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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: S100 who wrote (99135)	5/15/2001 1:06:32 AM
From: cfoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

From current Forbes - article on TI entitled "Mixed Signals" Here is link to full article: forbes.com <snip> TI claims to do a better job of delivering speed for wireless data transfers by using two DSP cores in a single chip, which allows for faster processing. Intel's offering, on the other hand, leverages off an internal microprocessor, which is better at handling PC-like software. It's in this area where Engibous and TI will be put to the test. With the next generation of phones, TI, Qualcomm and other cell phone chip companies will for the first time have to court multimedia software developers and compete in a game that Intel has been winning for years in the PC business. The software is crucial because it provides the features that make it possible for service providers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Cingular to get a return on their huge investments in wireless high-speed data connections. "The architecture of the chip is not as important as is the architecture of the software which is running it," says Anssi Vanjoki, an executive vice president of mobile phone giant Nokia (FORBES, May 14). "That's more important when it comes to the service providers in how they want to run their business." Intel claims this new twist in the competitive landscape gives it a significant edge. It says it takes just days for software programmers who have written for its computer chips to convert their programs for cell phones. The company says it already has 35 companies that are writing programs to run on its new Personal Client Architecture, Intel's wireless equivalent of its X86 architecture for PCs, the lingua franca upon which all IBM-compatible software is written. In an effort to sway software developers into its camp, TI is promoting its own version of a software architecture for 3G. Until now cell phone software has been written for specific chips in assembly language, meaning that a software developer has a limited audience for each program developed. But by creating the equivalent of Intel's Pentium, TI's Open Multimedia Applications Platform, or OMAP, allows software developers to write programs for multiple operating systems. The phone can then get its software updated and expanded, just like a PC. In theory, a cell phone user could simply download applications on the fly, similar to the way PC applications can be downloaded off the Internet. "They're really opening up for the first time their technical solution to more generic application development," says Donald Millers, senior vice president of engineering for Beatnik Inc., a developer of audio software. "That means you're going to see a lot more people jumping in writing applications for wireless devices. In the old days you had to be a DSP programmer and it was pretty grungy work." But the battle to establish standards in next-generation cell phones has just begun. Qualcomm recently unveiled its own version of a common applications platform: Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, or Brew. Among several other software developers, Qualcomm already has enlisted digital music service MP3 to design applications on Brew. "Brew is a layer of software that goes on top of the chips that makes it simple for third-party developers to write applications," says Qualcomm's chief operating officer, Richard Sulpizio. "So we're trying to enable people to not worry about the physical layer for the software." Of course, Brew is only being developed for Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA chipsets, Qualcomm's claim to fame and the likely technology of choice for data-intensive wireless applications (in contrast to Time Division Multiple Access and Global System for Mobile Communications, the predominant technologies until now). Though TI licenses CDMA from Qualcomm for its DSP chipsets, TI faces a potential threat if CDMA continues to catch fire, since anyone can license the same technology. More handset makers may opt to simply use Qualcomm's chips or license the technology to make their own. This could be the case for Hyundai, Toshiba and other companies that have internal semiconductor capacity. "In the third generation there is going to be a lot more competition," warns Qualcomm's Sulpizio. "TI's goal, of course, is to leverage their relationships with their current customer base. But I contend the market share that Nokia has had and the margins they've had is a thing of the past." Perhaps to hedge its bets, TI last year paid $475 million in stock for Dot Wireless, a San Diego CDMA outfit founded by former Qualcomm engineers. The company also claims that it has won several design contracts with handset makers using its CDMA 2000 technology, but it refuses to disclose any of the deals. "Certainly we do not lack competitors," Engibous deadpans. [end]