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To: Eric L who wrote (11641)	5/17/2001 11:40:10 AM
From: Mika Kukkanen	Respond to of 34857

Intel fires broadside at Qualcomm? (@end) totaltele.com Intel throws life-line to beleaguered 3G industry By Tony Dennis, for Total Telecom, in Amsterdam 17 May 2001 Chip maker Intel aims to rescue the struggling mobile telecoms industry with a three-in-one chip announced Thursday. According to Ron Smith, Intel's senior vice president for wireless communications & computing, test chips will be available in 2002, but there is as yet no firm shipping date. Christened 'wireless-Internet-on-a-chip' technology, Intel claims it has squeezed a microprocessor and computer memory plus wireless functionality onto a single piece of silicon. The result is a core mobile phone chip that promises battery life of up to one month and almost five times the computing (processing) power of current handset chips. Poor battery life and a lack of sufficient 'number crunching' capability are exactly the problems currently afflicting 3G handsets. Intel has compounded its telecoms industry strategy by announcing an alliance with U.K. telco BT. It will be working with BTexact Technologies (better known as Martlesham Labs) to develop and research wireless Internet applications and services. In return BT has pledged support for Intel's Personal Internet Client Architecture (PCA) as a blueprint for future wireless devices. Additionally Intel will be pushing its Intel Pentium III processor as a viable alternative to more expensive Risc chips as the powerhouse for 'carrier-grade' servers. It argues that machines using its lower cost processors can easily support applications that will allow operators to provide services to 2.5G and 3G customers at competitive costs. These announcements have been timed to coincide with Intel's Developer Forum event being held in Amsterdam (17-18 May). This is the first European version of the event and reflects Europe's major importance in the wireless Internet arena. How Intel's new chips will work Intel is expecting its new fabrication process to produce one chip that will handle three functions currently catered for by three separate chips. They are: Flash memory, for storing telephone numbers and SMS messages; analogue chips (Digital Signal Processors) for handling the radio frequency (RF) side of phone calls; and the core processor for intelligent call handling and personal information management (PIM) functions, such as diary, calendar and reminders. Combining these functions removes the need for 'buffering' between chips, which therefore leads to the reduced power consumption and higher battery life that Intel is predicting. One chip instead of three also means a smaller 'footprint' and consequently more room inside the handset for other components, such as camera lenses, for example. Reduced power levels will also aid the introduction of color screens, which draw more power than today's grey scale LCD screens in ordinary mobile handsets. Intel has also announced that another 24 companies (including BT) have signed up to its PCA initiative. The aim with PCA is to enable mobile applications to be developed for a common platform that is independent of specifics, such as processor type. This is a clearly a strike at Qualcomm's BREW environment, which, although independent of air interface, is designed to allow applications to be developed that will run only on Qualcomm's own chips.