re: MOT GPRS/EDGE Chip Stuff
>> Moto's 2.5G Entry Challenges TI, Intel in Wireless
Patrick Mannion
EE Times
09/17/01
Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector announced Monday (Sept. 17) a comprehensive 2.5-generation Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service (GSM/GPRS) platform for the open market. The move sets the stage for what looks to be an epic battle among Motorola, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) and Intel Corp. for the heart and soul of the wireless handset designer.
Now equipped with a digital signal processor/ARM-based baseband processor and a radio-frequency front end to support its Dragonball line of ARM-based applications processors, Motorola has set itself up as a direct competitor to platform-industry leader TI, with its Open Multimedia Applications Processor (Omap) architecture.
Omap also uses the ARM processor, but in combination with Texas Instruments' own C55x DSPs and advanced TCS-2100 RF front end.
Both TI and Motorola will need all their RF and DSP expertise to fend off Intel, with its much publicized Personal Internet Client Architecture (PCA). For that, Intel is currently pushing its StrongARM processor as it awaits advanced Xscale silicon for applications processing and Micro Signal Architecture silicon for the DSP communications end.
While Intel has significant analog expertise, its RF front-end history pales in comparison with that of TI and Motorola. Nonetheless, Intel sees its StrataFlash technology as a key differentiator as it prepares to fight for its share of a wireless semiconductor market that Gartner Dataquest expects to reach $35 billion in 2004. The research firm sees more than 480 million GSM/GPRS handsets in production by 2005.
Playing Catch-Up
Another differentiator Intel has been promoting is its separation of the communications portion of the handset from the applications processing in an effort to speed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) type approval and applications development. But that does nothing more than "muddy the waters," a TI spokesperson said, claiming that TI also offers separation of the two for the same reason - as does Motorola.
While all have their respective merits, Motorola is a long way behind both TI and Intel in terms of partners, development groups and, most important, customers. However, Ed Valdez, of the wireless and mobile systems division at Motorola, said the company will announce two customers before the year is out.
The move by Motorola follows through on its surprise announcement in July of a change in strategy that would see it leverage its internal technology for the merchant marketplace for both 2.5G and third-generation (3G) platforms. The new strategy represents a turning point for Motorola, which until now has supplied only internal customers - and has supplied them only with point solutions, vs. total system solutions.
The system solution Intel announced today targets GSM and GPRS applications but also enables faster Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (Edge) receive mode. It supports two dual-band configurations for regional customization - either 900/1,800 MHz or 850/1,900 MHz - and includes four main ICs.
At the heart of what the company is calling the 2.5G Innovative Convergence Platform is a dual-core baseband processor IC with an integrated DSP-56600 and ARM7 TDMI that use the latest 0.13-micron, copper-based technology. Embedded memory minimizes the need for external flash, removes the SRAM used in current platforms and reduces system power consumption by minimizing external accesses, the company said.
The front end uses Motorola's mainstream RF BiCMOS technology, but combined with a single silicon-germanium:carbon process step.
For power management and audio, the platform uses the company's SmartMOS 5 technology, which is a medium-voltage mixed-signal BiCMOS process that allows the integration of analog circuitry, intelligent digital control and power devices. The power amplifier module uses indium gallium phosphide heterojunction bipolar transistor technology to integrate both PAs - along with the antenna switch harmonic filters, couplers and power-detection circuitry.
Though Motorola has yet to promote its solution as a complete applications-to-communications architecture provider, the parallels between its Dragonball-GPRS combination, Omap and PCA are undeniable, with Motorola only lacking an all-encompassing nomenclature.
"We're definitely promoting the use of Dragonball with our platform," said Valdez, "and there are many optimizations that can be made between the two."
With a seven-year history of supplying chip set solutions for wireless, TI is currently the undisputed leader for both DSP and analog, with 58 percent of the DSP market alone, according to the latest figures from Forward Concepts.
TI recently announced that the newly formed Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP) division has chosen TI's chip set as its foundation.
That doesn't bother Valdez, however. "They're [EMP] only validating our strategy of opting for a full platform solution because of the dynamics of the industry, such as consolidation and partnerships." Valdez claims the upper hand with "one-stop shopping with the chip set, the wireless systems expertise, and [because] we're the only semiconductor supplier that also happens to build phones for a living."
Valdez is relying on Motorola's 70 years of wireless, 50 years of semiconductor and 20 years of cellular experience to support an architecture "that dramatically reduces the parts count for a GSM/GPRS platform to 125 components from the industry-standard 225," he said.
Motorola claims other advantages for its platform, including full FCC type approval support. "No other supplier is capable of providing support all the way to certification for the customers' own phones," said Valdez. "We're also leveraging our first-to-market GPRS software stack, which is in its third life cycle, so it's ruggedized and mature and certified," he said.
However, Valdez doesn't see product sampling until the first quarter of next year, with production to customers in the second half of next year.
Clash of the Titans
Motorola is coming relatively late to a market segment in which both TI and Intel have been making a large number of technology, partnership, customer and development announcements - especially in the last two months.
Earlier this year, TI announced its TRF6150 direct-conversion RF front end. It later built on that by integrating it with its TBB2100 dual-core digital baseband (C54x/ARM), TWL3014 analog baseband, power-management functions and a GPRS/GSM protocol stack to form the TCS2100 solution. Targeting low-end applications, the TCS2100 was then further integrated with another ARM, acting as a dedicated applications processor to form the Omap710. That supports higher-level operating systems (OSes) for 2.5G applications.
The 710 is code-compatible with the Omap1510, which supports multimedia processing functions and which can be separately developed with the TCS2100.
The latter point is crucial, as it contradicts Intel's claim that TI's Omap architecture doesn't allow separate FCC type approval of the communications section (TCS2100) and the applications section (Omap1510) for 2.5 and 3G applications.
However, according to an Intel spokesperson, TI is still coming at the handheld market from the telecom side and therefore lacks the applications-development expertise. That expertise is needed, said Intel, in order to develop enough applications to see what finally sticks and forms the badly needed "killer application." Intel draws the PC/Windows analogy to make its point.
The to and fro between Intel and TI has recently reached new levels, with both companies making a string of related announcements. TI, Intel and Motorola collectively announced support in July for Palm OS, while TI and Intel have each announced developer groups around their respective platforms in the last three weeks.
Along with Ericsson, TI has been supported publicly by Nokia, Sony, Sendo and HCT, and by other OSes such as Symbian's Epoc, Windows CE and Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). Developers include Beatnik, PacketVideo and RealNetworks on the applications side, and Authentec, Ntru, SafeNet and Whitecell on the security end.
Intel's differentiation has come from its focus on the personal digital assistant (PDA) side, with recent alignments, for instance, with Hewlett-Packard for its full Jornada line (the Jornada's low-end 500-Series devices were supported by Hitachi's SH processor). Intel also captured Compaq's iPAQ. The marriage of HP and Compaq leaves the existence of two PDA lines open to question.
"Everyone we talk to in this industry talks about data," said Intel's spokesperson. "We have a network of over 200 members and 300 tools that already has and will continue to make an impact. TI is only approaching this from the perspective of a phone."
On the applications and developer side, Intel has similar alignments to TI, and both have toured extensively in Asia to capture hardware and software support, again with extensive overlap. OS support includes both Palm and Epoc, with no word to date on a Microsoft alignment.
'Nine-month lead'
All the recent moves by Intel and TI don't bother Valdez. "We have a nine-month lead on the industry for GPRS," he said.
"We've shipped to carriers that have gotten certified all the way with no wavering of specification. Besides that, we also have our own in-house tool chain [which includes a full radio test environment.] This saves customers from having to contract out to a third-party provider," Valdez said. "Again, one-stop shopping. Also, we have J2ME leadership as we were the ones Sun [Microsystems Inc.] chose to drive the wireless spec for that - [we] were first to market."
With its overall approach, Motorola sees itself more closely aligned with Intel in terms of the complete comms/apps separation concept. "Once you change anything in an integrated radio modem design, you have to recertify it with your carriers," said Valdez, "and separating out those functions really helps time-to-market when manufacturers want to scale the applications upward."
As for adding DSP functionality up front for application/multimedia processing, Valdez said, "We're waiting [for] 3G before we see the need."
Both TI and Motorola fail to recognize Intel's claimed StrataFlash advantage.
"With the dynamics of the flash memory prices falling," said Valdez, "a lot of customers said they prefer the flexibility of being able to manage the dynamics of the industry and keep their external memory prices separate from the baseband. So we see that as an advantage for us." <<
- Eric - |
