Several vendors offer processors targeting cell phones, the highest-volume mobile application by far. About 10% of all handsets (115 million in 2007) are considered smartphones; because these phones run a standard operating system, they typically include a chip called an application processor. These processors pack an ARM CPU along with a variety of audio/video and system functions into a power budget of less than one watt.

With sales of more than 25 million units in 2007, personal navigation devices (PND) have emerged as another large and rapidly growing market for application processors. These handheld devices need the low cost, low power, and high integration of an application processor. But PNDs have some unique needs, and they come from a different set of manufacturers.

Texas Instruments (TI) and Qualcomm are the two leading vendors of processors for cell phones and have tightly focused on this market. But in a new strategy, both companies recently announced processors aimed at PNDs and other non-handset devices. In these markets, the new chips will compete against application processors from Marvell, Freescale, and others. Will TI and Qualcomm take over the PND market as well?

Last year, TI sampled the first devices in its OMAP3 family. These products, the 34xx, are intended only for leading smartphones. In fact, TI won’t even sell you these products unless you are a Tier One customer.

In February, however, the company announced a new set of application processors for general use. The 35xx family offers many of the same features as the 34xx, including ARM’s high-end CPU, the Cortex-A8, operating at up to 600MHz. The 35xx also includes a 3D graphics engine and a video engine capable of high-definition (720p) video playback. Both the 3D engine and video engine are optional, so customers pay only for the features they need.

To make these processors easier to use, TI packages the 35xx with a 0.65mm ball pitch. The 34xx uses a 0.4mm pitch, which enables a smaller package but requires expensive manufacturing techniques. Even with the larger pitch, the 35xx package measures just 16mm square. The first 35xx products are due to sample in 2Q08 and enter production by the end of the year.

Qualcomm QST

Whereas TI is the number-one vendor of application processors due to its focus on smartphones, Qualcomm just announced its first application processor at Mobile World Congress in February. The QST1000 is based on a 528MHz ARM11 CPU; despite the similar clock speeds, TI’s 35xx could be roughly 50% faster at route calculations due to the superscalar capability of its Cortex-A8.

The QST1000 also includes a video engine capable of VGA playback. The QST1100 adds a cellular baseband, and the QST1105 adds a 3D engine similar to TI’s. The QST products are already sampling.

Qualcomm’s vision is that high-end PNDs will add cellular capability, providing an on-the-go data link for maps and real-time traffic updates. Many PNDs today, however, can download map updates when connected to a PC, and they can access traffic data using RDS, which requires only an inexpensive FM receiver. But the bandwidth of RDS may be inadequate for next-generation traffic services.

The QST processors integrate a GPS engine but not the GPS radio receiver (RF). When using the QST1100, the cellular and GPS RF are in the same chip; therefore, the GPS function adds no extra chips to the system. The QST1000, however, requires an external GPS RF chip, resulting in the same chip count as TI’s OMAP35xx plus NavLink 5.0 combination.

Which Is Better?

Qualcomm’s focus is on PNDs with cellular capability, and it has already announced such a design in a Mitek Mio. In these devices, the QST1100’s integrated cellular and GPS capabilities enable a highly integrated design.

Originally published in Nikkei Electronics Asia, April 2008

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