Nordic Semiconductor Asa

Joel David Stapleton

David Alexandre Engelien-Lopes

Frank Berntsen

Lasse Olsen

Ola Marvik

Øyvind Hovdsveen

Hans Elfberg

Martin Tverdal

Disclosed is a semiconductor devicecomprising a radio transmitter hardware sectionand a processor, the devicebeing arranged to transmit information via said transmitter hardware sectionfrom a first application running on the processorin accordance with a first communication protocol or from a second application running on the processoror a further processor using a second communication protocol, wherein the first application is configured to generate a first transmit requestwhen it requires to send a data packet and wherein the second application is configured to generate a second transmit requestwhen the second application requires to send a data packet, the device further comprising control logicfor allocating a transmission timeslot for said transmitter sectionto said first or second application upon receipt of said firstor secondtransmit requests respectively.

Integrated circuit radio devices

A radio communication system comprises a radio transmitter (), and a radio receiver () configured to receive radio transmissions from the transmitter. The transmitter () uses a transmitter clock signal to transmit a succession of connection-event data packets (') according to a predetermined schedule. The receiver () enters a sleep state between receiving successive connection-event data packets from the transmitter (), in which it does not receive and process radio transmissions from the transmitter. It uses a receiver clock signal to determine when a predetermined number of receiver clock cycles has elapsed after receiving one of the connection-event data packets (&#x2032;), and then enters a ready state. The predetermined number of receiver clock cycles is the number of receiver clock cycles () that elapsed between the respective receipts of two of the connection-event data packets (&#x2032;) received by the receiver () minus a correction factor ().

Radio communication system

An integrated-circuit radio communication device () comprises processing means (), memory (), and radio communication logic (). The memory () stores (i) a boot-loader (), (ii) a firmware module () in a firmware memory region, and (iii) a software application () in a software-application memory region. The firmware module () comprises instructions for controlling the radio communication logic () according to a predetermined radio protocol, and the software application () comprises instructions for invoking a radio-communication function of the firmware module (). The boot-loader () or the firmware module () comprises instructions for using the radio communication logic () to receive a new firmware module (), and the boot-loader () or the firmware module () comprises instructions for storing the new firmware module () in the software-application memory region such that at least a portion of the software application () is overwritten by the new firmware module (). The boot-loader () comprises instructions for moving or copying the new firmware module () from the software-application memory region to the firmware memory region.

Updatable integrated-circuit radio

Radio communication system with energy efficient devices and method to use same

An integrated-circuit radio communication device () comprises a processor (), memory (), and radio communication logic (). The memory () has a firmware module () stored at a firmware memory address, the firmware module () comprising instructions for controlling the radio communication logic () according to a predetermined radio protocol. The processor () is configured to receive supervisor call instructions, each having an associated supervisor call number, and to respond to a supervisor call instruction by (i) invoking a supervisor call handler in the firmware module (), and (ii) making the supervisor call number available to the call handler. A software application () is loaded into the memory () of the device (), and stored at a predetermined application memory address. It is arranged to invoke a radio communication function from the firmware module () by issuing a supervisor call instruction having an associated predetermined supervisor call number corresponding to the function to be invoked.

Growing community of inventors

Trondheim, Norway

Joel David Stapleton