Channels. Packetcraft is located in San Diego, CA. See www.packetcraft.com.

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination is a UK-based company that creates silicon and software intellectual property (IP) designed to give its customers an edge in a competitive global technology market. Its graphics, compute, vision & AI and connectivity technologies enable outstanding power, performance and area (PPA), robust security, fast time-to-market and lower total cost of ownership. Products based on Imagination IP are used by billions of people across the globe in their phones, cars, homes, and workplaces. Imagination Technologies was acquired in 2017 by Canyon Bridge, a global private equity investment fund. See www.imgtec.com.