Texas Instruments is fortifying its position in the
wireless Internet world with a slew of announcements.
The Dallas-based company has announced a new “all-in-one” chipset it
said would help bridge the gap in network standards between Bluetooth
The chipmaker
is also teaming up with previous partner STMicroelectronics on
developing a
standard CDMA2000 1xEV-DV (Evolution for Data and Voice) processor
and
accompanying testing software.
With the growth of mobile devices, more and more manufacturers are
combining wireless standards including Wi-Fi
CDMA, GSM
technologies in a device like a smartphone or a PDA is not new, but
there
are not that many chip manufacturers that combine wireless technologies
under one roof. The problem is that some of the technologies are
disparate
and actually drain power from each other.
With that in mind, TI is approaching its wireless strategy with a focus on
original design manufacturers (ODM) in addition to the traditional OEM
“What we are seeing are more and more are manufacturers that want their
solutions to come from one source,” TI Short Distance Wireless Group
worldwide marketing manager Ariel Moshkovitz told
internetnews.com.
“The concerns used to be about power consumption, size and cost. Now
ODMs
are getting into the picture and their needs are more focused on price
and
complete solutions. Our pitch is that TI is a one-stop-shop that lets
ODMs
save money and bring their designs to market faster.”
Much faster apparently. The current industry trend for mobile
devices is
somewhere between 12 and 24 months from design to delivery. Moshkovitz
said
with their chipsets in motion, Hewlett-Packard managed
to
deliver their h4150 and h350 iPAQ Pocket PCs in less than 18 months.
In order to
help
other companies, TI released its second-generation BRF6100 chipset. The
BRF6150 is Bluetooth v1.2 compliant, which supports Adaptive Frequency
Hopping (AFH) and Extended Synchronous Connection-Oriented (eSCO)
environments for temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees Celsius to
nearly 85 degrees Celsius. The thinking is that the chipsets can
be
used in mobile terminals and other environments.
“Bluetooth has a strong showing in mobile headsets, smartphones and
PDAs,” Moshkovitz said. “Going forward, we see Bluetooth in
environments
like imaging, gaming, messaging and MP3. That is the second wave.
Beyond
that, we expect it to move into streaming and m-commerce applications.”
TI is also looking beyond Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for other wireless technologies to conquer.
For example, the STMicro and TI plan is the latest swipe at getting CDMA
.
The two companies said they will develop CDMA2000 1xEV-DV components for mobile
Internet
handsets and jointly market the components to manufacturers with
samples
expected in early 2004.
The technology is expected to allow broadband capabilities via cell
phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices with typical sector throughput
ranging from 420 kilobits-per-second to 1.7 megabits-per-second (Mbps)
and
peak data rates up to 3.1 Mbps. TI said that’s Internet connectivity at
ten
times the speeds of the CDMA2000 1x and GPRS
currently on the market.
“Clearly TI and ST have become very aggressive in the CDMA chipset
market,” said Will Strauss, president of research firm Forward
Concepts.
“CDMA wireless shipments are dominant in the U.S. and have been growing
in
worldwide market share, making this an attractive market for both
companies.”
TI is also moving aggressively to develop new materials for its
semiconductors. Not one to sit back and let IBM, AMD and Intel have all
the
fun with next-generation chips, the company Tuesday said it will introduce a new high-k dielectric
material — Hafnium Silicon Oxynitride (HfSiON) — in its
future
transistors. The material is reportedly considered a better conductor of electricity and one that retains more power than the present silicon oxynitride layer. The
company said it is preparing its fabs for the migration.
