Valhalla beckons for Parthus' IP platforms
By Peter Clarke Electronics Times
(02/27/01 11:20 a.m. GMT)
Disturbing news -article on Qualcomm:
zdii.com
Good article on parthus 'one chip IP':
electronicstimes.com
Parthus Technologies of the Irish Republic has added mobile comms to its range of licensable technology platforms.
It claims its MobiStream platform is the most power-efficient digital baseband architecture available for the GSM General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), writes Peter Clarke of EETimes.
Parthus says the move also marks a key step on the route to a platform-of-platforms approach to system design, codenamed Valhalla, that will guide the company's future combination offerings.
Parthus licenses hardware and software intellectual property (IP) as platforms which address application areas. Valhalla aims to promote the reusability of IP blocks among multiple licensees and allow fast iteration of system-on-chip designs.
Parthus' established offerings are InfoStream, based around the ARM920 risc processor and covering mobile computing; Media-Stream, aimed at streaming applications such as MP3; BlueStream for Bluetooth connectivity; and NavStream for satellite positioning.
The MobiStream platform addresses the GSM mobile comms standard as well as the GPRS protocol. GPRS provides packet-switching and improves data rates to and from GSM handsets.
Kevin Fielding, chief operating officer, said: "Right now, customers are often taking one of our solutions. The real opportunity is whenyou start bringing multiple platforms together. Valhalla is the overall rules of the road on how to do this. It's intended to make [the process] more plug-and-play for the next applications."
Fielding says details of the Valhalla approach are still being worked on, but it will include gen-eric rules about media and data handling, a guiding preference for CMOS over more exotic process technologies to promote re-use, and a system-level structure for software architecture: "The key challenge in Valhalla is the software architecture."
Fielding adds that, being a platform which is itself composed of platforms of reusable IP blocks, "Valhalla is doubly abstract, but it's vital to make sure these things work together".
Parthus has a roadmap for convergence that includes a plan to gradually combine its platforms. By the time 0.13µm process technology is generally available, it should be possible to include the digital parts of all Parthus' offerings on a single baseband chip.
One combination is InfoStream with MobiStream and MediaStream to produce a multimedia-capable smartphone baseband platform. Similarly the combination of Info-Stream with NavStream and BlueStream is being used on a location-aware handheld computer design called BlueHound, due in the second quarter of 2002.
Illustrating the multi-platform approach, Parthus says that 3Com will be its lead customer for MobiStream as part of a licensing deal announced last month.
MobiStream, like other Parthus platforms, is designed to work with a risc processor core from ARM Holdings. MobiStream also includes a software interface called the Generic Target Interface that allows the use of G.23 protocol stacks from Germany's Condat Datensysteme to help provide the GPRS functionality.
Peter Clarke is European correspondent for US sister newspaper EETimes.
February 28, 2001 8:14pm
Qualcomm BREWing new wireless tools
By Ben Charny ZDNet News
3D animation and maps that can zoom in and out at a viewer's discretion are just some of the software applications fermenting within the developer community working on Qualcomm's latest effort, executives said Wednesday.
Other software tools being developed for BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless), Qualcomm's proposed operating system for the next generation of cell phones, include electronic book readers and streaming video viewers for cell phones, stockholders were told during Qualcomm's annual meeting.
Qualcomm wasn't just showing off for investors. The message was meant for the software development crowd, the subject of a tug-of-war between the likes of Microsoft, Intel and Sun Microsystems--all of which are backing differing proposed operating systems for the next generation of cell phones.
Paul E. Jacobs, the Qualcomm executive shepherding the software effort to developers, also gave a public demonstration of an e-mail reader that works without having to log on to any kind of network.
The better the applications that are already created, the more developers will want to work with the software to either enhance them or work on others, analysts say.
Qualcomm may have entered the game a little late, according to analysts. Some say Sun has an advantage at this point, based on the progress it has made with a morphed version of Java.
"I think it's safe to say that with 2.5 million existing Java developers, (the Sun/Java effort) is facing a bright future," said Bryan Morgan, managing editor of the Wireless Developer Network.
But that didn't stop Qualcomm's Jacobs from letting slip a few of the juicier tidbits from the development oven. He said he's "already seen" applications like 3D animation that work on BREW.
3D graphics for cell phones isn't new. Companies like Picofun, a European-based cell phone game maker, has a golf game that uses shading to produce a 3D effect.
Other applications include enhanced instant messaging capabilities and mobile chat rooms, all done without having to rely on a browser, Jacobs said. Most of the existing applications along these lines involve a browser, which slows down the process.
Jacobs also said BREW developers have either created, or are on the verge of creating, a way to turn a cell phone into an electronic book reader that has the capability to either send text to the phone's screen or even "have the phone read it to you." |
