CSR announced it has collaborated with Intel to redesign how its integrated Bluetooth device interacts with a laptop PC.
Laptops employing the new technology from CSR and Intel will save up to one watt or an extra 30 minutes of battery life for next-generation Intel-based laptops, according to CSR.
CSR also developed new Bluetooth firmware and complementary Windows software which implements an Intel-developed power-saving technique called USB Sideband Deferring.
The objective is to eliminate the power drain caused by frequent polling of the Bluetooth chip by the USB subsystem.
Intel processors already employ a number of techniques to save power, one of which is switching to low power sleep states called C3.
An integrated USB Bluetooth device can prevent the processor from entering the C3 state because it needs to be constantly polled to check whether it has any data to send to the system.
This constant polling prevents entry into C3. Bluetooth APM lowers power consumption by making sure that the Bluetooth device is only polled when it has data to pass to the system. The rest of the time the processor can enter C3.