Chip makers seek 3G solutions -- But integration
and cost questions stand as major hurdles
CMP Media Inc. - Friday, February 25, 2000
Feb. 25, 2000 (Electronic Buyers News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Silicon Valley- Wireless-chip manufacturers
are working with third-generation technology to bring a version of Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio from the
comics page to the mainstream.
However, both chip suppliers and OEMs face major integration and cost hurdles before 3G technology can
deliver. The technology is expected to unify the three major cellular standards-CDMA, GSM, and TDMA-and
promises to boost wireless data rates to 2 Mbits/s.
As chip manufacturers gather this week in New Orleans for the CTIA Wireless 2000 show, where they will
showcase some of their newest wares, there's still considerable talk about the bombshell Samsung Electronics
Co. Ltd. dropped earlier this year with its announcement of the world's first wrist-watch cell phone.
Named the Watch Phone, the 59-gram product reportedly incorporates a CDMA-based chipset from Qualcomm
Inc. and an RF device from Conexant Systems Inc.
The tiny wireless handset is already available in Korea, and is expected to hit the U.S. market later this year,
according to Pete Skarzynski, vice president of sales and marketing at the Wireless Terminal Division of
Samsung Telecommunications of America Inc. in Richardson, Texas.
But as Skarzynski notes, "It's with products like the Watch Phone that you need to look at other ways of doing
design, and that's when the question of integration becomes a major issue."
Indeed, OEMs and chip suppliers must take some radical steps to develop these next-generation wireless
handsets, while fighting cost problems as well.
A handset contains nearly 400 components, including ICs and passives. The major components are a chipset,
power amplifier, and IF and RF devices.
For years, OEMs and wireless-chip manufacturers have been talking about consolidating these elements into
one, perhaps two, chips: a power amp and a combination chipset/IF/ RF device.
In theory, the combination chipset/IF/RF device could be produced in the form of a software-defined radio, that
is, a high-speed, DSP-oriented product that could support 3G technology.
The U.S. military has used software-defined radios, but the technology remains problematic for price-sensitive
handsets, according to Andy Fuertes, an analyst at Allied Business Intelligence Inc. (ABI), Oyster Bay, N.Y.
The total semiconductor content in current voice-oriented handsets ranges from $30 to $50 per unit, Fuertes
said. But to process high-speed data, "next-generation wireless phones will require a new class of DSPs, RF
devices, and other components," he said. "So, the total IC content in next-generation cell phones will be twice
as expensive as today's products."
And even the attempt to integrate to the point of the long-awaited "phone-on-a chip" is weighted down with cost
considerations.
"Technically, we're capable of developing [a cell phone] on a single chip, but it's very cost-inefficient,'' said
Robert Carl, manager of Americas marketing at Texas Instrument Inc.'s Wireless Communications Business
Unit in Dallas.
"When we move to 3G, separate components will be needed to handle many of the processing functions,"
because completely integrating everything decreases flexibility and raises costly replacement issues, he said.
It's necessary to have separate functional blocks that are easier to replace on a board, and therefore are less
costly, Carl said.
Reflecting this need, TI last week launched two low-power, high-performance DSP families as key components
in the company's 3G-based platform for handset OEMs (see page 34).
Dubbed the Open Multimedia Applications Platform, TI's package consists of a DSP, a direct-memory-access
interface IC, and a 32-bit RISC chip from ARM Ltd.
Companies like Intel Corp. and Qualcomm have announced competitive chipsets. These sets, also known as
digital baseband controllers, handle the critical voice-processing function in a handset.
When it comes to the GSM cellular standard, in some cases "the chipset has been integrated into a
single-chip device," ABI's Fuertes said. "But the real problem is RF. What hurts OEMs is the lack of integration
for RF. It's a real black art."
This is particularly true for CDMA-based products, where only the first steps have been taken toward RF
integration, according to Gary Lizama, field sales manager at Infineon Technologies Inc., San Jose.
A number of companies at this week's CTIA will be demonstrating CDMA-based RF devices with reduced chip
counts.
Conexant, Newport Beach, Calif., will show what company executives say is the world's first RF chipset to
support one of the two major CDMA standards, cdma2000.
Conexant claims the chipset is the smallest CDMA-based RF device on the market. The product is a four-chip
solution, compared with the more typical five to 10 chips.
RF Micro Devices Inc. will roll out at the CTIA a five-chip RF device based on the other major CDMA standard,
Wideband-CDMA.
As for getting a CDMA-based RF device on one chip, at some point this can be achieved by employing newer
technologies such as silicon germanium, according to Brian Daly, product marking manager at Conexant.
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