The Different Versions Of Bluetooth
Pre 1.1 and Version 1.1
Bluetooth technology was announced in 1998, and since then there have been a few other spec versions that have been released. The first on the scene included version 1.0 and 1.0b. These early versions had too many bugs and issues for manufacturers to even successfully make devices for Bluetooth. The major issue was the absence of communicating between devices.
Version 1.1 was the first core spec version to become a successfully operational version of Bluetooth. This version corrected for most of the issues and bugs found in the previous two versions.
Bluetooth Version 1.2
A lot of the newer devices using Bluetooth technology such as newer cellular phones are now sold with version 1.2 of the Bluetooth technology. Using this version of Bluetooth allows you backward compatability with the previous version of Bluetooth 1.1, a higher signal strength, faster transfer speeds, and an HCI (host controller interface( support for three wire UART.
Bluetooth Version 2.0
Although there are many communication technologies out right now, they all have one trait in common; the faster, the better! Specialists involved in working on Bluetooth technology realized this and began to work on upgrading the speeds from version 1.2. Bluetooth 2.0, the latest version, was announced in 2004 with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) and actually became a selling firmware later on in 2005.
Version 2.0 offers up to three times the data transfer rates offered by the original Bluetooth version. Improved connectivitiy is also provided with Bluetooth version 2.0. While using Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, one will be able to use more devices simultaneously with better efficiency as well!
Computers and also other computer related devices such as printers, scanners, and headsets have begun to enter the Bluetooth arena while encorporating Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR. These should be followed up by imaging and audio devices as well.
Like Version 1.2, Bluetooth Version 2.0 is also backward compatible with its former versions, has an even better data transfer rate of 2.1MB per second, making it 3 times faster. Version 2.0 also has broadcast and multicast support, tacked with an even more enhanced bit error rate execution, thus creating the best version that Bluetooth has yet to see.