Do you offer a BLE chip that can be both host and device

[waynix]

Do you have a BLE SOC chip that can behave as a master and a slave, and also has embedded stack so no host processor is needed. I am looking for a chip that can be used in a mesh network where the same device can be a scanner and a advertiser as controlled by an embedded app in the device. The chip would also need at least a UART and ideally also I2C interface. Thanks.

[RK]

Nordic's BTLE chip nrf51822 has UART and I2C (plus more) and when loaded with the S130 softdevice (you can read the specs from the Nordic site) can function as central and peripheral at the same time with 1 x peripheral and 3 x central connections, plus concurrent observer and broadcaster roles.

Does that cover all that you need?

[waynix]

Thank you so much for your quick response.
It seems that the chip and SW offer much more than what I need in terms features, interfaces and processing power/memory, hence cost may be a concern. My targeted app involves large amount of BLE "nodes" each with minimum feature (e.g. findme) but stringent power requirements. Also I wonder how much customizability the nRF51 ADK offers. I am thinking about the ability to send customized LL packets.
Thanks.

[RK]

I don't know offhand of a chip which gives you a radio, UART, I2C and a stack with dual role flexibility which is much cheaper, but I haven't scoured the market. The old TI chip, the 2540 (I think) has a horrible programming environment and potentially requires you to buy expensive dev tools, their latest chip is even more powerful and correspondingly more expensive. You can get some pretty cheap pre-built modules (although you need to check which chip revision some of the cheap manufacturers are using).

I had a quick look at the SDK and I see a few functions for setting up an LL channel and sending data down it. I haven't used them but there's something there. Custom LL channels I thought were relatively new so support may currently be thin everywhere.