Continua Certified USB-enabled platform now available for building agent healthcare devices

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) and S3 Group, a connected healthcare technology solutions company, today announced the availability of the first Continua Certified™ USB-enabled platform for building agent healthcare devices. The platform consists of TI's ultra-low power MSP430 microcontroller (MCU) and S3 Group's Embedded Agent Stack (EAS) – an 11073 PAN device (agent) stack, which has been optimized for resource constrained platforms. The platform for agent devices will enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bring personal health devices to market quicker and easier. Both TI and S3 Group are members of the Continua Health Alliance, a non-profit, open industry organization of healthcare and technology companies joined together to establish a system of interoperable personal telehealth solutions to better manage health and wellness. This new platform will help developers improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare by simplifying the design of USB-enabled consumer medical products such as blood glucose meters, digital thermometers, pulse oximeters and blood pressure monitors.

"S3 Group has been at the forefront of devising ways to leverage the latest technology to enable faster delivery of telehealth for years, and we are very proud to have been selected by TI for the development of this Continua Certified™ platform for device manufacturers," John Mulcahy, general manager, telehealth, S3 Group.

TI's MSP430 platform of 16-bit, RISC, mixed-signal MCUs provides ultra-low power and high-quality analog integration, making MSP430 a leading MCU for portable consumer medical devices.  The new MSP430 MCUs with integrated USB functionality easily enable Continua devices that incorporate USB connectivity. These devices, combined with S3 Group's EAS, now provide a comprehensive hardware and software solution for developers who want to quickly and confidently design Continua devices. Products based on this platform will be capable of functioning as a personal area network (PAN) device that can communicate with any Continua Application Hosting Device (AHD).  

"TI is dedicated to providing solutions to customers so they can design products with confidence, and the S3 Group, a proven player in the development of telehealth solutions, worked closely with us to develop this MSP430-based platform," Rajesh Verma, medical business development manager for TI's MCU business. "This platform will greatly reduce the development time for our customers by allowing them to focus on refining their applications rather than having to develop the lower-level connectivity layers of software."