marginmike and tero please comment
hi folks:
i am pretty sure you must have read this article (included). Could it be possible that the competition to both NOk.a and Qcom could come from elsewhere.
please comment
regards
penny
August 03, 1998, Issue: 1120
Section:
Double talk -- With no universal standard in sight,
wireless-handset- IC makers focus on dual-band/dual-mode designs.
Barry Greenberg
The wireless-telephone industry-a picture of robust health in
recent years-is trying to work its way through a couple of nagging
hang-ups.
One, the market for wireless handsets has hit a flat patch. While
several factors are contributing to slower growth, most industry
analysts agree the principal cause is strong pricing competition
among handset makers, coupled with excess capacity (see related
story, page 54).
Two, these manufacturers are embroiled in an acrimonious standards
battle, or what Dale Ford calls a "holy war." Ford, principal
analyst for the wireless semiconductor applications group at San
Jose-based Dataquest Inc., and other industry analysts believe this
conflict is not much closer to resolution now than when it broke out
several years ago.
The price and standards wars are leaving their mark on the
semiconductor manufacturers that provide chipsets for wireless
phones. Responding to the demands of their customers for an improved
productat lower cost, wireless-handset makers are in turn demanding
from chip manufacturers less-expensive chipsets that help provide
better voice quality and geographic coverage; have greater
integration and functionality; and cut down on power consumption,
weight, and footprint.
At the same time, in the absence of a universal standard for
wireless phones, semiconductor companies are attempting to diversify
their chip portfolios to handle the broad and sometimes bewildering
array of RF bandwidths and modulations-giving rise to the rapidly
increasing production of dual-band/dual-mode chipsets.
The advent of 3G
At the center of the battle to achieve a universal
wireless-telephony standard is the industry's forthcoming
third-generation (3G) technology.
The first generation of mobile phones in North America consists of
the 800-MHz analog Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) system and
digital AMPS (IS-54). Europe moved quickly through its first
generation to a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) based
on TDMA (time division multiple access) technology (also known as
D-AMPS). The second North American generation is represented by
CDMA (code division multiple access, also known as IS-95), TDMA
(IS-136), and what is basically European GSM at a higher carrier
frequency.
Wireless-phone makers and network operators on both sides of the
Atlantic agree that for the industry to continue its rapid growth,
3G technology must handle more subscribers per base station, provide
enough frequency spectrum for data services capable of hitting
speeds of several hundred Kbits/s, and permit mobile-phone users to
roam all over the world and make connections with anyone, anywhere.
"The ideal 3G scenario for both users and manufacturers would be a
single global standard," said Andrew Burt, marketing manager of
digital cellular products at Mitel Semiconductor, Scotts Valley,
Calif. "This would enable handset makers to produce and sell a more
or less common product design in multiple countries with minimal
modifications. With an infrastructure that provided true
interoperability, service providers would offer essentially
identical services and true roaming agreements for users," said
Burt, adding that a global standard would reduce the price of mobile
phones to a point where they could truly become mass-consumer
items.
ITU has its hands full
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is overseeing
efforts to define a worldwide 3G wireless standard, known as
International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000). But this
United Nations body is hardly finding amity among countries on this
matter. To the contrary, major differences in goals among the
standards bodies in Europe, Japan, and North America call into
question whether the ITU can succeed in pulling everyone together to
create a unified air interface.
There are two major obstacles. First, many of the world's
wireless-systems service providers have invested heavily in
second-generation systems, and are insisting that 3G technology
evolve in a manner that protects those investments. Second, certain
mobile-handset companies possess lucrative intellectual-property
rights around their respective modulations, and are loath to
surrender them.
In Europe, two of the industry's heavyweights, LM Ericsson and
Nokia Corp., support a technology called Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA).
"Wideband" in this instance refers to a 15-MHz spread-spectrum
bandwidth, compared with the 1.5-MHz of IS-95A CDMA. Another major
supporter of W-CDMA is Japan's NTT DoCoMo, the world's largest
telecom company. Other European companies, however-including
Alcatel, Italtel, and Siemens-are not supporting W-CDMA but are
pushing for a CDMA-TDMA hybrid of their own design.
In February, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI) proposed a compromise dual standard, with the hybrid
CDMA-TDMA to be used for time-division-duplex services and W-CDMA
for frequency-division-duplex services. But theETSI solution, which
has been submitted to the ITU and is being considered along with
other proposals, does not sit well with many companies across the
Atlantic.
In the United States, the leading standards contender is Wideband
cdmaONE, which includes the current brand-name version of PCS CDMA
licensed by Qualcomm Inc., San Diego. In addition to Qualcomm,
Wideband cdmaONE supporters include Lucent, Motorola, and Nortel.
These companies say that Wideband cdmaONE offers higher capacity and
more advanced multimedia services than current CDMA systems, and
offers more cost-effective operation than does W-CDMA for PCS
carriers in the smaller, narrower D, E, and F spectrum blocks.
While all of this is going on, supporters of TDMA in the United
States and elsewhere are proposing a standard based on an upgrade of
IS-136.
On the auction block
There is an additional problem. U.S. officials have said they
will support whatever IMT-2000 standard is eventually agreed upon.
However, the Federal Communications Commission has already auctioned
the lower half of the 3G spectrum to PCS carriers, and the top half
of the spectrum is unavailable in the United States.
This, combined with the concerns of wireless-service providers
regarding their second-generation investments and wireless-phone
companies regarding protection of their IP rights, suggests that the
advent of a universal 3G standard is not imminent.
And that, as far as some people in the industry are concerned, is
not a bad thing. At the heart of 3G is the vision of moving beyond
voice-only terminals to information communicators that can pass
along data and images, with killer applications in mind such as
accessing Web sites via cell phones. But some question whether the
wireless market is mature enough for such developments-or really
needs them.
"Forget the 10-year projections and focus on today's reality,"
said Ray Jodoin, a senior analyst at In-Stat Inc., Phoenix. "Someone
will have to pay for all the new 3G hardware, and I doubt that
people will be willing to pay double or triple today's airtime
charges for full-color video on a handset display.
"If Ericsson and Nokia want to develop the next generation, let's
make sure that it's really needed," Jodoin said. "It's taken the
cellular industryover 10 years to realize that with the newer
digital technologies, tons of excess capacity now exists. Let's try
to utilize, and pay for, what we have before going after another
Holy Grail."
Semiconductor makers are not sitting around waiting for a
universal wireless-telephony standard that may be dead on arrival.
Instead, they are producing highly integrated, inexpensive chipsets
that support second-generation dual-band/dual-mode phones, while
incorporating features that create the basis for an eventual move to
3G designs.
Significant advances
There has been a noticeable renewal in digital GSM and CDMA
architectures, at both the cellular 900-MHz and PCS (1,800- and
1,900-MHz) levels. Sparking this renewal is IC makers' realization
that a viable second-tier mobile-phone business is emerging to
challenge such leaders as Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Qualcomm.
At the beginning of the year, CommQuest Technologies Inc., which
IBM Microelectronics recently acquired, introduced a tri-band,
two-piece chipset that supports roaming between the world's three
GSM frequency bands of 900, 1,800, and 1,900 MHz. This chipset is
designed to enable the use of the same wireless phone while
traveling between the different GSM bands of Asia, Europe, and the
United States.
CommQuest, Encinitas, Calif., says its solution, which is
currently sampling, provides everything needed to build a wireless
handset, including RF functionality, a single-chip baseband
processor, integrated software, and test support. This, according
to CommQuest, will enable second-tier OEMs to go up against the
digital cellular "big boys," which are planning to introduce
tri-band phones in the near future.
In a similar vein, LSI Logic Corp. in February unveiled a
programmable chip that combines digital and mixed-signal baseband
processor functionsfor GSM phones. The chip will enable second-tier
phone manufacturers that already have an RF design to produce GSM
handsets at a low price, according to LSI.
The baseband processor, called GBP, operates within the 900-,
1,800-, and 1,900-MHz GSM frequency bands and is housed in a 208-pin
BGA.
Built on a 0.25-micron CMOS process, the GBP is based on the
OakDSP core, licensed from DSP Communications Inc., and LSI's tiny
RISC core. The resulting chip has a smaller footprint, lower power
dissipation, and all of the GSM functionality of a two-chip baseband
processor, according to Kumar Sivakumar, product marketing manager
for mixed-signal chips at LSI's wireless business unit in Milpitas,
Calif.
In March, Rockwell Semiconductor Systems Inc., Newport Beach,
Calif., introduced a seven-chip GSM set that the company says
includes everythingfrom an ARM baseband processor to a gallium
arsenide power amplifier next to the antenna.
While other companies like Comm-Quest and LSI are making devices
with fewer chips, Rockwell believes its seven-chip approach is more
comprehensive and flexible.
"None of our competitors supply a power amp controller as part of
the radio subsystem or address power management in the baseband,"
said Ann Wilke, director of marketing at Rockwell's Wireless
Communications Division.
The company's 1-MHz DSP and an ARM7 Thumb 32-bit RISC processor
power the baseband. The chipset, including firmware and software, is
$48 in 10,000s.
Other manufacturers, including Lucent Technologies Inc.-which
acquired GSM software specialist Optimay GmbH in April for $65
million-and VLSI Technology Inc., with its OneC customizable,
single-chip GSM platform introduced late last year, are among other
major GSM players.
CDMA developments
Developments on the CDMA side have been somewhat slower, partially
because of Qualcomm's tight control of the IC licensee market. The
pace, however, is picking up, as IC makers learn that CDMA is
slicing into the large market-share lead long enjoyed by GSM.
That technology accounts for 32% of the global analog and digital
cellular market, and CDMA only 3%; but that ratio will be reduced
considerably by 2002, according to the Yankee Group, Boston.
Earlier this year, Qualcomm's ASIC products unit launched its
first baseband processor with an integrated ARM core. The Mobile
Station Modem 3000, or MSM 3000, has the processing power
necessaryto handle 3G fast-packet processing, plus a new
rake-receiver demodulator architecture.
Not to be outdone, Lucent Microelectronics, Berkeley Heights,
N.J., is planning to develop special demodulator blocks for CDMA,
with an eye toward eventually using DSP1600 architecture to take on
Qualcomm's MSM. Lucent is also developing advanced codecs using
Enhanced Variable-Rate Codec (EVRC) algorithms to replace Qualcomm's
voice-codec blocks in some designs.
VLSI, a presence in GSM, has also jumped into CDMA with its
announcement in June of a single-chip, dual-core baseband solution,
called CDMA+. The solution includes a low-cost, low-power
Processor100 chip, software, and debug tools, thus providing "all
the baseband elements needed to develop a wireless phone in one
package," said Rich Beyer, president and chief operating officer of
the San Jose-based company.
The single-chip solution, samples of which are now available,
integrates an ARM7 processor, OakDSP core, peripherals, audio codec,
CDMA/AMPS modem, and QCELP and EVRC vocoders.
In March, Mitel Semiconductor introduced a five-piece "Planet"
CDMA chipset that enables mobile phones in North America to roam
between 1,900-MHz PCS and 900-MHz digital AMPS.
Providing antenna-to-baseband functions, the chipset is built in
low-power bipolar and CMOS to reduce power consumption at high
frequencies. Running on 2.7- to 3.6-V power supplies, it consumes
30% less power than competing products, according to the company.
The set is selling at about $67 in high volume.
Similar to the single-chip baseband architecture it announced at
the beginning of the year for GSM, LSI Logic in April announced a
single-chip baseband device for CDMA.
Built on the company's G11 0.25-micron process technology, the
chip includes an ARM7 processor and an Oak DSPCore. The device will
sample in thefourth quarter, and volume production is set for the
first quarter of next year.
Harris Semiconductor, making its first foray into the
mobile-handset market, announced in February an 800-MHz dual-mode
(CDMA/AMPS) chipset. The four-piece set is offered in a low-profile
package to conserve board space and sells for $14 in volume, the
Melbourne, Fla., company said.
RF developments
The RF portion of the digital wireless market is getting its share
of attention.
Texas Instruments Inc., far and away the market leader in digital
baseband processors, is also making its presence felt in the RF
arena. In June, TI introduced its highly integrated TRF3040
modulator/synthesizer. Targeted at dual-band/dual-mode applications
(900-MHz cellular and 1,900-MHz PCS), the device offers OEMs design
flexibility to increase system power efficiency for longer talk and
standby times, the company said.
TI, Dallas, has used its RF Bi-CMOS linear process to combine
900-MHz transmit modulator and 2.2-GHz synthesizer functions in a
single chip, thereby reducing component counts and also eliminating
the need for a 900-MHz upconverter. Typical operation at 3.7 V and
150 mA keeps TRF3040 power requirements low, TI said.
The device, which comes in a 48-pin TQFP, is sampling, and volume
production is scheduled for later this quarter. The price is $6.07
in 10,000s.
In March, Siemens Microelectronics Inc., Cupertino, Calif.,
launched a GaAs MESFET, trimode, dual-band power amp
monolithic-microwave IC, and two single-band versions.
The power amps, called the CGY0819, CGY81, and CGY191, are
targeting both CDMA and TDMA mobile handsets. Operating at 3 V, the
devices offer excellent Power Added Efficiency (PAE) performance,
according to Andreas Nitschke, Siemens' product line manager for
GaAs components.
"Our single-band cellular and single-band PCS devices exceed
CDMA/TDMA PAE of >35%, and >55% for AMPS, delivering significantly
longer talk times for next-generation 3-V wireless handsets,"
Nitschke said.
The three power amps, to be shipped in a surface-mount MW16, are
available in sample quantities, with volume production planned for
later this quarter.
Also earlier this year, Anadigics Inc. added two devices to its
extensive dual-band/dual-mode power amp family: the AWT918, which is
suited for GSM900/DCS1800, AMPS/GSM1900, or GSM900/GSM1900; and the
AWT920, for AMPS and PCS CDMA. The AWT918 offers wireless-phone
subscribers seamless switching in North America, Europe, and Asia,
said Joe DeMoura, product development manager at Anadigics, Warren,
N.J.
Both power amps are packaged in a 28-pin surface-mount SSOP, he
said. The devices are $7 in 100,000s.
In June, Philips Semiconductors, Sunnyvale, Calif., announced an
RF chipset aimed at designers of dual-band TDMA cellular and PCS/DCS
mobile phones. The three-piece chipset, the SA1920, SA647, and
SA9025, reduces the number of components needed to build a dual-band
RF system by more than half, in part by integrating the low-noise
amplifiers with the down-conversion mixers, the company said.
The SA1920 is $3.32, the SA647 $2.38, and the SA9025 $7.73, in
quantities of 10,000.
---
Top Of The Heap
1997 sales of analog, digital baseband processors ($ millions)
Texas Instruments: 636
Lucent Technologies: 366
Motorola: 359
Qualcomm: 265
Philips Semiconductors: 246
VLSI: 243
Source: Dataquest Inc.
Copyright r 1998 CMP Media Inc. |
