Contributors: Bob Wheeler, Jag Bolaria, Joseph Byrne In This Issue Hear Principal analyst Linley Gwennap give an overview of semiconductor IP cores for networking chips as part of SafeNet's webinar on Security in Silicon. This webinar will be available on March 15 at 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific time. For more information, click here. At 3GSM, Texas Instruments gave us OMAP3 news for Valentine's Day, disclosing the architecture of its next-generation handset processor. To pump up the performance, OMAP3 chips will use ARM's new Cortex-A8 processor, the successor to ARM11. In addition to running as fast as 550MHz in 65nm technology, the Cortex CPU includes a powerful multimedia engine. The first chip in this family, the OMAP3430, will perform video decoding at full HDTV resolution and DVD-quality video encoding. It will support cameras up to 12Mpixels. The chip will connect to an internal hard drive and include high-speed USB2.0 to transfer audio and video content. The 3430 will be TI's first 65nm application processor, with samples due in mid-2006. The 3430 targets converged devices that merge handset functions with high-end cameras, camcorders, and media players. Instead of just watching a small screen, consumers can plug 3430-based devices into a large television wherever they happen to be. Oh, and perhaps make a phone call as well. By moving quickly to 65nm technology and the Cortex CPU, TI extends its lead in application processors. OMAP3 looks to be an impressive accomplishment, but the company must also focus on improving its mainstream handset processors. The move to 65nm should help these products as well. —Linley In-depth coverage of TI's handset processors appears in our forthcoming report A Guide to Wireless Handset Processors. Quickly following the IEEE's unanimous approval of an 802.11n draft, Broadcom, Marvell, and Atheros announced that they are sampling "draft-compliant" MIMO chip sets. Many vendors had indicated that they would wait for a draft specification before announcing products. Given the intense competition among wireless LAN suppliers and the slow pace of standardization, it seemed unlikely that any supplier would delay introducing a high-performance chip set—particularly since doing so would impede the progress of upstart Airgo Networks. Airgo is likely to release an updated chipset when the 11n standard is closer to ratification. The three new chip sets are dual-band, all-CMOS designs and deliver two spatially multiplexed streams. Broadcom appears to have implemented a 2x2 RF transceiver, the minimum configuration for delivering 2x2 MIMO. Marvell's transceiver is a 2x3 design, and Atheros's is 3x3. Atheros implements spatial spreading to transmit two spatial streams using three transmitters simultaneously, and the company claims its approach delivers "50 percent greater sustained throughput at range than 2x2 MIMO systems." Marvell, which had first announced its chip in October 2005, expects its customers to launch products this quarter. Broadcom and Atheros trail Marvell, expecting end products based on their chips to be available at midyear. List prices are in the mid-twenty-dollar range for Broadcom's basic client configuration and less than twenty dollars for Atheros's chip set. Marvell did not disclose pricing. For end-users, the big news is that by summer there will be multiple suppliers of MIMO chip sets. Despite the high list prices for Broadcom's chip sets, competition will undoubtedly force prices down. Approval of the draft is irrelevant, except for signifying that the process toward final ratification and Wi-Fi certification is on track. Early adopters have already been adopting Airgo-based products. Mainstream and conservative adopters should wait for the availability of Wi-Fi-certified products. —Joe In-depth coverage of 802.11n appears in our report A Guide to Next-Generation Wireless. In January, UWB-startup Wisair announced a $20 million third round of funding. Coming primarily from existing investors, the new round brings the company's total funding to $40 million. Wisair will use the new funding to move its products to production and expand its sales channel. Also in January, Wisair participated in the WiMedia Alliance's first formal interoperability workshop, which demonstrated PHY-layer interoperability between products from five UWB-chip vendors. —Bob Complete coverage of UWB and Wireless USB appears in our report A Guide to Next-Generation Wireless.
Wireless handsets, commonly known as cell phones, are the highest-volume application for DSPs and 32-bit CPUs, with volumes approaching 1 billion units in 2006. Even as volumes continue to grow, designing these handsets is becoming more complex. No longer just a baseband and a radio, handsets now include Bluetooth, cameras, and polyphonic ringtones as mainstream features. High-end phones may provide TV-quality video, 3D graphics, GPS, wireless LAN, and mobile digital-TV capability. These phones require sophisticated processors with multiple CPUs and many integrated peripherals. Some of these processors are also used in PDAs and portable media players. "A Guide to Wireless Handset Processors" goes under the hood to examine this new class of handset processor and the vendors that provide them. This report provides in-depth coverage of Texas Instrument's OMAP2 and new OMAP3 processors; Qualcomm's multimedia chips in the MSM6000 and MSM7000 families; Philip's Nexperia platforms, focusing on the PNX5220 3G baseband and PNX4008 applications processor; Intel's PXA application and baseband processors, including the new Hermon chip; Freescale's 2.75G and 3G chips and i.MX processors; and Broadcom's new Cellairity platform. We also cover multimedia-enabled baseband processors from Agere, and Infineon as well as application processors such as AMD's Au1200, STMicroelectronics' Nomadik, and the SH-Mobile from Renesas. Whether
you are looking for an innovative solution for your design, a
vendor to partner with, or a rising company to invest in, this
report will cut your research time and save you money. Get the
inside scoop on this major market. Order A
Guide to Wireless Handset Processors today. Mark your calendars for March 29 when The Linley Group delivers a Linley Tech seminar on Hi-End Switch/Router Design. Get the technical information you need, straight from the experts. Admission is free to qualified attendees, courtesy of our sponsors Freescale, AMCC, EZchip, Xilinx, Hifn, and The Linley Group. For more details, access our web site. To receive Linley on CE via e-mail, you must register on our web site
|
