QUALCOMM Chips Know Where You Are

Once the high technology of the military, global positioning systems (GPS) have become extremely vogue in mobile devices.

QUALCOMM , which has never been shy about adding to its wireless technology, Thursday said it has padded its location-based chipsets to incorporate newer handsets and North American markets.

The company said it has developed its new RGR6200 GPS radio receiver and expanded its WCDMA test capabilities. The advancements are expected to better guide the U.S. wireless sector into the 3G waters.

Designed to work with QUALCOMM’s MGP6200 multimode GPS processor and MSM6200 Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets, the RGR6200 chips promise simultaneous GPS operation with UMTS /GSM /GPRS radio operation.

The RGR6200 incorporates QUALCOMM’s radioOne Zero Intermediate Frequency (ZIF) architecture, which eliminates the need for IF components, including large IF SAW filters and additional IF circuitry. QUALCOMM said its CDMA chips using radioOne technology require less printed circuit board area than previous generation chips, which should help manufacturers cut handset prices.

The San Diego-based company said the new chipset also includes a low-noise amplifier, a mixer, a voltage control oscillator, channel select filtering, a phase-locked loop circuit and QUALCOMM’s serial bus interface.

As a companion chip for the RGR6200, QUALCOMM’s MSM6200 chipset supports data rates of up to 384 kbps and is the company’s second-generation UMTS product. The MSM6200 also interfaces with the company’s wireless Launchpad suite of applications and software.

QUALCOMM also said its WCDMA test has now been tweaked to 1900 MHz for North American markets. These test mobiles are identical to those used for WCDMA in Europe and Asia except that the test phones’ external radio frequency (RF) components are tuned to the 1900 MHz band instead of the 2100 MHz frequency used overseas.

“These 1900 MHz WCDMA test mobiles demonstrate our commitment to making our WCDMA solution available in North America,” said QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies president Don Schrock. “Our WCDMA chipsets and system software will support operators anywhere in the world since our RF components function in all necessary UMTS frequency bands.”

Sampled in June 2002, the MSM6200, including radioOne ZIF RF technology, is available, but QUALCOMM said it will commercial-quality test a MSM handset later this year before shipping it off to commercial vendors. Engineering samples of the RGR6200 chipset are due out in the first quarter of calendar 2003.

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