Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) and Ericsson announced Monday that Ericsson will use TI’s
DSP-based Open Multimedia Application Platform in its next generation
wireless Internet handsets, communicators and advanced mobile computing
devices.
The platform will enable advanced wireless Internet access,
including future voice, data and video functions such as digital audio,
e-commerce and real-time video streaming, the firms said.
TI’s Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP) is a
flexible hardware and software platform that will support applications and
platforms within the wireless market from basic voice and Internet services,
to advanced multimedia functionality. Each element of OMAP is designed to be
connected together and integrated with a customer’s own blocks.
As part of the cooperation, Ericsson and TI will develop a custom and
optimized subsystem within TI’s digital baseband platform called a Gigacell.
The Gigacell consists of a new TMS320 DSP core from TI, a dedicated ARM based
microcontroller, Direct Memory Access (DMA), memories and a set of specific
hardware blocks. The Gigacell and future derivatives will be the core of
integrated 3G digital baseband chips that Ericsson plans to develop.
“By being TI’s driving engagement for the
first standard OMAP Gigacell, we will be early to market with the optimal
platform for our future wireless communications devices,” said Tord
Wingren, director and general manager for Product Unit UMTS Telephones at
Ericsson Mobile Communications.
“The convergence of communications and wireless computing applications,
combined with the vast power and opportunities enabled by the Internet, is
creating many exciting opportunities for Texas Instruments and Ericsson to
work together,” said Gilles Delfassy, vice president, Texas Instruments,
Worldwide Wireless Communications. “TI’s expertise in DSPs optimized for
wireless communications end-equipment will allow Ericsson and other customers
to offer leading solutions and capabilities. ”
TI will also make its OMAP platform available to other OEMs and third parties
for the development of new applications in the wireless data market. A
preliminary tool set is now available for software designers to begin
implementing applications. Customer design can start today for silicon
samples, with volume production in the second half of 2000.
TI will support
this platform with development chips, a software development kit and defined
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The APIs will be open and can be
implemented by other vendors to ensure an attractive DSP accelerated
multimedia environment for independent software vendors.
