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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dooker who wrote (3441)	11/21/1999 1:58:00 PM
From: w molloy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

Differences between computing systems with large power supply available (typical PC environment) versus wireless ( battery supplied limited-power in cell phones) How does this change the approach of design and integration? Are the CPU's drastically different in design in order to minimize power consumption? 1. CPU Yes - they are different. The ARM designs used are specifically designed to maximise processing power for minimal electrical useage. The designers can also tailor the ARM power/current ratio to suit the battery. 2. Memory Memory is nearly always a premium commodity. Memory is reduced to a minimum to extend batterylife. This can be a severe challenge to software designers. Does the biggest challenge in wireless communication lie in receiving a signal through the air or is it rather in the generation of computing capabilities in a low power environment (like a laptop)) IMO - challenge #1 is the implementation of efficient DSP algorithms to process the signal after it is received. This is a firmware issue. Challenge #2 is the development of a feature rich protocol stack that efficiently uses CPU and memory resources. Which is QCOM's expertise? DSP algorithms and ASIC design. Is Intel's expertise in PC CPU's irrelevant in wireless design? IMO - Yes How big would you say QCOM's advantage over competitors is (MOT,INTC via DSP, etc?). At least least 2 over primary competition (MOT; NOK; ERICY; LSI). I discount INTC because I think they bought a pig in a poke with DSPC. And how important is software in this scenario? Dr. J. emphasized the importance QCOM's software as much as the chip side. LSI recently displaced QCOM in the new Denso 'phones. This indicates that for Denso at least - good software is more important than a leading edge CDMA performance. Dr J seems to be acknowledging that QCOM stack and API design must be improved. w.