CC2650 - Bluetooth LE & Zigbee at the same time.

Hi Savlo,

Yes, it is possible but we do not have software support on this yet. Stay tuned.

 

Well that kind of solves every problem. Zigbee can use BLE to communicate with a mobile device or anything with Bluetooth 4.0. Bluetooth can use Zigbee for the mesh networking with no need to wait for Bluetooth SIG to set the mesh networking standard.

It would seem the only limitation to this miracle chip would be bandwidth perhaps?

Thanks,

Hi Zahid,
Are you sure about this? According to my last talk with TI, they told me two stacks cannot work at the same time.

Hi YK,

Yes, you are right, there is a size limitation on the current CC26xx device as the CC2640 only has 128kB of flash which would make it impossible to run two big protocol stacks in a single chip solution.

 

In the CC2650 (128kB) features list T.I. mentions:  

"The Bluetooth Low Energy controller and the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC are embedded into ROM and are partly running on a separate ARM Cortex®-M0 processor. This architecture improves overall system performance and power consumption and frees up flash memory for the application"

Yes, lower layers of RTOS kernel and parts of the BLE controller are in CC2640 ROM to save flash space. Even with that, there is still limited space available for the user to implement the application/profiles. CC2650 has support for multiple protocol stacks, but only one can be used at a time.

Hi Zahid,

I didn't get this. What do you mean by "C2650 has support for multiple protocol stacks, but only one can be used at a time"? Does it mean that Application can have BLE and Zigbee stack together, but at a time it can use either BLE or Zigbee to communicate to the external world?

Please help me to understand this. Also, it would be great if you share any supported document for the same.

Thanks,
Dhaval

Hi Dhaval,
CC2650 is a soc for dual mode. When you download BLE stack and application, it will act as BLE device. When you download Z-Stack and application, it acts as Zigbee device. Since CC2650 has limited flash, it is not possible to download both BLE and Z-Stack on it to have BLE and Zigbee function at the same time.

Hi YiKai,

Thanks for your quick response!

So that means, every time whenever I want to switch between BLE and Zigbee I need to reprogram the CC2650 with respective application and stack, right?

Thanks,
Dhaval

Beside the flash memory limitation, anything else that will prevent it from using 2 standards at the same time?

Let's say I would use BLE stack, in addition to that, I'd like to use CC2650 as some general (propritory) 2.4GHz device, is it doable?

btw, how much flash will be used by the BLE stack?

Fei

There is only one RF Core so it might be a problem to make two protocols work at the same time.