June 1997
New cordless phone/pager completed in seven months
In a development programme that took only seven months, Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL®) helped the Swedish company Ascom Tateco to develop a new industrial cordless telephone for on-site use that is compact, easy to use and incorporates paging features.
The new product had to fit into a case with the same styling as Ascom Tateco's recently introduced 922 voice pager, extended to include an extra row of buttons, and had to share some common components such as the LCD display.
Work on the project was split 50/50 between the two companies, with extensive use of electronic data transfer between the UK and Sweden. CCL was responsible for the baseband and processor design, baseband layout, software, user interface design and simulation.
Life-like simulations, with a fully operating LCD and some sound effects, were produced using CCL's user interface design techniques, enabling Ascom Tateco to try out early versions of the product and feed back comments for the next design iteration. In this way, agreement on the design was reached more quickly and with fewer misunderstandings than would be possible with conventional written documentation.
The telephone's baseband design is built around a single chip baseband processor, while the system microcontroller uses flash memory, allowing on-site download of software upgrades via a modem link while the device is in its charger. Other features include roaming with hand-over between different base stations.
Notes for editors:
Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology critical issues for clients worldwide. For over 50 years, the company has been helping its clients turn business opportunities into commercial successes, whether they are launching first-to-market products, entering new markets or expanding existing markets through the introduction of new technologies. With a team of over 300 engineers, designers, scientists and consultants, in offices in Cambridge (UK) and Boston (USA), Cambridge Consultants offers solutions across a diverse range of industries including medical technology, industrial and consumer products, transport, energy, cleantech and wireless communications.
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