National, RTX Telecom team up on cordless voice module

In cooperation with RTX Telecom, a Denmark-based wireless product developer, National Semiconductor Corp. developed a cordless voice module (CVM) that integrates a radio transceiver and baseband with a complete protocol stack on a single board.

According to the company, this enables system designers to more easily and cost-effectively design a digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) or 2.4GHz cordless phone or add this functionality to their products.

"National's CVM allows customers to easily integrate cordless phone capabilities into a wide range of products where they weren't previously feasible because of complexity, size or cost," said Marius Bouman, product marketing manager for National's Cordless group. "Now, manufacturers such as IDT are able to use the CVM to design fully featured cordless phones and bring them to market more quickly than before."

Two versions of the CVM are available. The SC14CVM2.4 uses National's SC14428 baseband controller, which is a CMOS chip designed to handle all the audio, signal and data processing for a 2.4GHz ISM digital band handset or basestation. The complete protocol stack and application interface are integrated in ROM code. RF for the SC14CVM2.4 is provided by the LMX4268, a radio transceiver IC optimized for the 2.4GHz system. The company said that this module has an excellent typical range of 350m outside and 75m indoors.

The SC14CVM1.9 is optimized for the DECT standard. It is also equipped with National's SC14428 baseband controller and with the LMX4168 radio transceiver IC. The LMX4168 has the same specifications as the LMX4268, but is specially designed for the 1.9GHz band and is compliant with the ETSI TBR06 standard.

Samples of the CVM are currently available, with pricing for the module starting at $24.80 in 1,000-unit volumes. More information is available at company website.