The development of the short link radio technology, later named Bluetooth was initiated by Nils Rydbeck CTO at Ericson Mobile in Lund. The purpose was to create a wireless headset, according to two inventions, presented in 1989, SE 8902098-6, issued 1989-06-12 and 1992 SE 9202239, issued 1992-07-24 by Dr. Johan Ullman. Nils Rydbeck tasked Tord Wingren with specifying and Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson with developing, who were working for Ericsson in Lund, Sweden. The specification is based on frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology.
The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formally announced on 20 May 1998. Today it has a membership of over 20,000 companies worldwide. It was established by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies.
All versions of the Bluetooth standards support downward compatibility.[clarification needed] That lets the latest standard cover all older versions.
The Bluetooth Core Specification Working Group (CSWG) produces mainly 4 kinds of specifications
- The Bluetooth Core Specification, release cycle is typically a few years in between
- Core Specification Addendum (CSA), release cycle can be as tight as a few times per year
- Core Specification Supplements (CSS), can be released very quickly
- Errata
Bluetooth v1.0 and v1.0B
Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had many problems, and manufacturers had difficulty making their products interoperable. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B also included mandatory Bluetooth hardware device address (BD_ADDR) transmission in the Connecting process (rendering anonymity impossible at the protocol level), which was a major setback for certain services planned for use in Bluetooth environments.
