TI’s Newly-Single Chip Hooks up With Nokia

Texas Instruments’ Digital RF Processor (DRP)
technology will be placed on a single chip and included in
Nokia handsets, the two companies said Monday.

The chip is targeted at the consumer voice market.

The new chip is the end result of an initiative begun in 2002 to integrate power management, analog, SRAM , logic and RF (radio frequency) functions on a single chip.

TI said the technology was proven last February when a GSM-based cell phone call in TI’s labs went through using the DRP technology. The company sampled the chip using its 90nm CMOS manufacturing technology in December.

“Over two years ago, TI announced its vision to integrate its DRP
technology in our mobile system solutions,” said Gilles Delfassy, senior vice president, TI, said in a statement. “With the industry’s first integrated single-chip solution, TI and Nokia are bringing more affordable, advanced mobile phones to consumers worldwide.”

Nokia phones based on TI’s single chip DRP will be aimed at high growth areas like China and India via the entry-level mobile phone market. Nokia noted that the DRP technology would allow them to develop smaller, more feature packed devices that won’t use more power.

“By incorporating TI’s DRP technology into a single chip, future Nokia mobile phones will provide the ideal mix of cool features and
cost-effectiveness, making them more attractive to the mass marketplace,” said Juha Pinomaa, a Nokia vice president.

TI’s announcement is not the final step on the roadmap laid out in
2002. Single chip solutions for digital TV mobile phones, wireless LANs , GPS and other mobile devices are part of TI’s integrated wireless technology roadmap.

Just last week, TI announced that Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics would use TI’s OMAP-DM270 processor imaging processor technology for a new camera phone that includes an integrated hard drive for storing video and images.