Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics are producing
samples of chips that will allow manufacturers to build
third-generation mobile phones based on Code Division Multiple
Access technology.
The chips are based on the EV-DV (Evolution-Data-Voice) standard
that accelerates the bandwidth of CDMA mobile networks, said Joe
Thome, business director for CDMA chipset products. They will
allow mobile phone users to download applications or access data at
speeds between 470Kbps (bits per second) and 1.7Mbps under
real-world conditions.
Although there are no EV-DV networks in place as yet, Texas and
STMicroelectronics are building the chips for phones that will be
used with a pilot programme planned by South Korean wireless
provider LG Telecom later this year.
Texas manufactured the TBB5160 digital baseband chip that serves
as the chipset's modem as well as two transmit and receiver chips.
STMicroelectronics built the power management chip. The entire
package is designed specifically for mobile phones, and it will
work alongside applications processors such as Texas' Omap,
STMicroelectronics' Nomadik or Intel's XScale processors.
There are fewer CDMA networks worldwide compared with networks
based on the leading standard, GSM/GPRS, but CDMA networks are
strong in the US and dominant in South Korea.
UMTS/WCDMA (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/Wideband
CDMA) networks are the 3G standard of choice for the GSM/GPRS
carriers, and are starting to roll out across Europe and the US
after years of delays. Texas also manufactures UMTS/WCDMA chipsets,
which allow peak data transfer speeds of about 2M bps under ideal
conditions.
South Korean wireless providers have already launched CDMA2000
1x EV-DO (Evolution-Data-Only) networks as an improvement to
existing CDMA2000 1x 3G service, but those networks can only
transmit data packets, not voice signals, said Will Strauss,
principal analyst with Forward Concepts.
The EV-DV standard is expected to replace the EV-DO standard
eventually, because wireless carriers are not keen on having to set
up separate voice and data channels on their networks, Strauss
said.
Sprint has decided to wait for EV-DV phones and networking
equipment before rolling out a 3G network, while Verizon Wireless
has moved ahead with a 3G rollout based on the EV-DO standard.
Strauss said users are unlikely to see EV-DV networks in the US
before at least 2007.
Qualcomm has also announced a mobile phone chipset that supports
a number of 3G standards including EV-DV, EV-DO and UMTS/WCDMA, but
samples of the MSM7600 product are not expected to ship until
2006.
Tom Krazit writes for IDG News
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