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Monday, 21 Apr 2008
TI Steady After Disappointment? Here's Why
Posted By:Jim Goldman
Texas Instruments
L.m. Otero / AP
You'd think with the 3-plus percent rally in Texas Instruments' shares headed into tonight's earnings, this company would be plunging now, after missing numbers across the board.
But that's the joy of the markets right now: good news is great; great news is stratospheric; and bad news is, well, just expected -- so it's not all that "newsy."
Texas Instruments Inc reported 49 cents per share on $3.27 billion, but that EPS figure also included a 6-cent, one-time discrete tax benefit, so the apples-to-apples comparison with the Thomson consensus is 43 cents, or right in line with expectations. Revenue was a little lighter than the $3.28 billion expected by analysts.
TI also reports $3.22 billion in orders, which is noticeably down from the $3.48 billion the company reported in its fourth quarter.
"That's a problem," John Lau at Jefferies tells me. That's another strong indication of a slowdown, and dovetails with TI's far weaker-than-expected guidance.
Texas Instruments now anticipates an EPS range of 42 cents to 48 cents, far below the 51 cents Wall Street expected. The revenue range the company is providing is also well below consensus: $3.24 billion to $3.5 billion versus the $3.51 billion Street analysts were projecting.
Lau at Jefferies thought Texas Instruments would beat the Street for its first quarter. But as one of the Top 3 chip companies in the world, the top analog company in the world, it's gonna take a lot to hurt them, he says. Strong cash flow, no debt, and good trends longer term, he says, makes TI one of the top quality chip companies in the world.
It all comes to down to analog. And cash flow generation. And no debt. And that defendable market share position.
Analog players that have all seen big-time gains these last few months.
Texas Instruments hasn't yet played in those kinds of rallies, but now that we have an idea of where its business is going, some analysts are telling me it's poised to pick up momentum, since big funds will see the trends shaping up at these smaller players, and want to snap up TI at its bottom. And this might be viewed as the bottom.
And that might be the best reason yet why the company is weathering less than stellar guidance, as investors start looking at the company longer-term, seeing real growth potential just over the horizon.
Questions? Comments? TechCheck@cnbc.com
TI CQ1 Earnings ...
• TI Reports Financial Results for 1Q08
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/investor/quarterly/1q08.shtml
--> Revenue was $3.27 billion, up $81 million, or 3 percent, from a year ago.
--> EPS was $0.49, including discrete tax items of $0.06
--> TI Revenue was up 3 percent from the year-ago quarter, led by 20% growth in high-performance analog semiconductors.
--> TI’s operating profit grew 19 percent YoY
--> Compared with the fourth quarter, TI revenue declined [less than seasonally normal] 8 percent primarily due to weaker sales into cell phones, especially high-end cell phones.
--> In Q1 TI demonstrated a prototype cell phone based on the Android open source platform and built using TI’s OMAP applications processor and connectivity solutions.
• Q1 Financials in MS Excel Format
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/investor/quarterly/ti1q08.xls
Microchip stocks down on Texas Instruments 2Q outlook
Did the market like TI's earnings? In a word, No. "Disappointing guidance from Texas Instruments (TXN) was weighing on technology stocks."
At noon following earnings TXN was down 6.37% (-$1.95) at $28.64 and draging down semis and techs. TXN is well off its 52 Week High of $39.63 and close to its 52 Week Low of $27.51. Its market cap is $37.88 Billion on 1.32 Billion shares outstanding.
At 11:00 am ...
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. down 4 cents to $6.10.
• Intel Corp. down 26 cents to $22.19.
• Qualcomm Inc. down 86 cents, or 2 percent, to $41.77.
>> Texas Instruments Shares Fall More Than 5% On Weak Outlook
Benjamin Pimentel
MarketWatch
April 22, 2008 11:03 a.m. EDT
http://tinyurl.com/5loub5
Shares of Texas Instruments Inc. fell more than 5% Tuesday morning after the chip maker issued a second-quarter outlook that fell below Wall Street expectations. CEO Rich Templeton cited the cloudy economic horizon for the company's projection, saying in a statement, "Given uncertainty in the near-term economy, we have become more conservative with our outlook for the second quarter." But he also said that, "More strategically, we believe our long-term opportunity is excellent."
For now, investors are not buying the long-term optimism. In the first quarter, TI reported net profit of $662 million, or 49 cents a share, compared with $516 million, or 35 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. The company said the recent period included a discrete tax benefit of 6 cents a share.
Revenue was $3.27 billion, up from $3.19 billion. Analysts had expected the chip maker to report earnings of 43 cents a share on revenue of $3.29 billion, according to a survey by FactSet Research.
The company said it got a boost from strong sales of high-performance analog semiconductors, which are used to translate sound and temperature into digital signals that can be understood by computers. However, the company noted that its cell-phone sales were weaker, particularly in the high-end cell phone market.
The chip giant said it expects second-quarter revenue of $3.24 billion to $3.5 billion, which translates to a mid-point of $3.37 billion. Analysts had expected the company to report revenue of $3.46 billion, according to FactSet Research.
TI also said it expects earnings per share of 42 cents to 48 cents a share, compared with analysts' projection of 48 cents a share, according to FactSet.
TI's results reinforce the views of many analysts that while the company remains a strong player in chip market, particularly in the cell-phone market, it faces some rough sailing ahead due to changes in the industry and broader economic worries.
"We maintain our buy rating, but we are incrementally more cautious on Texas Instruments following a big inventory build and light June quarter guidance," analyst Daniel Berenbaum of Caris & Company said in a research note.
He added: "We have been recommending for some time that investors who do not need exposure to the semiconductor group seek other sectors to put new money to work."
Sending up a flare?
Analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates said TI was sending a warning signal on the state of the market. "I think they see a weakening in their market and they want to signal it," he said. "They're talking their number down."
TI's dominant position in the cell-phone chip market has faced new challenges after its biggest customer, Nokia Corp. (NOK), decided to work with other suppliers such as Broadcom Corp. (BRCM). STMicroelectronics NV (STM) and Infineon (IFX). Another major customer, Ericsson LM (ERIC), also has shifted to a multi-supplier strategy. ###
- Eric -
Great, feel free to post live updates or such. Thanks.
Today's Earnings CC
<< Thanks for the update. Will you be in on the call? >>
Not ON it, but I'll be listening to the webcast even though I have a sharply reduced position (all pure profit).
Best,
- Eric -
Thanks for the update. Will you be in on the call?
TI Reports Today ...
... after the closing Bell. The Earnings CC is at 3:30 CDT and will be available here:
http://tinyurl.com/43x78a
>> Has the Downturn Hurt Texas Instruments?
Analysts forecast profit gain, but worry about weakening economy's impact
Benjamin Pimentel
MarketWatch (San Francisco)
April 21, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/3wqeqr
Texas Instruments Inc. is expected to report a profit gain when it reports earnings Monday.
But Wall Street is bracing for signs that the chip giant is starting to feel the pain of a slowing economy.
Analysts expect TI (TXN) to report earnings of 43 cents a share on revenue of $3.29 billion, according to a survey by FactSet Research. For the year-earlier period, the company reported earnings of 36 cents a share on revenue of $3.19 billion.
Last month, the Dallas-based company said it expects revenue between $3.21 billion and $3.35 billion, compared with its previous range of $3.27 billion to $3.55 billion. The company also dropped its midpoint target, to $3.28 billion from $3.41 billion.
In addition, the company trimmed its forecast for earnings per share to a range of 41 cents to 45 cents, compared with its previous prediction of 43 cents to 49 cents. The midpoint for its earnings per share target was cut to 43 cents from 46 cents.
Analyst Daniel Berenbaum of Caris & Co. described TI as "a quality stock" but one that is "not immune to macro concerns."
"We expect Texas Instruments to weather the ongoing economic storm better than most, but we continue to recommend that investors avoid putting new money to work here and in the semiconductor space in general," he said in a research note. "We see a weaker-than-expected mid-quarter update as evidence of end-market softness, and not Texas Instruments-specific issues."
TI's dominant position in the cell-phone chip market has faced new challenges after its biggest customer, Nokia Corp. (NOK) decided to work with other suppliers such as Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) and STMicroelectronics NV (STM) [also Infineon]. Another major customer, Ericsson LM (ERIC), also has shifted to a multisupplier strategy.
TI's stock took a hit Thursday after Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, reported a lower-than-expected increase in first-quarter profit. In late March, analyst Doug Freedman of American Technology Research downgraded TI to neutral saying the company "will likely lose wireless share at Nokia as competitors' designs ramp due to a shift from sole supplier relationships to multiple vendors." However, Berenbaum said that despite the negative news from Nokia, the cell phone giant will likely still outperform its rivals "which could help buoy TI near-term." Analyst John Dryden of Charter Equity Research also said he doesn't see TI's anticipated share loss in wireless to be as fast or deep as the consensus view. "On the contrary, competing solutions from a variety of silicon vendors will be slow to materialize at Nokia over the next couple of years." ###
- Eric -
Texas Instruments expected to report profit gain
But analysts worry that chip giant is starting to feel pain of slowdown
By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
Last update: 11:47 a.m. EDT April 18, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Texas Instruments Inc. will report first-quarter earnings on Monday amid Wall Street concerns that the chip giant is starting to feel the pain of a slowing economy.
Analysts expect TI to report earnings of 43 cents a share on revenue of $3.29 billion, according to a survey by FactSet Research. For the year-earlier period, the company reported earnings of 36 cents a share on revenue of $3.19 billion.
Last month, the Dallas-based company said it expects revenue between $3.21 billion and $3.35 billion, compared with its previous range of $3.27 billion to $3.55 billion. The company also dropped its midpoint target, to $3.28 billion from $3.41 billion.
In addition, the company trimmed its forecast for earnings per share to a range of 41 cents to 45 cents, compared with its previous prediction of 43 cents to 49 cents. The midpoint for its earnings per share target was cut to 43 cents from 46 cents.
Analyst Daniel Berenbaum of Caris & Company described TI as "a quality stock" but one that is "not immune to macro concerns."
"We expect Texas Instruments to weather the ongoing economic storm better than most, but we continue to recommend that investors avoid putting new money to work here and in the semiconductor space in general," he said in a research note. "We see a weaker-than-expected mid-quarter update as evidence of end-market softness, and not Texas Instruments-specific issues."
TI's dominant position in the cell-phone chip market has faced new challenges after its biggest customer, Nokia Corp. decided to work with other suppliers such as Broadcom Corp. also has shifted to a multisupplier strategy.
TI's stock took a hit Thursday after Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, reported a lower-than-expected increase in first-quarter profit.
However, Berenbaum said that despite the negative news from Nokia, the cell phone giant will likely still outperform its rivals "which could help buoy TI near-term."
Analyst John Dryden of Charter Equity Research also said he doesn't see TI's anticipated share loss in wireless to be as fast or deep as the consensus view. "On the contrary, competing solutions from a variety of silicon vendors will be slow to materialize at Nokia over the next couple of years." End of Story
Benjamin Pimentel is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/texas-instruments-expected-post-profit/story.aspx?guid=%7BA8069690%2D1855%2D4D69%2D80EE%2D3CA9FFAA743D%7D&siteid=yhoof
TI Boost Controller Drives Industrial Lighting Innovation
Monday April 7, 9:00 am ET
LED driver supports 1- to 5-W high-brightness LEDs
DALLAS, April 7, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Opening the door to new technology advancements in industrial and architectural lighting, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN - News) introduced today a 4.5 V to 52 V wide-input voltage, non-synchronous boost controller, intended for applications where the output is a regulated current instead of a regulated voltage. The new TPS40211, demonstrated at the Light+Building Frankfurt show (April 6 - 11, 2008) at the "LED Light for you (LLFY) - powered by OSRAM" booth (Hall 4.1 / D31), allows designers to efficiently manage LED lighting, industrial control and battery-powered systems. See: http://www.ti.com/tps40211-pr.
The TPS40211 efficiently drives high-power LEDs when the input voltage is less than the voltage to turn on the LEDs. The LED driver is designed to power multiple 1- to 5-W high-brightness LEDs in a series, and features a programmable closed soft start, over current protection with automatic retry and a programmable oscillator frequency. The device's fixed frequency current mode control provides improved transient response and simplified loop compensation. Designers have the flexibility to use the TPS40211 for boost, flyback, SEPIC and various LED driver topologies.
TI features lighting technology advancements at Light+Building
TI is featuring a variety of product demonstrations at the Light+Building conference this week in the LLFY booth, including a lighting driver with the TPS40211 device, a brightness control application and an inverter implementation. Three TPS62260 2.25 MHz 600 mA buck converters power a RGB color-mixing demonstration, featuring 252 color values, provides color adjust through an incremental decoder; an LED driver demonstration features TI's TCA6507 seven-channel, I2C LED blinker and dimmer, 16-step intensity control and easy control with a parallel port-to-PC interface. The TLC5940 16-channel driver IC is featured in an LED video wall driver demonstration with 12-bit grayscale PWM (pulse width modulation) control, 6-bit dot correction and driver capability of 120 mA per channel.
Pricing and availability
The TPS40211 is available today in volume from TI and its authorized distributors. The device is offered in a 10-pin PowerPAD(TM) and a 10-pin SON package, and suggested resale price is $1.40 in 100-unit quantities.
LED driver and display solutions
TI provides the broadest portfolio of high-performance products for today's LED design requirements, including power management, such as AC/DC, power factor correction, DC/DC and linear power conversion; RF transceivers; digital signal processors (DSPs); and ultra-low-power microcontrollers. TI's products support applications ranging from ultra-small portable displays to the largest lighting and display panels in the industry. Additionally, TI's local support and applications expertise help designers get to market faster. See: http://www.ti.com/led. TI is a certified partner of LLFY, which supports designers with outstanding and forward-looking solutions for Solid State Lighting (SSL).
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN - News) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through manufacturing, design and sales operations in more than 25 countries. For more information, go to http://www.ti.com.
PowerPAD is a trademark of Texas Instruments. All registered trademarks and other trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Source: Texas Instruments Incorporated
TI introduces industry's first 16-bit, dual-channel DAC family with 1 Gbps LVDS inputs
Monday March 31, 11:00 am ET
Wideband converter in ultra-small package maximizes carrier placement flexibility
DALLAS, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN - News) today introduced a high-performance 16-bit, dual channel, 1 GSPS (giga sample per second) digital-to-analog converter (DAC) family. The new single and dual-channel DAC family features a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) data input port at 1 Gbps, providing up to 400 MHz signal bandwidth. In addition, the DAC family offers flexible configuration options as well as industry-leading tools and support to ease design and speed time to market for base stations, wideband IF transmitters, radar, and test and measurement equipment. (See http://www.ti.com/dac5682Z-pr.)
Best-in-class performance and flexibility in a space-saving package
Offered in a small 9 mm x 9 mm QFN package, the DAC568x family builds upon TI's commitment to offer high-performance, integrated solutions by providing a 70 percent space savings over traditional data converters. The devices provide several configuration options to support different transmit architectures, such as direct up-conversion, real or complex IF, and different wireless air interfaces such as WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX and LTE. For an output frequency of 160 Mhz, the devices achieve 73 dB ACPR for a single-carrier WCDMA application or 67 dBc for a four-carrier application. Along with the single-channel DAC5681 and DAC5681Z, the dual DAC5682Z offers many digitally configurable features such as:
-- Selectable low-, high-, or bypass filter modes
-- Interpolation: 2x, 4x or bypass
-- Optional +/-Fs/4 or +/-Fs/8 coarse mixer
-- Optional 2x-32x clock multiplying PLL
-- 8 sample input data FIFO
continued...
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080331/lam005.html?.v=101
Texas Instruments announces industry's first multi-carrier, multi-standard development platform for wireless infrastructure base stations
Monday March 31, 9:36 am ET
Single platform enables CAPEX savings for operators
DALLAS, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- With its eye on customers' development costs and challenges, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN - News) today announced a scalable, programmable development ecosystem enabling base station OEMs to support multiple carriers of established and evolving wireless standards from a single platform. Based on TI's multicore TMS320TCI6487 and TMS320TCI6488 digital signal processors (DSPs) and multi-interface software libraries, the development platform covers all major air interfaces including GSM-EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA , LTE and WiMAX. With a single development platform, OEMs largely "design once-deploy multiple" base stations, significantly reducing design costs, while speeding the deployment of new 3G features and beyond 3G standards. For more information, go to http://www.ti.com/beyond3g.
In addition to reducing development time, TI makes designing easier by supporting both MAC and PHY layer processing on the same platform. The high performance DSP platform also eliminates the need for an expensive, power-hungry FPGA, with the exception of WiMAX designs. CommAgility, a designer and manufacturer of high performance embedded signal processing cards, uses TI's multicore DSP to support its AdvancedMC(TM) module AMC-6487 product, targeted at high-performance processing roles in wireless baseband and other applications. The board is designed around three TMS320C6487 DSPs or the pin-compatible TMS320C6488 DSP and an optional WiMAX-required FPGA, providing wireless baseband developers the processing power they need to support their high-capacity solutions.
"As wireless air interfaces continue to evolve across global cellular networks, operators can greatly benefit from a multi-standard, multi-carrier base station processing platform," said Nadine Manjaro, senior analyst for mobile networks at ABI Research. "The flexibility and efficiency of TI's new multi-standard ecosystem will allow operators to upgrade easily between GSM/WCDMA/HSPA and LTE, all from a single platform."
continued...
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080331/lam108.html?.v=101
Texas Instruments Joins LiMo Foundation(TM) as First Semiconductor Company at the Core Member Level
Monday March 31, 9:00 am ET
Membership by industry leader in silicon technology for mobile phones increases diversity among LiMo Foundation leadership
LONDON & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open handset platform for the whole mobile industry, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN - News), announced today the important addition of TI as the Foundation’s newest Core member.
“With nearly two decades of wireless system experience, TI brings an unsurpassed heritage of supporting the advancement of embedded and mobile Linux devices,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director, LiMo Foundation. “TI fully shares the commitment of all LiMo member companies to advance the LiMo Platform and thereby open new avenues of choice throughout value system – we greatly look forward to TI’s contributions as our newest board member.”
By actively participating in LiMo Foundation, TI will work towards the advancement of the LiMo Platform™; establish an open and diverse ecosystem that realizes the advantages of open Linux-based development, and collaborate with other committed mobile industry leaders and innovators. TI will assume a seat on LiMo’s Board of Directors, Executive Council, Architecture Council and Requirements Council, and will work within LiMo’s constructs to make valuable contributions to the development and advancement of the LiMo Platform.
“Joining the LiMo Foundation is a natural complement to TI’s commitment to provide solutions for all high-level operating systems, and in particular our long history in Linux development,” said Avner Goren, TI’s representative on the LiMo board and director of strategic marketing for TI’s Wireless Terminals Business Unit. “As a LiMo board member, TI will have the unique opportunity to leverage our experience delivering mobile Linux solutions for OMAP and our broad connectivity portfolio. Additionally, we look forward to collaborating with the LiMo membership to influence the direction of the LiMo Platform, further enabling our customers to deliver a high-quality user experience on Linux-enabled mobile devices.”
Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo, chairperson of LiMo Foundation added, “As the market-leading semiconductor and processor supplier to mobile and smart phone manufacturers around the world, having helped its customers ship tens of millions of Linux-based phones, TI is a strategic addition to the Foundation and we are very pleased to welcome them on board.”
Launched in January 2007 by six mobile industry leaders – Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone – LiMo was formed to deliver an open and globally consistent software platform based upon mobile Linux for use by the whole industry to catalyze next generation mobile consumer experiences. LiMo Foundation is open to all vendors and service providers in the mobile communications marketplace, including device manufacturers, operators, chipset manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third-party developers. LiMo members are participating collectively to building a rich ecosystem and have the ability to influence the evolution of the LiMo Platform, leaving them free to provide compelling and differentiated services to customers.
Texas Instruments – Making Wireless
TI creates innovative wireless semiconductors, delivering the heart of today's wireless technology and building solutions for tomorrow. TI provides a breadth of silicon and software and 18 years of wireless systems expertise that spans handsets and base stations for all communications standards, wireless LAN, Bluetooth® and GPS. TI offers custom to turn-key solutions, including complete chipsets and reference designs, OMAP™ application processors, as well as core digital signal processor and analog technologies built on advanced semiconductor processes. Please visit www.ti.com/wirelesspressroom for additional information.
About LiMo Foundation
LiMo Foundation™ is a dedicated consortium of mobile industry leaders working together within an open and transparent governance model—with shared leadership and shared decision making—to deliver an open and globally consistent handset software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use by the whole mobile industry. A full description of LiMo, including its vision, goals, guiding principles, bylaws, charter and membership information, can be found at www.limofoundation.org.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080331/20080331005428.html?.v=1
DALLAS .– Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) CEO and president, Rich Templeton, challenged more than 8,000 young engineers to champion innovation and set their sights on making a difference during a keynote address at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 34th annual national convention held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Templeton delivered his keynote during the annual NSBE Golden Torch Awards banquet on March 22.
Templeton also accepted the Corporate Diversity Leadership Award on behalf of the company and presented TI Senior Vice President, Arthur L. George, with the 2008 NSBE Lifetime Achievement in Industry Award.
“TI and NSBE share some common objectives – to cultivate leadership and to expand the pipeline of young engineers,” said Templeton. “Like NSBE, TI believes that strong leaders are vital: to developing talent, discovering new technologies, and helping TI make a difference. Through our longstanding relationship, NSBE has introduced TI to some of this country’s best and brightest engineering minds.”
TI has been a NSBE corporate sponsor and participant in the annual convention for more than 20 years. TI recruits 20-25 employees per year directly from the NSBE conference and finances 1,000 NSBE student memberships every year to build new chapters around the country. For the last 19 years, NSBE members have ranked TI among the top 50 companies for blacks in the U.S. to work — an honor the company has received since the list’s inception in 1989.
In his remarks, Templeton described the potential impact technology could have on solving some of the key problems facing the world today. “Technology offers us the chance to take on critical problems in the healthcare, power efficiency and public safety sectors that touch billions of people and impact every corner of the world. These challenges are in need of solutions, and the need is immediate,” Templeton said. “Those solutions aren’t going to come out of board rooms, summits or political debates. They’re going to come from people like you, creative engineers who want to make a difference.”
Following the keynote address, Templeton presented Art George, senior vice president of TI’s High-Performance Analog business unit, with NSBE’s 2008 Lifetime Achievement in Industry Award. George, a graduate of Southern University, joined TI 24 years ago and oversees one of the fastest growing entities within TI. George has served as a campus volunteer and recruiter for more than 20 years, personally recruiting at Southern University, Tennessee State University, Tuskegee University and the University of Arkansas. He is a member of the TI “Adopt a School Program” and has many more works worthy of recognition.
“If you’re looking for a success story, for a great role model, there’s no better example than Art, who runs one of TI’s fastest growing businesses in our company,” said Templeton. “He’s smart, curious, and a true believer in the power of technology.”
Templeton ended his speech by telling NSBE members to not only focus on being successful, but to set their sights on making a difference. “I encourage you to champion innovation, work with young people to get them excited about math and science and help build the next generation of scientists and engineers. TI believes in NSBE because this organization is developing young people, like yourselves, who will shape the future,” he concluded.
http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91828&Itemid=9
Sept 27 it was kicking ass. 3Q07 Financial Results are good, but it tanked on the PR. $31 is a no-brainer buy right here and now as this gap will fill over the next few weeks.
DEAD-BOARD
you're right, TXN is kicking ass (everyone's ass who bought it).
Not much action on this board, but TI is kicking ass!
Wednesday Webcast (Amalyst Day)
Texas Instruments to Webcast Its 2005 Financial Analyst Meeting
TI
Dallas
May 05, 2005
Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN (TI) invites you to view and listen to a live webcast of its 2005 Financial Analyst Meeting beginning at 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time, Wednesday, May 11. TI President and CEO Rich Templeton and other company executives are scheduled to speak.
What: Texas Instruments 2005 Financial Analyst Meeting.
When: 8 a.m. CDT, May 11, 2005.
Where: http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/investor/analyst/
How: Live over the Internet, logging on to the address above,
Participation will be in listen-only mode. Archival copy
available shortly after webcast conclusion.
If you are unable to view or listen during the live webcast, the meeting
will be archived for three months on the web site listed above.
3G Chipsets: 3 Approaches to Apps-Processor and Modem Integration
>> There is More Than One Way to Design a 3G Handset
Alessandro Araldi
Worldwide OMAP™ Marketing Manager
Texas Instruments
http://tinyurl.com/96o45
Think carefully about the tradeoffs associated with each, since those tradeoffs can greatly affect your end goal.
One of the key decisions 3G-handset designer's face involves the degree of applications-processor and modem integration to best serve their marketing goals.
Currently, three distinct levels of system integration are readily available ...
... separate the applications processor and modem
... integrate the apps processor and modem into one IC.
... connect the modem to a separate multimedia accelerator.
The first approach, using a separate apps processor and modem, incorporates the two as discrete devices. Each device, available separately in the market, may include multiple processing cores. One processor, TI's OMAP™ device, depends on a RISC core, such as an ARM9 or ARM11 for high-interrupt command, control, and user interface functions, and a DSP for highly repetitive, math-intensive multimedia processing. Similarly, a modem may function most effectively with an ARM® processor running Layers 2 and 3 of the protocol stack while a DSP handles Layer 1.
The second approach, the processor and modem in one chip, typically incorporates multiple processing cores to perform the same work accomplished by two devices in a discrete configuration. In the OMAP device, different architectures address different market segments. For the smart-phone segment, an ARM processor, which might be complemented by dedicated hardware accelerators, manages the applications functions. A second ARM and a DSP handle the modem functions. For the cost-sensitive feature-rich segment, applications and modem functions share the same ARM core, while a DSP is dedicated to modem functions.
The third approach has a modem connected to a separate multimedia accelerator. This option is a variation of the first approach. However, it doesn't include an applications processor and therefore is not able to employ a high-level operating system. Instead, the modem manages essential command, control, and user interface functions, and a multimedia accelerator facilitates video, audio, and imaging.
Using a separate apps processor and modem provides flexibility, shortens time-to-market, and potentially increases performance. An existing modem in which the OEM has confidence and has made a significant investment can be reused and coupled with the latest apps processor, thereby leveraging past investments in the modem without compromising the processor's performance. This flexibility also means that, as is often desired in the marketplace, different suppliers can be chosen for each component. It also permits a processor running the same applications software environment to be coupled with different modems supporting different air interfaces such as GSM/GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, UMTS, or CDMA. As a result, the OEM can efficiently develop a platform to serve multiple markets and operators with different modem technologies by changing only the modem while maintaining the same processor and software environment. Standalone products also give OEMs a choice of relatively low-cost modular options.
Many IC vendors tend to employ the latest semiconductor process technology for standalone microprocessors a year or more before they introduce integrated devices using the same geometry. One reason is that smaller geometries create power management challenges for modems that are easier to handle with standalone apps processors. It may take several months to address these problems in ways that permit integrated devices to deliver acceptable battery life. As long as process technology used for separate processors remains ahead of that used for integrated devices, performance on the separate processors will outstrip the performance achievable with higher levels of integration. Thus, the separate processor and modem approach permits quicker release of innovative technology into the marketplace, which can be important for OEMs and others seeking to differentiate themselves from their competition. A separate apps processor also can benefit from dedicated resources such as memory and bus, which would allow boosting performances especially in bandwidth-intensive applications like multimedia and gaming.
One of the key benefits of having the applications processor and modem integrated in one chip is resource sharing. The processor and modem share the same memory by leveraging the integration as well as a technology that effectively manages and prioritizes memory access. The processor and modem also share the same power management IC, whereas separate devices usually require dedicated power management chips. The integration of the two devices also tends to reduce the amount of logic required to connect the different functions at the system level.
Finally, employing an integrated device that includes complete hardware and software reference design, manufacturing-ready pcb schematics and layout, and integrated and validated telephony software can be (though is not necessarily) more cost-effective than developing and integrating hardware and software from scratch. In most cases, an integrated device requires less board area. That lets designers create wireless appliances with smaller form factors and free up board space for components that provide additional functionality.
An integrated device can simplify the overall phone hardware and software development due to its complete system solution. The chip set can be delivered with a complete hardware and software reference design. In that case, the reference design could be developed to pass the same tests that the actual phone must complete before being approved for commercial use. Because the integrated device usually is coupled with power management and RF in a chip set that's delivered with a pre-tested and pre-validated hardware and software reference design, overall system development time may drop.
From this point we start with the 3rd option. So this paragraph should be separated from the previous one. The benefits of having a modem connected to a separate multimedia accelerator include cost and flexibility. A multimedia accelerator generally is less expensive than an apps processor, since it's designed to perform only a subset of the functions of an apps processor. It's also less expensive at the system level, since it requires less memory.
As with separate apps processors and modems, this approach provides the flexibility to couple any modem with a given multimedia accelerator, thereby addressing multiple markets and operators with different modem technologies while maintaining the same multimedia environment. However, it clearly provides less flexibility in terms of software environment and applications it can support.
Alessandro Araldi is a senior marketing manager at Texas Instruments' Wireless Terminals Business Unit. This article was published in Portable Design in February 2005. <<
- Eric -
TI in CQ1
A pretty good summary here ...
>> Investors Reward Texas Instruments
Chris Kraeuter
TheStreet.com
4/19/2005 9:50 AM EDT
http://tinyurl.com/cfvkz
Shares of Texas Instruments (TXN:NYSE) held solid gains ahead of the bell Tuesday as investors celebrated strong quarterly execution and optimism about the company's end markets.
The stock recently traded at $24.21, up $1.29, or 5.6%.
For the quarter ended March 31, TI reported net income of $411 million, or 24 cents a share, on sales of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $367 million, or 21 cents a share, on sales of $2.93 billion.
Analysts expected earnings of 23 cents a share on revenue of $2.99 billion, on average, according to Thomson First Call.
TI said the market environment for its chips is improving because the inventory correction of its standard analog chips is complete.
"We are confident that TI and our markets are once again moving in the right direction," said company CFO Kevin March. He said TI's projected growth for the second quarter is "pretty close to what you would expect" in a typical second quarter.
March added, though, that the company sees strong growth opportunities in the markets for 3G, or third generation, phones and chips used in high-end TVs.
For the second quarter, TI predicts earnings between 25 cents and 29 cents a share on sales between $3 billion and $3.24 billion. Analysts had predicted earnings of 26 cents a share and sales of $3.17 billion.
Technology stocks had dropped sharply during the past week on growing concerns about the health of the economy. IBM (IBM:NYSE - commentary - research) scared investors last week by badly missing its financial targets amid what it described as a sharp fall-off in demand in March.
TI executives said that demand increased in March and that the trend has continued into the first weeks of the second quarter. They also stated that softness of past months stemmed solely from inventory problems, not from those concerning demand.
"Our belief is that the downturn we saw over the last three quarters was strictly an inventory-related, inventory-correction downturn," said Ron Slaymaker, head of investor relations for TI. "To the extent that that's over, revenues should grow from here."
Orders rose sequentially by $84 million to $3.03 billion due to demand for the company's calculators and its sensor and control products.
TI reported gross margins of 44.9% vs. 42.3% in the previous quarter and 45% in the same quarter last year. The company said it was helped by improved profitability of its calculator business and gains associated with the sale of its LCD driver product line. March said TI has long-term, peak-cycle, gross margin goals of 50%.
The 6.4% share spike in late Monday trading helped erase some of the declines logged since the company's midquarter update at the start of March.
At that time, TI lowered the high end of its financial targets because of an ongoing inventory bloat in its chips used in high-end TVs and projectors. It trimmed its targets to reflect earnings between 22 cents and 24 cents a share, and sales between $2.91 billion and $3.03 billion.
TI reduced its overall inventory slightly during the first quarter after cutting it by $100 million in the fourth quarter. TI said inventory of its high-end TV chips, known as digital light processors, remains elevated, and reductions would continue into the second quarter.
By segment, TI's semiconductor unit posted a profit of $460 million on sales of $2.6 billion. During the same quarter last year, the chip unit logged a $465 million operating profit on sales of $2.57 billion. TI said wireless chip sales rose from the same quarter last year but that most other product areas booked reduced sales.
TI's sensor and control unit recorded an operating profit of $69 million on sales of $296 million compared with an operating profit of $75 million on sales of $283 million in the same quarter last year. Profits declined due to cost reductions for automotive sensor products.
The company's calculator business had an operating profit of $20 million on sales of $82 million vs. an operating profit of $9 million and sales of $79 million in last year's first quarter. Profits increased due to lower manufacturing costs.
The Dallas-based company makes a wide range of analog and digital signal processors used in cell phones, computers, cars and digital TVs. TI ranked as the world's third largest chipmaker last year.
Shares of TI closed the regular session up 16 cents to $22.92. <<
- Eric -
TI (TXN) Looks Good
... I Think ...
... and so far the Street seems to think so, too ...
Opened today at $22.51 and closed at $22.92
After Hours: Last $24.23 __ Change +$1.31 __ Volume 1.511 Mil
Up $1.72 (+7.6%) today.
[Initially up AH $1.22 to $24.14 from $22.92 close about 5 minutes after PR]
http://tinyurl.com/dbkso
So far so good (but devils in da detail) ... CC at 4:30 PM CDT
* EPS at $0.24 (top of guided range beating by a penny)
* Revenue of $2.972 billion (down~6% sequentially), up 1.2% year/year , and towards top end of guidance but marginally below consensus of $2.99 bln.
* Sequentially gross and operating profit margins increased despite the decline in revenue. TI's gross profit margin expanded 2.6 percentage points to 44.9 percent of revenue (v. 44.3% street expectations), and TI's operating margin increased 1.3 percentage points to 16.7 percent of revenue.
* Inventories declined slightly from the Q4, when they were significantly reduced by $100 million.
* Having adjusted inventories to desired levels during Q4, TI increased production in its demiconductor factories in the first quarter to realign factory output with its shipments.
* Issues in line guidance for Q2: Sees EPS of $0.25-0.29 vs. $0.26 consensus; sees Q2 revs of $3.00-3.24 bln vs. 3.18 bln consensus.
Wireless & Stock Repurchase
"While the overall environment for cell phones will likely support a lower growth rate than last year, we continue to have high expectations for our wireless operations in 2005. In the first quarter, TI's wireless revenue grew 15 percent from a year ago and declined 14 percent sequentially following a strong fourth quarter. Recent market reports have confirmed that TI is the world's top provider of semiconductors used in the wireless market, and we expect to gain additional share this year in the fast-growing market for 3G UMTS modems based on the strength of our digital signal processors. ... "TI aggressively repurchased its common stock during the quarter, and we are now more than halfway through the $3 billion of repurchase plans announced in September and January." - Rich Templeton, CEO
Initial Reaction Odds and Ends
Can Texas Instruments End Tech's Blues? ... Leading maker of chips for cell phones reports better than expected 1Q earnings, boosts guidance. ... in a written statement, TI's president and chief executive officer Richard Templeton said that "the market environment is improving." ... TI said it now expects earnings for the second quarter to be between 25 cents a share and 29 cents a share. The midpoint of 27 cents a share is one penny ahead of the current consensus of 26 cents a share, according to Thomson/First Call. TI added that it expects sales to be in a range of $3 billion to $3.24 billion. The $3.12 billion average is slightly below Wall Street's estimates of $3.16 billion but investors seemed to focus more on the fact that the high end of the range is above the consensus estimate. Shares of TI (Research) surged nearly 6 percent after hours - Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money -
Texas Instruments Profit Up 12 Pct ... Its earnings for the quarter were at the top end of the range it gave last month, welcome relief to tech investors after a spate of disappointing earnings news from tech firms including IBM. - ObviousNews.com, Canada -
Chip stocks were on the move Monday evening as Texas Instruments Inc. shares gained nearly 6% after the company beat earnings estimates by a penny a share ... Texas Instruments shares (TXN) traded up to $24.20 after the third-largest maker of computer chips reported a higher first-quarter profit of $411 million, or 24 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $367 million, or 21 cents a share. Sales were flat at $2.97 billion. The per-share results topped analysts' consensus forecast by 1 cent. - Scott Banerjee, Market Watch via IBD -
"Considering the negative sentiment that has come into the market and the chip sector in particular, this is relatively good news ... the guidance isn't bad. There were expectations that it could be worse." - William Conroy, Sanders Morris Harris." -
Texas Instruments beats by $0.01, issues in line guidance (TXN) 22.92 +0.16:Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.24 per share, $0.01 better than the Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.23; revenues rose 1.2% year/year to $2.97 bln vs the $2.99 bln consensus. TXN reports gross margin 44.9% vs 44.3% street expectations. Co issues in line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.25-0.29 vs. $0.26 consensus. - Briefing.com -
Texas Instruments (TI), one of the world's biggest chip makers, has reported a rise in quarterly profits. The announcement may ease concerns that earnings growth in the technology industry has stalled and help stop a slide in European and US share prices. ... Those figures topped analysts expectations and come after tech industry bellwether IBM, and firms such as Samsung and Philips had disappointed investors. Also helping buoy sentiment was TI's forecast that profit and sales would continue to climb in the current quarter. - BBC -
- IC -
UMTS Chipsets: TI (PR)
TI claims:
* More than 50 percent share of the 3G semiconductor marketplace with both its market-leading 3G modems and OMAP processors.
* TI´s 3G technology is currently used in over 45 different handset models shipping worldwide today from six of the top seven 3G manufacturers.
* TI's OMAP processors have been selected by 3G handset manufacturers to power NTT DoCoMo's new 3G FOMA 901i and 700i series.
TI´s has a joint agreement with NTT DoCoMo to develop a cost-competitive, multi-mode UMTS (WCDMA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE) chipset to serve the worldwide 3G handset marketplace.
* TI, collaborating with NTT DoCoMo, will provide an integrated UMTS digital baseband and applications processor based on TI´s OMAP 2 architecture and NTT DoCoMo´s WCDMA technology for NTT DoCoMo handsets and other 3G handsets worldwide.
* TI´s new family of OMAP-Vox wireless solutions, combine mobile phone modems and multimedia applications processing in a single product with extensive software reuse from one generation of phones to the next. This reduces development time and allows manufacturers to quickly bring a variety of handsets to market to meet the high-volume needs of the 2.5G marketplace today, with a quick migration to 3G.
>> TI Wireless Executive Details Company's Success and Commitment in Driving 3G to The Masses
Powering Over 45 Mobile Phones in 3G Marketplace Today, TI 3G Technology Included in All New Models of NTT DoCoMo's FOMA(R) 901i and 700i Series of 3G Mobile Phones
Ti Press Release
Tokyo
March 29, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/3rmmd
Underscoring a commitment to foster the widespread adoption of 3G, Gilles Delfassy, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) senior vice president and general manager of its Wireless Terminals Business Unit, detailed in a Tokyo press conference today how TI's 3G technology is being widely adopted worldwide.
"With more than 50 percent share of the 3G semiconductor marketplace with both its market-leading 3G modems and OMAP processors, TI´s 3G technology is currently used in over 45 different handset models shipping worldwide today from six of the top seven 3G manufacturers," Delfassy said.
Further, Delfassy announced that TI's OMAP processors have been selected by 3G handset manufacturers to power NTT DoCoMo's new 3G FOMA 901i and 700i series for the most advanced multimedia performance and power efficiency requirements. "The rapid acceleration of 3G is due largely to early adoption by the technology savvy Japanese market. Clearly Japan continues to lead the world in 3G innovation, and TI is proud to be a part of this growth."
TI's OMAP family of applications processors have been used by 3G handsets manufacturers for three consecutive years for NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G series of mobile phones, which now service more than 10 million subscribers in the rapidly growing Japanese 3G market, as well as powering NTT DoCoMo's new 3G FOMA 901i and 700i series.
Delfassy added, "We are pleased to continue our long-standing, collaborative relationship with 3G handset manufacturers to deliver the ultimate 3G mobile phones to Japanese consumers, while driving widespread adoption of 3G beyond Japan."
Delfassy also referred to TI´s joint agreement with NTT DoCoMo to develop a cost-competitive, multi-mode UMTS (WCDMA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE) chipset to serve the worldwide 3G handset marketplace. "Both companies aim to foster the earliest possible widespread use of 3G handsets by creating winning solutions for the 3G marketplace," Delfassy remarked. "TI, collaborating with NTT DoCoMo, will provide an integrated UMTS digital baseband and applications processor based on TI´s OMAP 2 architecture and NTT DoCoMo´s WCDMA technology for NTT DoCoMo handsets and other 3G handsets worldwide."
TI continues to take a comprehensive approach to the complex and wide-ranging technology requirements of 3G technology to bring 3G to the masses, building on its 15 years of experience in the wireless industry and leadership in GSM/GPRS. Delfassy cited TI´s new family of OMAP-Vox wireless solutions, which combines mobile phone modems and multimedia applications processing in a single product with extensive software reuse from one generation of phones to the next. This reduces development time and allows manufacturers to quickly bring a variety of handsets to market to meet the high-volume needs of the 2.5G marketplace today, with a quick migration to 3G.
Delfassy noted that several other recent TI innovations, including those based on the company´s innovative DRP technology, will support the wireless industry´s growth and global penetration. Specifically, he highlighted TI´s single-chip solution for mobile phones that will accelerate wireless penetration by enabling low-cost mobile phones in emerging, high-growth areas such as China, India and Latin America. He also mentioned TI´s single-chip solution for live digital broadcast TV on mobile phones, which will support open, non-proprietary standards such as the Japanese specification, Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T), and Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) in Europe and the U.S. Also, the company´s OMAP 2 processors will enable mobile phones with multi-megapixel cameras, digital video recorders, 3D multiplayer gaming, CD-quality audio, and more.
"TI's objective is to help operators and manufacturers put real power into the hands of their customers - billions of customers worldwide," Delfassy said. "By continuing to work closely with our customers and mobile operators, we are confident that we have the right pieces in place today that will promote wireless growth and choice in the marketplace." <<
- Eric -
TI Chips for Motorola's converged VoWLAN Handset
* Avaya, Motorola, and Proxim plan to offer a dual-mode "enterprise phone" allowing employees to make calls using either wide-area cell phone connections or corporate WLANs. The trio expect to ship the handset and accompanying infrastructure this September. ... Motorola will use Texas Instruments' (TI) Wi-Fi chipset in the phone.
>> VoWLAN: The Return Of 802.11a?
Ed Sutherland
WiFi Planet
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3370611
As promised last year, Avaya, Motorola, and Proxim plan to offer a dual-mode "enterprise phone" allowing employees to make calls using either wide-area cell phone connections or corporate WLANs. The trio expect to ship the handset and accompanying infrastructure this September.
The rub is, the proposed phone will require companies to install 802.11a networks. They say the more-prevalent 802.11g/b standard cannot provide the level of service needed by voice-over-IP (VoIP).
802.11g/b, with only three channels that do not overlap, is able to support between six and eight calls at a time. In comparison, 802.11a boasts 21 non-overlapping channels able to handle 25 voice-over-IP calls from a single WLAN access point.
The goal of the enterprise phone the companies propose is to provide employees a mobile phone experience with the familiar functionality of wired digital handsets connected to the corporate PBX. People will be able to manage up to three simultaneous calls while putting a fourth caller on hold.
Motorola intends the "enterprise phone" be built upon the Schaumberg, Ill., company's i.250 series.
Motorola says the phone will have a battery life similar to cell phones with talk time between 10 and 12 hours. Standby time will be close to double that -- between 20 to 24 hours, claims Motorola. Although it refuses to be specific on how they managed the battery savings, Motorola will use Texas Instruments' (TI) Wi-Fi chipset in the phone. TI, along with chipmakers Atheros and Broadcom, has previously announced plans of lowering the power demands placed on devices by Wi-Fi.
"The cellular and WLAN markets are on a convergence path to provide users with phones that can handle voice and data traffic in both wireless networks," said Marc Cetto, general manager of TI's Wireless Business Unit in a statement.
Motorola will begin testing the phone this summer.
"Motorola believes that tying together wireless LANs, IP telephony, and cellular technologies in a single handset will extend the mobility of the cellular networks inside the enterprise, and provide the best available access to the user," said Dan Coombes, Motorola's senior vice president and general manager for Motorola's Network Systems Group.
The dual-mode phone will work with either GSM or CDMA cell networks, according to Motorola.
Companies interested in testing the "enterprise phone" will need to invest in network infrastructure equipment from Avaya and Proxim, Motorola's partners on the enterprise phone. A gateway controls access points and a communications manager shuttles incoming calls from local and long-distance networks to the WLAN. The management software also converts circuit-switched phone calls into IP-based packets.
These three companies may have helped set the current trend toward embracing voice over wireless LANs. Wireless switch vendors like Aruba Networks, which originally hawked their solutions "as ways to centralize management of wireless LAN," says ABI Research analyst Phil Solis, "have reinvented themselves as purveyors of VoWi-Fi platforms."
In May, Solis also gave the nod to 802.11a over 11b or 11g for voice applications in the wireless enterprises. "For converged networks, voice should be deployed over 802.11a while data is deployed over 802.11g." Calling 802.11a "the future," Craig Mathias, principal analyst with the Ashland, Mass.-based Farpoint Group, declares there is no other option for voice over Wi-Fi. "11a will have to be used," Mathias says. <<
- Eric -
Mobile WLAN Chips with VOIP
>> Mobile WLAN Chips Debut
Patrick Mannion
EE Times
Mar 14, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/6djd8
Confident that voice-over-wireless LANs will drive WLAN chips into mobile handsets, Texas Instruments Inc. has announced what it calls the first single-chip 802.11a/b/g offering in a 90-nanometer CMOS process. Using the same Digital RF Processing technology that went into TI's single-chip GSM phone, the device integrates almost all of the radio functions and combines them with advanced voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) software and a "thick" media-access controller. .... <snip rest>
TI's Press Release here:
http://tinyurl.com/4xyyl
Availability:
The WiLink 4.0 mobile WLAN 802.11b/g and 802/11a/b/g solutions are expected to sample in 3Q 2005. Products integrating TI´s WiLink 4.0 platform are expected to be released to market in 2Q 2006.
- Eric -
The Real Secrets of TI
http://business2.blogs.com/business2blog/2005/03/the_real_secret.html
Om Malik reports on a conversation he had with Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton:
Often Silicon Valley insiders wonder how Texas Instruments continue to do well in every new digital market that comes along? Answer is simple – the company from top man down believes that it’s the applications, not the guts of a technology that drives the end-user demand. Sticking to that philosophy has helped Texas Instruments become a major force in four high growth markets - broadband, digital home, voice-over-the-packet, and cellular phones. In a dinner and a very candid conversation with dozen odd journalists in San Francisco, Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton said that Moore’s Law--20 percent more performance for 20% less cost--has been the engine of growth for nearly 40 years and will continue to be just that as long companies know how to harness the power of the ever powerful transistors. “The consumers won’t go out and buy a 3G phone, but instead will buy a camcorder phone, just like they buy camera phones, color screens,” says Templeton, pointing out that the consumers don’t care about the plumbing. He does have a point. Once you have a broadband connection, you don’t care whether your email comes through a DSL connection or web pages load faster because you have a cable modem. TI, he says, is focused on making the experience seamless and easy for end users.
Read the rest after the jump: “We (and this includes the media) tend to focus too much on plumbing and not on applications,” he says. Communications, he says, is a big trend, and people want to be able to communicate anywhere, anytime. “Imagine a time where nearly 70% home worldwide are connected via broadband,” says Templeton. Now the key is to figure out how to use it. From that stand point he says, that it doesn’t matter if the wireless technology is cellular or some other form of wireless connection. Despite that, Texas Instruments is a bit sanguine on WiMAX, a fixed wireless mobile technology that is being heavily promoted by Intel. In its initial form it is being seen as a T-1 replacement technology, but eventually as a last mile option to DSL and cable modem broadband. “The financial model for WiMAX is going to be a challenge in countries where broadband is already available,” he says. Despite a recent hiccup in its digital light processor chip business, Templeton remains confided about the technology and its future. He pointed out that it was in 1980s Texas Instruments started working on the digital signal processing business, and it’s only at the turn of the century it turned into a revenue gusher. Templeton predicts that it’s a matter of time DLP based projectors fall below $500 a pop, and will be small enough to slip in a bag and be used with game machines, personal digital assistants and other such gizmos. “I know one thing – if your customers continue to innovate around your platform, the markets will eventually happen,” says Templeton. That and paying attention to what consumers really want!
Pru on TXN
On March 8 analyst Mark Lipacis of Prudential Financial reiterated his "overweight" rating on Texas Instruments (TXN.NYS) and raised the target price from $29 to $30:
From his report:
>> Why We Rate TXN an OVERWEIGHT:
• TXN provided its mid-quarter update, narrowing its revenue and EPS guidance ranges toward the low end due primarily to DLP softness attributed to customer inventories. The company believes other segments are tracking in line and distributor inventories that had been the cause of weakness in standard and commodity products should be near target levels by quarter end. The company reiterated its optimism for its 3G wireless business, citing a doubling or tripling of the overall market and its expectations of share gains.
• We believe fundamentals in the semiconductor industry will bottom during the first half of 2005 and the sector will enter the recovery phase of the cycle. As a result, we would favor companies that are integrated (have their own manufacturing facilities) and are associated with good product and market cycles.
• We think TXN will benefit from a strong product cycle in wireless handsets, digital light processing (DLP) and its exposure to consumer end markets.
VALUATION: The valuation methodology used to determine our $30 price target is based on 22 times our 2006 GAAP EPS estimate of $1.34. This is consistent with an approximate 20%-25% premium to the company's prebubble median P/E multiple, which we believe is appropriate given the current interest rate environment.
RISKS: TXN derives over 20% of its revenues from the handset market. Furthermore Nokia has consistently been a 10%+ customer. TI shares are trading at a premium to its average historical valuation metrics. We argue that this premium is justified due to the low interest rate environment and the timing of the semiconductor cycle. However, there is a risk that multiples could contract significantly if interest rates rise above current expectations, or the semiconductor sector's fundamentals deteriorate. <<
- Eric -
TI on OFDM
>> OFDM is Cool
Bill Krenik
Wireless Advanced Architectures Manager
Texas Investment
http://tinyurl.com/6xz4n
Maybe I date myself, but it seems to me that the word “cool” best describes a wireless technology called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). I think it’s about the neatest thing–there’s another word from my youth–developed thus far to provide multiple access as we seek the most efficient use of spectrum within wireless cells.
OFDM elegantly overcomes the problem of fade in a multipath environment without requiring either band filtering or equalization across wide channel bandwidth. Consequently, it is especially well-suited for broadband wireless in such applications as Wi-Fi®, WiMAX and UWB. The technology provides throughput advantages over CDMA systems that will become increasingly important as demand for wireless broadband services grows. To help explain why I think OFDM is so cool, let me offer a quick tutorial.
I don’t want to get into mathematical complexity here. I’ll just touch a couple of high spots.
If you look at the history of OFDM, you'll find that the concept dates back to about the 1950s -- around the time that the word cool took on meanings that had nothing to do with temperature. It was in the 1950s that engineers realized that signal fade could be overcome by transmitting essentially the same signal over several frequencies at the same time. By linearly modulating sinusoids, they could transmit orthogonal signals in frequencies very close together without out-of-band interference.
The trouble, however, was that radios still relied on vacuum tubes and all broadcasts were analog. There was no practical way for engineers to put their theory to use.
But with the advent of digital signals, the theory of OFDM became reality. Finally, it was possible to transmit data across a large number of frequencies within a channel. With appropriate interleave schemes, no duplication of data from one frequency to another was necessary. If a small bit of the transmission was lost on one frequency, other frequencies would convey enough of the whole to permit recovery with error correcting codes.
Though OFDM has been an option, technically, for a decade or more, the wireless industry grew up with simpler approaches to multiple access. The underlying idea was to isolate each user onto a frequency by one of three techniques: assigning an extremely narrow frequency range to each user; assigning specific time slices to each; or encoding data bits to distinguish one user from another. These approaches have been refined over the years. Bluetooth® wireless technology, for example, assigns a frequency to each user but hops from one frequency to another to look for one without fade or interference problems. CDMA replaces each bit in the data stream with a code, then uses signal processing techniques to separate the desired signal from interferers at the receiver.
Recently, though, wireless operators have begun to pay greater attention to OFDM because it uses spectrum efficiently and provides greater capacity than CDMA.
Studies conducted by Texas Instruments show that the actual system throughput advantage that OFDM delivers over other widely-used technologies is in the range of 5 percent to 25 percent. The diagrams below illustrate what TI found when we measured throughput at pedestrian walking speeds. The advantage OFDM offers at vehicle driving speeds are slightly smaller.
[see graphic at link]
I point out all of this to put the benefits of OFDM into factual perspective. The throughput advantage, while not measured in orders of magnitude, is impressive nonetheless. The technology offers other important advantages, too. It is:
• Robust to multi-path
• Extremely flexible, offering choices of number of carriers, cyclic prefix length, modulation, interleave time and frequency, etc.
• Excellent for wide channel bandwidths, requiring no difficult equalization
• Well-suited to multiple antennae in MIMO systems
As I look down the road to the future of wireless, I see more and more new wireless air interface technologies adopting OFDM. IEEE802.11a/g, ultra-wideband, IEEE802.16d/e, and even some WAN technologies are making use of OFDM already. In broadcast data services and mobile television, various industry standards such as DVB-H, ISDB-T, and DMB all incorporate OFDM. At TI, our wireless OFDM activity includes WLAN production chipset solutions for 802.11 a/g and product development activity for DVB-H and ISDB-T; the standards supported by TI's "Hollywood" single-chip solution for live digital tv on cellphones. With an eye toward future technologies, TI proposed the multi-band OFDM version of UWB and is actively involved in research regarding advanced OFDM systems such as IEEE802.16.
In the brutally objective world of high-performance communications, where even minor enhancements in system efficiency can translate to bottom line profits for service providers, OFDM has become a technology of choice for a very wide range of wireless systems. There’s no other way to put it. OFDM is cool. <<
- Eric -
TI on 3G
>> New Drivers for 3G Growth
Gilles Delfassy
Senior VP
Wireless Terminals Business Unit
Texas Instruments
http://tinyurl.com/5bef6
It would be easy to manage industry changes if it were only a matter of numbering each successive generation of technology. We've done that and it has helped us compartmentalize the changes in wireless technology. But what lies ahead are uncharted waters that can't be navigated by simply assigning numbers.
Indeed, we face a new generation of consumers with new preferences, motivations and, generally, a new way of thinking about their handheld devices. The technology that supports the demands for this new generation is called 3G. And just like the generation of consumers it supports, what will drive the growth and deployment of 3G wireless technology is not what we usually think of as typical.
To achieve the full potential of 3G, many things must happen. It will require the support of, and intense collaboration among, handset makers, network operators, regulators and applications developers. It also will require underlying technology that supports robust, yet affordable, 3G handsets and infrastructure.
To be sure, the technology requirements for accelerating 3G adoption are diverse and increasingly complex. The demands include:
Systems expertise that covers hardware as well as software
• A smooth roadmap to successively more complex standards
• Deep knowledge of consumer electronics functionality
• The ability to integrate multiple features into handsets
• A broad array of service offerings and innovative handsets that appeal to different market segments
• Robust security that works in real time
And finally, and not to be underestimated...
• A healthy, non-proprietary ecosystem to foster innovative solutions and applications based on open industry standards.
Without a doubt, how we address the new requirements of 3G is proving to be a challenge. A seamless system environment capable of high-performance, concurrent modem and application processing is an imperative. Architectures based on multiprocessing cores are needed for the processing of multiple tasks simultaneously, a fact of life with multimedia entertainment applications. New connectivity options like Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi®, GPS, and live digital TV will supplement the mobile phone's connectivity to the cellular network, creating new challenges for the device's RF subsystem. And innovation will be needed to extend battery life while executing many processing-intense and bandwidth-hungry applications.
Recognizing this, TI is making 3G less of a challenge through innovations such as the OMAP-Vox wireless platform. Vox, as you may remember from high school, is the Latin word for "voice," and one of the definitions of voice is "the right, or opportunity, to express a choice."
OMAP-Vox offers a choice of products that merge both modem and applications functionality onto the existing OMAP architecture to allow manufacturers to easily scale across multiple market segments for 2.5G and 3G. With the OMAP-Vox platform, TI is adding its proven modem hardware and software technology, its wireless platform which powers roughly half of all mobile phones that are shipped worldwide, and its OMAP architecture, which has become the world's number one application processor for mobile devices. What a powerful combination! <<
To learn more now about how TI is Making 3G, visit: http://www.ti.com/3g
- Eric -
TI at 3GSM World Congress
"Six of the top seven 3G handset manufacturers use TI 3G technology in over 45 models shipping today. With more than 50 percent of the UMTS semiconductor marketplace, TI has won the first wave of 3G designs. By continuing to work closely with our customers and mobile operators, and with this new technology for 3G products, TI is also positioned to win the next wave of 3G designs by bringing 3G handsets to the masses at an attractive price point. TI's technology will fuel this growth and provide choice in the marketplace." - Gilles Delfassy, SVP of, TI's Wireless Terminals Business Unit, Cannes FR, February 14, 2005 -
At 3GSM TI announced the OMAP-Vox GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS chipset family, which merges a 3G modem and applications processor, into existing OMAP architecture taking their 3G chipset from custom built products (for the likes of Nokia and EMP), through migration to a standard product, and then through to a single chip standard product.
Built on TI's successful OMAP processor technology, the OMAP-Vox family of solutions merges both modem and applications functionality onto the existing OMAP architecture. Additionally, these solutions share a common software platform that can be re-used for a variety of growing market requirements, thus saving manufacturers years of software design effort and bringing overall development costs down.
A 2.5G version, the OMAPV1030 GSM/GPRS/EDGE chipset -- is already sampling.
http://tinyurl.com/5o8f9
http://focus.ti.com/pdfs/wtbu/TI_omapv1030.pdf
http://focus.ti.com/docs/pr/pressrelease.jhtml?prelId=sc05048
• To provide OMAPV1030 customers with a logical modem roadmap from GSM/GPRS/EDGE to UMTS and HSDPA, TI is developing additional OMAP-Vox solutions designed specifically to address the cost-optimized, feature phone and smartphone UMTS market segments.
• OMAP-Vox solutions for UMTS are expected to sample in 2005.
•Customers using TI's [ARM11 based] OMAP 2 applications processors will be able to migrate their applications software to future smartphone OMAP-Vox solutions.
At a very high level this is TI's 3G chipset roadmap:
http://focus.ti.com/pdfs/wtbu/TI_wireless_brochure.pdf
• Second-generation [ARM11 based] OMAP 2 processors are transforming mobile handsets further into essential mobile entertainment and productivityboosting devices. Designed for the multimedia-intensive demands of 3G, OMAP 2 processors combine consumer electronics-quality applications into the small footprint of a mobile handset for the ultimate 3G experience.
>> TI Sees HSDPA Reality by 2006
3GSM Daily MCI NewsFeed
16 February 2005
http://tinyurl.com/5hgk9
Chipset vendor Texas Instruments forecasts that HSDPA networks will have launched commercially within 2006, following rapid uptake of 3G services by the mass market. At the 3GSM conference in Cannes today, the company said it forecasts up to 1 billion users of 3G handsets by 2015. In order to stimulate such growth, TI today unveiled the OMAP-Vox GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS chipset, which merges a 3G modem and applications processor into existing OMAP architecture. Deepu John, senior product marketing manager of cellular systems for TI, said that this was a key part of the process for taking the 3G chipset from a custom built product, through migration to a standard product and then through to a single chip. This final stage giving 3G architecture its smallest form factor and cutting down dramatically on handset development time through the correlation of hardware and software. <<
- Eric -
TI: Technology Could Cut Cell Phone Prices
Wednesday February 16, 3:27 pm ET
By David Koenig, AP Business Writer
Texas Instruments Tests Technology That Could Drive Down Price of High-End Cell Phone Features
DALLAS (AP) -- Texas Instruments Inc., which makes computer chips for more than half the world's cellular phones, said Monday it is testing a new technology that could drive down the price of high-end features.
The big semiconductor company said it has developed a single chipset that contains a modem and a processor on a single piece of silicon, replacing two components with one.
Company officials say the new design will make it cheaper to build a phone that runs video at 30 frames per second or handles 3-D gaming, capabilities available now only on expensive phones.
"We're going to drive them down into meat-and-potatoes phones that have the largest market share," said Doug Rasor, a marketing vice president at Dallas-based Texas Instruments.
The company announced the new chip design before the opening of a major trade show for cell-phone makers and suppliers, held in the French resort city of Cannes.
The new technology, called OMAP-Vox, would also use less power than current chips, the company said. Phone manufacturers are testing it and it could show up in store displays by the end of this year, Rasor said.
Texas Instruments declined to identify the companies that are testing the new design beyond saying one is in Europe and another is in Asia.
Neil Strother, senior analyst with technology research firm In-Stat, said the Texas Instruments component could help bring the cost to produce a feature-laden phone down to about $125 to $150. That could mean a $75 price to the consumer, after subsidies that are commonly offered to U.S. subscribers of phone-service plans, he said.
"Most people are willing to pay about $100, maybe $125 for a really cool phone," Strother said. "You get past that and they start to say, 'Well, I don't know,' even though the phone might have cost that much to build."
Texas Instruments is trying to boost revenue by making more-advanced chips. It also stands to profit if sales of so-called 3G phones ever reach the lofty targets set by some industry officials and pundits. Third-generation phones operate on high-speed wireless networks capable of transmitting multimedia such as streaming video.
But the company is under constant challenge from competitors such as Qualcomm Inc. Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker and best known for powering personal computers, is also working on a streamlined chip for high-end phones.
http://www.ti.com
Intel: Making Cell Calls?
Friday February 4, 3:56 pm ET
By Gene G. Marcial
With Intel (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) struggling to crack the white-hot cell-phone business, some pros say it has little choice but to buy its way in. Names that pop up include Qualcomm and Analog Devices (NYSE:ADI - News), which already collaborates with Intel on cell-phone technology. But attempts with Analog "have met with limited success," says Krishna Shankar of JMP Securities. The plum catch, he asserts, is Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN - News). It dominates in baseband processors -- "the brains of wireless audio-signal processing," for global cellular standards. "Intel is eager to extend its franchise beyond microprocessors, and Intel and TI would be an ideal match," says Stephen Leeb, president of Leeb Capital Management, which owns shares in both. "Intel hasn't been able to translate its success into cell phones -- TI's stronghold," says Leeb. Shankar says that Intel on its own doesn't have extensive cell-phone software or the expertise to compete. TI is also a leader in digital-signal processing chips and software for processing voice and video. Qualcomm is big in the CDMA wireless market used by Verizon and Sprint. With its solid balance sheet and market value of $144 billion, Intel, trading at 22 a share, can easily gobble up TI, with a market cap of $40 billion and a stock price at 23. Both are off about 30% from their 52-week highs. An Intel-TI deal may raise regulatory issues, warns Shankar, who also owns both stocks. He sees TI earning $1.05 a share on sales of $12.5 billion in 2004 and $1.25 on $13.3 billion in 2005. Intel says it is "cautiously optimistic" that it can gain market share in cell phones and compete without having to buy another company. TI declined comment.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/050204/b3920127mz027_1.html
TI and Electronic Key for automobile
Heard on the news this morning that there are problems with the electronic lock for automobiles. The chips are made by TI.
Supposedly those locks are easily defeated using components from Radio Shack.
Anyone heard similar news?
A pretty good overview of the seven year effort by TI to bring this chip to market....
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57702944
Seven-year odyssey nets one-chip phone
By Patrick Mannion
EE Times
January 24, 2005 (9:00 AM EST)
Manhasset, N.Y. — Being called crazy didn't really bother the ragtag cadre of wireless pilgrims. Indeed, the disparaging term was a badge of honor for a tight-knit group born of its members' willingness to attempt a feat that had been broadly assumed impossible.
Rather, what bothered the foursome during the long, dark nights of their seven-year engineering odyssey were the times they let themselves wonder, however fleetingly, whether their detractors were right.
The journey began innocuously enough in 1997 with a wireless-technology road map by Texas Instruments Inc. The realization quickly followed that reaching the defined targets cost-effectively would require the assignees to do something radical. The upshot was a fundamental redesign of radio architectures that would require the company to bring to bear its vast collection of resources and expertise.
On a superficial level, the company's process technology, systems knowledge, IC design, test and simulation, and manufacturing knowledge were elemental and indispensable to the effort. But the deeper foundation was a company culture centered on technical accomplishment and innovation, where bonuses come second to pride, passion and the desire to stake out one's place in a highly competitive technical hierarchy.
It was that combination of the tangible and intangible that kept Ken Maggio, Dirk Leipold, Bogdan Staszewski and Khurram Muhammad focused on their path toward vindication. It came, finally, in the form of the industry's first single-chip all-CMOS GSM phone, for which Nokia is the first customer.
Guided by TI luminaries and industry veterans Dennis Buss, Gilles Delfassey and Bill Krenik, the team's accomplishment at first blush simply follows through on a highly publicized promise made in September 2002. But for TI and those analysts paying attention, the chip's technical underpinnings, based on digital RF processing (DRP), will translate in the near future to highly integrated communications and entertainment devices with ubiquitous low-cost wireless connectivity.
Initially, that connectivity will derive from the ability to integrate multiple radios cost-effectively on a single CMOS device. The longer-term goal, however, is to leverage the attributes of DRP to realize the wireless Holy Grail: software-defined radio.
"This clearly sets a new integration benchmark in terms of what can be put together on single-chip CMOS," said TI CEO Rich Templeton, who had added corporate focus to the list of intangibles that aided in the design's realization. "You have to have a clear idea of targets in terms of products, markets and customers that you clearly intend to win. You have to make sure everybody inside the company knows what that [vision] is — and that people have the resources to get it done."
That rang true for Muhammad, who was responsible for much of the chip's receive chain. "We were given the freedom to craft whatever we wanted, whatever made sense to us — as well as the responsibility to make it work," he said. "That's why we worked all those countless nights."
Now that DRP has put radios into the digital domain, Templeton is confident the technology will have far broader architectural implications. "I'm respectful of not trying to overstate this, but I think 10 years from now, you guys [EE Times] may look back and say DRP was one of the most significant innovations in the IC industry in the first decade of the 2000s."
Templeton's conviction stems not just from the breakthroughs in digital frequency synthesis and direct RF sampling, but also from the end application. With more than 600 million cell phones shipping annually, Templeton considers phones the most important end-product category in the tech industry. That said, he foresees a role for DRP in the wider communications and entertainment worlds, "since it's about radio communications with highly integrated low-cost CMOS — and we get pretty excited about both of those themes."
While Templeton is cautious about software-defined radio, given its myriad definitions and 20-year history of underachievement, he nonetheless thinks SDR's time is at hand. "We're here today," he said. "We have CMOS capable of switching at [the necessary] speeds, and we can integrate it in a low-cost platform."
Max Baron, an analyst at In-Stat/Microprocessor Report, was less reserved. "SDR is where [the technology's] going," he said, though he expressed disappointment in TI's timeline of 2008 to achieve it. Acknowledging that the GSM chip is commercially oriented, he added, "SDR is really the evolution — I'd like to see it happen sooner."
In the meantime, Baron considers the current GSM chip to be critical in terms of component cost and size reduction, as well as reliability. Estimating the cost reduction at "between $1 and $2, tops," Baron said the component cost reduction may not be as significant to customer Nokia as the integration — which itself leads to cost savings in terms of placement, test and inventory management — and the improved reliability. More space will also allow greater functionality, he noted, predicting that TI will quickly add in its Omap and Omap2 line of smart-phone processors.
Misnomer?
Historically, claims of "single chip" wireless have been met with skepticism. That has held particularly true for narrowband systems such as GSM, where receiver sensitivity, output power and phase-noise requirements have confounded integration and derailed attempts at all-digital approaches. That said, the TI chip packs the full digital baseband; all the SRAM, logic and processors; and the entire transceiver — from low-noise amplifiers on the receive side to the power amplifier buffer on the transmit side.
"It includes the VCOs, frequency-generation components, analog functions and power management," said Krenik, wireless advanced-architectures manager at TI. Targeting low-cost, high-volume GSM voice-centric designs, the chip's radio technology is fully GPRS-capable, said Krenik. Validation of that claim is in process. "We're also working on Edge and UMTS [3G]," he said.
With a nod to honesty under the cold eye of industry, Krenik also listed portions that are not on-chip, such as the power amplifier (PA), program memory (flash) and some battery management and power control, as well as some front-end SAW filters and a transmit/receive switch. "But it still [integrates] far and away the lion's share of the circuitry associated with the cell phone," he said.
The decision to leave some of the battery management and power control off-chip had to do with the high voltages involved as well as system-partitioning concerns, Krenik said. "The partitioning was done for cost reasons and for our own road map," he said. "It was designed to have specific advantages at the system level" — not because it would make for "a nice press release."
In-Stat's Baron found no fault either with the partitioning or with the decision to leave the power amp off-chip. "It makes sense to have the PA separate," he said. "Aside from its being difficult to integrate, there are lots of tricks [that can be used] to differentiate it."
Power management, meanwhile, is a system-wide issue and thus is not fodder for complete integration, Baron said. "If you have it inside, it's probably going to have to be super-programmable and complex." Off-chip power management, he said, "allows the cell phone manufacturer to control how they're using power."
The chip started sampling to Nokia in December, so TI fulfilled its September 2002 promise to sample a single-chip phone sometime in 2004. The company expects the chip to ship in production volumes next year.
Big berg
The chip itself is just the tip of a very large iceberg that broke off TI's wireless strategy. Shortly after the road map was released in 1997, it became clear within TI "that we had to do something very radical to be cost-effective and competitive," said Leipold, a physicist from Freising, Germany, who moved to Dallas to join Maggio on the project.
Dallas staffers Muhammad, born in Pakistan, and Polish-born Staszewski later joined the team's co-founders to form the foursome that Krenik calls the fathers of DRP. The team grew over time to include staffers in India and Nice, France. Over the course of the project, team members logged 1,500 hours on project-specific conference calls, exchanged 91,000 e-mails, logged 3 million miles in the air and celebrated the births of 10 babies.
It was Leipold who first made the case for building the chip in CMOS and who said the 90-nm process node would be the jump-in point. But doing analog and RF design at deep-submicron nodes raises seemingly insurmountable problems. And though the four core teammates were accomplished in their respective fields, none had experience in RF design. All, except for Leipold, had come from TI's storage division, where they had focused on hard drive read channels.
It was fertile ground for planting seeds of doubt. "There were countless nights in the building," said Maggio. "TI knew what the stakes were: If we got there first, there'd be a big payoff, so the pressure was enormous."
Staszewski toughed out the stress because he had a powerful motivation to participate: "I was working on my final dissertation for my PhD, and I wanted something novel." It so happened that Krenik was on his PhD committee. "I couldn't go back and say I was going to implement the chip in traditional CMOS," he said.
Tasked by Leipold with designing the frequency synthesizer and the transmit chain, Staszewski did produce some conventional proposals at the start. But Leipold kept throwing him out of his office, demanding fewer inductors.
"One inductor in a deep-submicron process can easily get to 50k gates," Leipold explained. "That's the same size as a full ARM processor with a little bit of memory."
"This was something that really shook us," said Staszewski, who was still busy brushing up on charge pumps and phase detectors. "It pushed us in this direction of saving as many analog components as possible and doing as much as possible in the digital domain."
To do so, the group decided to leverage the inherent advantages of deep-submicron processes, specifically their fast switching times and consistent capacitor matching. "We realized we could use a time-to-digital converter to go from a time to a digital value, bypassing the analog voltage and making everything much simpler," said Staszewski. Discussed at the 2004 International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the TDC concept developed into a readily controlled, all-digital-signal system that eliminated the need for a phase-locked loop to generate precise analog control voltage for the VCO.
The ISSCC paper described the technique as it applied to a 0.13-micron Bluetooth transceiver. Because of its relatively low performance requirements relative to GSM, Bluetooth became an excellent proving ground for the DRP concepts. The BRF6100 Bluetooth single-chip product was the first real-world implementation of DRP and was announced in June 2002. That chip was followed by the BRF6150 and the BRF6300.
Muhammad, for his part, had gotten roped into the project when Leipold walked into his office and asked, "If we were to sample RF, what would we do with it?"
"That got me figuring out the possibilities, as at deep-submicron processes, you can't get gain from transistors at RF frequencies," Muhammad recalled. He joined the team in 2000 as a "loaner" from the research group.
Right away, Muhammad figured out that there would be difficulties with the settling-time stats that would be required to get the necessary resolution, signal-to-noise ratios and sensitivity. "So, we figured the best thing was to move to the current domain," he said.
That leverages the fast switching time and capacitor consistency to perform switched-capacitor filtering, Muhammad said, "so that at the first point we are converting down to baseband, we're actually filtering out most of the energy that we are not interested in." The idea led to the multitap direct-sampling mixer (MTDSM), also presented at last year's ISSCC.
Functions combined
With the MTDSM, said Krenik, "you're getting heterodyning [down-conversion], gain and selectivity, all in a single operation. That's the power of Khurram's receiver concept."
Switched-capacitor filters themselves are not new; what's unusual here is the frequency of operation in the GHz range, made possible by the process node. "The architectures that we've developed simply would not work if we were back at 0.25 or 0.35 micron," said Krenik.
While circuit innovation was key, "there also had to be maniacal focus on getting to production, so every idea had to be proven," said Maggio. Validation thus was key, he said — "and there were some massive tool problems."
For example, "We had to trick the VHDL simulator," capable of resolution down to femtoseconds only, "into thinking it was operating at attosecond resolution," Staszewski said.
"We were making demands that had never been made before," noted Krenik. So, all were pleasantly surprised at the results of first-pass silicon.
The chip is still in characterization, but Krenik said it meets all critical GSM performance metrics. The next stage is to apply the techniques earlier in the next process node, at 65 nm. Krenik expects the first products based on that node to appear in 2007.
Another promise?
Eric, I was expecting TXN to maybe get a bounce from the good NOK news, but I see it hasn't happened much as of yet.
I think the NOK/TXN chip announcement is significant. I wonder how long it will be before TXN moves into the WCDMA / 1XEV-DO chip market with these higher density chip solutions. If I read things right these TXN chips are integrating several more functions than QCOM's "Radio One" architecture. Would appreciate any take you might have.
CNN/Money on TI ...
* Investors considering taking up a position with TI may want to wait a few more hours, however. At 1 a.m. EST tomorrow, Nokia -- TI's biggest customer -- will report its fourth-quarter earnings. Then we'll be able to get some guidance on how the high end of the cell-phone market is doing.
Note: The market rewarded TI's earnings announced last evening with a $1.54 (+7.29%) share price increase today.
>> It's All Small in Texas (Instruments)
Everything, including the stock price. Will its new cell-phone chipset make the difference?
Eric Hellweg
Boston
CNN/Money
January 26, 2005
http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/26/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/
The word heading into Texas Instruments's fourth-quarter earnings call last night was "innovation." The company finally unveiled its single-chip mobile-phone microprocessor on Monday -- an innovation it first announced almost two and a half years ago.
Investors considering taking up a position with TI may want to wait a few more hours, however. At 1 a.m. EST tomorrow, Nokia -- TI's biggest customer -- will report its fourth-quarter earnings. Then we'll be able to get some guidance on how the high end of the cell-phone market is doing.
The Mobile Phone Action
The real action for Texas Instruments -- where the company makes the majority of its revenue -- is in mobile phones.
TI's engineering coup of replacing several chips with one semiconductor puts it in a strong position because low-cost, midfunctional mobile phones are in high demand in places like Russia, Latin America, and parts of Asia. TI's single chip is very attractive to makers such as Samsung, with whom TI just signed a supplier agreement, because it lowers their component costs and improves their margins in these markets.
Qualcomm is also making a single chip for phones, but analysts think it won't hit the market until a year after TI's, giving Texas Instruments a significant head start.
"The emerging market is absolutely where the growth is right now," says Kevin Burden, an analyst with IDC. He projects that 703 million mobile phones will be sold worldwide in 2005, up 8 percent from 2004. That's not a boffo growth rate, but the emerging markets -- where TI's new chip will play -- are growing much faster.
Meanwhile, thanks to its partnership with Nokia, TI is well positioned for the high end of the mobile-phone market.
"TI is not just a unit volume play," says William C. Conroy, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris. "It's content within the cell phone. As you move beyond voice, the phone requires more applications processors. That's good for TI. It increases their dollars of silicon per handset."
If TI went from selling $5 to $10 worth of chips in each cell phone to selling $15 to $30 worth, Conroy says, the company would show strong growth even in a market with flat unit growth. Conroy has a "buy" rating on the stock and says he holds a small number of shares in the company.
Despite that positive news, Texas Instruments still has a fundamental problem. As its declining stock price indicates (down more than 30 percent in the past year, currently hovering near its 52-week low), it is getting hammered along with the other semiconductor makers.
In fact, it's getting hammered more. TI trades at a trailing price/earnings ratio of almost 20, which is significantly cheaper than the industry average of 25. How will it get credit for its efforts?
Innovating your way out
TI is attempting to avoid the blows in a manner befitting an engineering-led company: It wants to innovate itself out of the market doldrums. The single chip for phones is viewed by many as a good way to give TI luster.
I sat down with Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton a little more than a year ago -- he was COO at the time -- to talk about the company's engineering efforts, the semiconductor downturn, and the single-chip plan.
"[Chip] integration is a classic approach for us," he said. "The more we can put on fewer chips, the better."
But what's surprising about Texas Instruments today, and what puts it in such a promising position, is that not only is it attempting to engineer itself out of a downturn, it's also trying to use marketing -- a novel approach for such a famously sober company -- to bolster its prospects in the hot high-end television market.
Thomas Mucha, a columnist at Business2.0.com, wrote an excellent piece this week that outlines the challenges facing TI as it goes up against plasma and LCD screens with its digital light processing technology:
http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1019460,00.html
Right now the company's DLP division accounts for only about 5 percent of its revenue. But the high-end TV market is still up for grabs, which means that a big marketing push today could pay off handsomely later on. <<
- Eric -
TI (TXN) ...
... announced after the Bell. TXN was up 1.7% today and so far at least, the AH crowd seems to be satisfied with results and guidance based on the recent earnings update.
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/investor/quarterly/4q04.shtml
* Q4 profit declined year-over-year, but the company beat Wall Street expectations and guided in line for the first quarter of 2005.
* Revenue was $3.2 billion compared to revenue of $2.8 billion last year. Analysts expected revenue of $3.1 billion.
* Texas Instruments said earnings declined to $490 million, or 28 cents a share, from $512 million, or 29 cents a share, in last year's fourth quarter. The company was expected to earn 26 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call.
* TI's Rich Templeton, president and CEO said: "Revenue from the company's wireless products grew more than $1 billion to a record $3.8 billion for the year. Almost $500 million of our wireless revenue growth came from the emerging market for 3G cell phones [modem processors and apps processors], and we expect another strong year in 2005."
* Texas Instruments said it would repurchase $2 billion more in company stock, bringing its total buyback authorization to $3 billion.
* For the full year, Texas Instruments earned $1.86 billion, or $1.05 per share, up from $1.2 billion, or 68 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue increased to $12.58 billion from $9.83 billion last year.
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Gloves come off as TI, Qualcomm spar over 3G chips
Thu Nov 25, 2004 09:53 PM ET
By Doug Young
HONG KONG, Nov 26 (Reuters) - For the top two makers of mobile phone chips, it's time to take the gloves off.
For years, Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) have avoided direct competition by focussing on different mobile technologies: in TI's case, the GSM standard used by 80 percent of mobile subscribers; for Qualcomm, the CDMA system used in parts of the United States and Asia.
Now, the advent of new standards for third-generation mobiles is driving the companies onto each other's turf and raising the prospect that Qualcomm will dominate a 3G chip market forecast to be worth billions of dollars in the next few years.
San Diego-based Qualcomm, as well as making chips for the 3G standard that will succeed CDMA, is tasting early success with its semiconductors for the GSM successor.
TI, likewise, is offering chips for both of the new technologies that will turn mobile phones into broadband Internet-enabled devices.
But Qualcomm has an advantage in that both 3G standards are based on its patented CDMA technology, as their names attest: the GSM successor is called WCDMA, while the plain CDMA networks are upgrading to CDMA 2000.
"Next year is going to be a brand new game," said Warren Lau, a semiconductor analyst at Macquarie Securities. "Qualcomm seems to be doing pretty well in Europe with their WCDMA chipsets. But I'm not sure if they can repeat their success in Asia."
TI has dominated the market for GSM phone chips with a 60-70 percent share and hopes to do the same for WCDMA. But Qualcomm has set itself a target of half the WCDMA market, albeit not any time soon.
"Our target is to try to get up around 50 percent ... as quickly as possible," Qualcomm CEO Irwin Jacobs told reporters on the sidelines of a 3G conference last week in Hong Kong. "Often people laugh at that when we say that's our target."
NO LAUGHING MATTER
It's no laughing matter for TI. Qualcomm forecasts its WCDMA chip sales will double in 2005, albeit from a low base, and has already signed on Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) , the third-biggest mobile maker, number four player Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and sixth-ranked LG Electronics Ltd. (066570.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) for its WCDMA chips.
Qualcomm is also wooing market leader Motorola Inc. (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Japan's NEC Corp. (6701.T: Quote, Profile, Research) , although it is likely to face competition from other chip makers such as Agere Systems Inc. (AGRa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , Analog Devices Inc. (ADI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) and Philips Electronics NV (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) .
Next year is rapidly shaping up as a watershed year for 3G, with the recent or pending launch of services by heavyweights such as Europe's Vodafone Plc (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , U.S. carrier Verizon (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , and Australia's Telstra Corp. (TLS.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) .
Merrill Lynch estimated WCDMA phone sales will grow from 14 million this year to 45 million in 2005. CDMA and CDMA 2000 handset sales combined, of which half or more of them are now 3G, are expected to grow to 160 million in 2005 from 145 million.
Still, 3G phones will remain a small fraction of total mobile sales Merrill forecasts will reach 658 million in 2005.
TI sees its 3G chip sales overtaking its 2G business only in 2006. Phone makers have begun testing its new CDMA 2000 chips, said Doug Rasor, TI's worldwide strategic marketing manager, although he declined to name customers.
Pacific Crest Securities analyst James Faucette said Qualcomm has a leg up on TI when it comes to 3G chip design.
"For the foreseeable future, I don't particularly see Texas Instruments' designs being very competitive," said Faucette, who rates Qualcomm a "sector outperform" but does not cover TI.
"As far as WCDMA, Texas Instruments doesn't really have a competitive design in the market yet ... I would expect that you'll see phones based on Qualcomm solutions for WCDMA rolling out in Hong Kong and Australia." (Additional reporting by Daniel Sorid in San Francisco)
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TI Focuses on 3G Asia Wireless Infrastructure Market, Delivering Greater Bandwidth for Better Connections to Base Station OEMs
Monday November 15, 9:04 am ET
New 850 MHz DSP Processor Enables Wider Network Coverage for TD-SCDMA, GSM/EDGE, UMTS and CDMA2000
HONG KONG, Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Pushing the envelope for wireless infrastructure bandwidth, Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN - News; TI) today introduced the industry's highest-speed digital signal processor (DSP) optimized for base station manufacturers deploying 3G networks such as TD- SCDMA for the booming China market. TD-SCDMA is a China-backed 3G wireless technology adopted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for 3G standards as well as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The technology is currently in several trial networks in China. The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) indicates that the number of mobile phone users in China has passed 315 million, which creates a tremendous opportunity for the wireless industry.
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The new device -- TMS320TCI100Q -- gives wireless service providers the heightened bandwidth needed to deliver wider network coverage areas, clearer signals and cutting-edge features like wireless video download, and real-time video conferencing over a cellular handset. Additionally, for TD-SCDMA baseband processing, this product can reduce the number of processors for a full carrier from three to two. Improvements have also been made in power management, with the device operating at a cool 2 watts, decreasing the overall power per channel by 20 percent.
With the lowest power per channel in the market, TI's latest DSP is also highly beneficial for GSM/EDGE and UMTS transceiving applications as well as for transcoding/media gateway designs.
The TCI100Q is the newest member of TI's wireless infrastructure-optimized processors, and is also compatible with TI's TMS320C6000(TM) family of DSPs. It offers higher system integration with the added boost of Viterbi and Turbo co-processors. Code compatible with all current and future TCI and C6000(TM) family products, the TCI100Q gives OEMs an indispensable tool for creating new revenue opportunities in their markets.
"With 9 out of the top 10 base station OEMs using our solutions for 3G networks, TI has developed a compelling portfolio of products designed to give the customer maximum flexibility," said Jerold Givens, business unit manager of Wireless Infrastructure DSP at TI. "With the addition of the 850MHz product, manufacturers can now choose which solution best meets their needs for specific air interface deployments and network conditions. We know that consumer demand for increased bandwidth will continue to grow, and we will continue to push the power-performance envelope in our next generation of products."
As the wireless industry experiences explosive growth in China, Japan and South Korea, and as the United States adopts next generation networks, the TCI100Q offers OEMs upgrades across multiple air interfaces. For GSM/EDGE baseband processing and UMTS symbol rate processing, the 850 MHz device offers an 18 percent improvement in performance over the current 720 MHz option, and delivers added room for more channels or added features. And for transcoding/media gateway applications, the TCI100Q supports up to 48 NB AMR channels, up from 41 channels with the 720 MHz version, allowing for improved system density.
In addition to the benefits of the new device, only TI delivers a complete signal chain solution for wireless infrastructure OEMs. Developed over 20 years in the wireless market, TI's end-to-end approach allows customer to save development time and dollars that are better spent creating differentiated products and services. In addition to the speediest, highest performing silicon, TI offers complementary high performance analog parts that are optimized for the wireless market, including cutting-edge analog/digital converters.
OEMs also have access to TI's third parties in our 500+ member network who have developed unique code optimized for specific air interfaces.
Further simplifying the design process, TI offers customers software libraries as well as TI's proprietary development tool, Code Composer Studio(TM) (CC Studio). With CC Studio, designers working on the TCI100Q can take advantage of a development environment that integrates all the familiar PC host tools needed to take a real-time, embedded application quickly through the design process. This high level of integration allows DSP designers of all experience levels complete access from beginning to end of development and gets products to market fast.
Availability
The TMS320TCI100Q, TI's first WI DSP manufactured on our leading edge 90nm high-performance process, was released to production on September 30, 2004, and samples and production are available now. For more information on this product and TI's complete wireless infrastructure solutions, visit http://www.ti.com\wi850
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com .
Trademarks
All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Source: Texas Instruments Incorporated
TI cites umts:
Courtesy of lastchoice over on the IDCC board.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=4326007
TI reported in-line revenue. Texas Instruments (TXN, $21.09, Buy, covered by J.
Lau, target $24.00) reported 3Q04 sales of $3.25B, slightly above its revised
lower guidance of $3.10B - $3.24B, up 0.3% Q/Q and above consensus of $3.17B.
Semiconductor revenue was $2.79B, flat Q/Q but up 31% Y/Y. Wireless revenue
grew 5% Q/Q and 40% Y/Y due to strong demand The company stated that the
sequential growth was driven by its large OEM customers, partially offset by a
decline in wireless chipsets that were mostly sold into Asian ODMs and Chinese
local manufacturers. 3G UMTS modem products continued to be a significant
factor in wireless growth in 3Q04. The company guides (1) total revenue to be
in the range of $2.96B and $3.20B and (2) Semiconductor revenues to be in the
range of $2.63B to $2.83B. The company stated the inventory corrections have
continued into 4Q04. We view this news as in-line with other build data points.
We continue to maintain our global forecast and model 2004 wireless handset
units at 650M, with 3% sequential growth in 3Q followed by 11% in 4Q. TXN
supplies GSM handset chips to Nokia, Motorola (MOT, $18.72, Neutral, target
$17.00), Sony-Ericsson and other handset vendors. Nokia is TXN's biggest
customer, accounting for 14% of TXN's 2003 revenue.
TI Q3 04 Earnings ...
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), the largest maker of chips for cellular phones, on Monday said demand from handset makers helped boost quarterly profit even as its distributors cut back orders because of excess inventories of chips for standard analog products. Earnings in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 were $563 million, or 32 cents a share, compared to a year-earlier profit of $447 million, or 25 cents a share. Revenue rose to $3.25 billion from $2.53 billion. Analysts on average had been expecting earnings of 28 cents a share on revenue of $3.17 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. For the fourth quarter, Dallas-based TI said it expects revenue of $2.96 billion to $3.2 billion, with share earnings of about 24 cents to 28 cents. Analysts on average were targeting earnings of 26 cents a share on revenue of $3.22 billion. - Reuters -
>> TI Reports 3Q 04 Financial Results
Dallas
October 18, 2004
* TI Revenue about Even with Prior Quarter, Up 28% from Year Ago
* Operating Profit Reaches All-Time High, More Than Doubles from Year Ago
* 4Q04 Revenue Outlook Reflects Seasonally Lower Calculator Sales and Reductions in Inventories by Semiconductor Distributors
Conference Call on TI Web Site at 4:30 p.m. Central Time Today
http://www.ti.com
Texas Instruments Incorporated today reported third-quarter 2004 revenue of $3.250 Billion, about even with the second quarter and up 28 percent from the year-ago quarter.
Revenue from the company's wireless and Digital Light Processing (DLP) semiconductor products reached record levels for the second consecutive quarter. Strong sequential growth in these areas offset declines in other areas, primarily in standard products, which were affected by ongoing inventory adjustments, especially in distribution channels.
Compared with the third quarter of last year, the increase in TI's revenue reflected double-digit growth across all the company's major Semiconductor operations, with particularly strong contributions from wireless, DLP and high-performance analog products.
"TI's operating profit in the third quarter more than doubled from a year ago to reach an all-time high," said Rich Templeton, TI president and chief executive officer. "The value of TI's diverse product portfolio was evident as weaker revenue from standard products was offset by record revenue from both wireless and DLP products. In wireless, TI has achieved early leadership in the UMTS market, which is widely expected to be the prevalent global standard for 3G. A strong majority of these 3G cell phones are based on TI digital signal processors. Likewise, in the nascent market for digital televisions, our DLP technology is now outselling plasma in the North American market for big-screen TVs.
"Nonetheless, the environment is not without challenges. In the third quarter, distributors and customers adjusted semiconductor inventories, and these adjustments have continued into the fourth quarter. In response, we have taken quick actions to sharply reduce production loadings, which should enable us to exit the year with lower inventory levels. We also tightened expense controls across the board," he said.
"In this more uncertain environment, it is important to note that TI's operational flexibility has resulted in a more stable financial model for the company. Our manufacturing strategy combines internal and foundry capacity so that TI's most capital-intensive, advanced-logic factories remain highly utilized as the market expands and contracts. This strategy proved successful in the third quarter as utilization in TI's advanced-logic factories remained high. In addition, this strategy has allowed us to reduce capital spending. TI's capital expenditures in each year since 2001 have been lower as a percent of revenue than any in the past decade," he said.
"I am very confident in TI's position and future. Cash flow is high, our long-term prospects are excellent, and our balance sheet is strong. To increase the return we deliver shareholders, in the quarter we announced plans for a $1 billion share repurchase and a 17 percent higher dividend," Templeton said. <<
- Eric -
TI v. Qualcomm DE Court Of Chancery Opinions
The decisions and opinions rendered by Chancellor William B. Chandler III of the Court Of Chancery of the State Of Delaware in the matter of TI v. Qualcomm (which stemmed from Qualcomm v. TI) can be downloaded in Word format from the links below:
CA 20569 Chancellor Chandler Memorandum Opinion: March 15, 2004
http://courts.state.de.us/opinions/(44tsbj55dc4fuk45r1zudqrj)/download.aspx?ID=46140
CA 20569 Chancellor Chandler Letter Opinion: July 14, 2004
http://courts.state.de.us/opinions/(44tsbj55dc4fuk45r1zudqrj)/download.aspx?ID=48250
CA 20569 Chancellor Chandler Letter Opinion: September 24, 2004
http://courts.state.de.us/opinions/(44tsbj55dc4fuk45r1zudqrj)/download.aspx?ID=52280
- Eric -
3G phones shave costs, but integration path unclear
Posted : 14 Oct 2004
The latest crop of 3G cellphones shows the market is maturing with more integrated digital chipsets driving substantially lower handset costs. However, designers are taking diverging paths in silicon integration, according to a new report from Portelligent Inc.
"On balance, we have gone from downright pessimism concerning the business prospects of UMTS, to a guarded optimism," said Howard Curtis, vice president of the company that analyzes portable systems. The report focused on handsets for the UMTS standard that integrates 2G GSM and 3G W-CDMA radios.
A teardown of 11 UMTS phones released in the last 18 months showed handsets released since the start of 2004 have on average 25 percent fewer components than first-generation UMTS phones that shipped in 2003. Portelligent estimates manufacturers cost of goods dropped an average $70 from $234 for the 2003 models to $164 for this year's crop.
"Given our assumptions, the actual cost reductions may be even greater than our analysis suggests," said David Carey, president of Portelligent. That's because the company assumes high-volume shipments and does not include R&D and general business costs in its estimates.
"What's driving the costs are the additional radio, more complex ASICs, higher memory content for video and pictures and larger high-res color LCDs," said Carey.
All the handsets in the study used TFT color LCDs that typically ranged from 1.8- to 2.2-inch diagonal in size and 176 x 220 or QVGA in resolution. Total memory size ranged from as much as 100 Mbytes for phones for Japan's feature-rich FOMA service to 50MB. Average memory sizes dropped somewhat in 2004 phones as more memory was integrated into chip sets and the second-generation 3G handsets slimmed down.
"Some first-generation UMTS phones were more like PDAs, focusing more on features than form factor," said Curtis.
Digital silicon integration was the primary trend driving the lower parts counts and costs. For example, the first-generation NEC e-606 phone sported 108 ICs, the most complex cellphone Portelligent has encountered thus far.
The NEC phone used multiple ASICs to process both the GSM and W-CDMA protocols. NEC teamed up with Agere Systems to deliver a 2004 handset with a single digital baseband for GSM and W-CDMA. Other handset makers found other chip partners to take them down a similar path, although some still use separate applications and communications processors.
Carey said he expects to see continued use of multichip packages to reduce the footprint of NOR, NAND and SDRAM memories used in handsets. However, it's not clear what the next steps are in silicon integration.
"We are seeing what may be a divergence of design philosophies," said Carey.
With its 2004 design, Nokia stepped back from a first-generation integrated DSP and applications processor that handled/apps processor for GSM and W-CDMA.
"It's not exactly clear why that happened. It may have been to get away from ASIC complexity that got out of hand. Whether the chip designs recollapse remains to be seen," said Carey.
Chip counts for phones used on Japan's FOMA service grew by as much as 60 percent from 2001 to 2002 phones to 2004 models, although overall silicon die area shrank by 15 percent. The growing chip count may be due to the "barnacle effect" of new features getting added on to the air interface. Each new feature can require both a new chip and a power management device.
Integration is on the horizon for RF components. Most of the handsets in the study used separate GSM and W-CDMA radio paths with separate W-CMDA transmit and receive chips. However, Infineon is now providing a single-chip W-CDMA transceiver. Qualcomm is providing an integrated GSM and W-CDMA transmitter with a separate W-CDMA receiver and small external amplifier.
The RF integration in next-generation handsets "will have some cost impact, but it will not be that dramatic," said Carey.
The study also noted that major handset makers are starting to ally with one of five chip set makers for their handset silicon. The handset/chip partnerships include NEC/Agere, LG/Ericsson Mobile Platforms, Motorola/Freescale, Nokia/TI and Samsung/Qualcomm.
- Rick Merritt
EE Times
TI Inside: Motorola's A920 UMTS Mobile ...
... uses TI's OMAP1510 applications processor and TI power management.
>> Under the Hood of Motorola's A920: UMTS Drives Multi-Radio Systems
David Carey
Portelligent
PlanetAnalog
August 7, 2004
http://www.planetanalog.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=26806489
3G cellular service is on the rise, with correspondingly more complex handset designs. Motorola's A920 UMTS terminal is from a crop of multiband, multi-protocol designs which offer up wireless video, web browsing and of course"voice communications. UMTS is a mix of legacy GSM and newer W-CDMA services which together kick up analog content in the radio area and demand more acute power management in light of UMTS's added battery burden.
Some of the A920 circuitry is based around early forms of Motorola's i.300 platform of 3G cellular components. A Motorola #PC55061 appears to interface both GSM and W-CDMA paths to the company's #SC29411VF digital baseband itself boosted by [with] a TI OMAP1510 applications processor.
For the W-CDMA radio, a pair of Maxim components (#MAX 2363/#MAX2309) along with a Motorola LNA/Mixer (#770) and RFMD power amplifier (PA) module are used. Similarly, a Motorola #PC79903VH GSM Transceiver and LNA/Mixer form the GSM radio path with a Skyworks PA for final stage transmit. A TDK RF Front-End module manages the rather complex distribution of transmit and receive signals between the A920's antenna and its two radios with three bands of service coverage.
But UMTS is about more than multiple cellular radios, and additional wireless abounds. For location-awareness, a SiRF StarII GPS chipset (#GSP2e and #GRF2i) enables the A920 to acquire localized maps and even receive directions to the nearest restaurants of choice. Lest you still feel unconnected, a Broadcom #BCM2033 single-chip Bluetooth radio/baseband provides local communication with handsfree headsets or other gadgetry for data-sharing.
The Broadcom part"along with Bluetooth chips from others"are pushing the envelope in mixed-signal IC design to dish up highly-simplified local area radios. Expect GPS offerings to progress along a similar path with some manufacturers already claiming single-chip GPS solutions. Of course not all the analog action lives in the RF domain. TI's ASIC (#TWL93010B) serves system level needs to orchestrate power draw while a slew of smaller-scale devices tackle local sub-system regulation. California Micro Devices' #304 ESD Filters mirror a general use of silicon-based passives in handsets to guard against human keyboard and connector zaps that could cripple internal electronics.
Par for the course in all 3G handsets, the A920 shows that increased digital technology in terminals brings with it increased analog content.
David Carey is President of Portelligent. The Austin, Texas company produces teardown reports and related industry research on Wireless, Mobile, and Personal Electronics. ( http://www.teardown.com ) <<
- Eric -
( TXN ) - NEWS ..... !!
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041007/texas_instruments_qualcomm_4.html
TI on Intel and Symbian Series 60
>> TI Downplays Rival's Deal With Nokia
Firm says Intel still must prove itself in wireless market
Crayton Harrison
The Dallas Morning News
October 5, 2004
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/100604dnbusti.902db.html
Texas Instruments Inc. played down its biggest customer's new development pact with chipmaker Intel Corp. Tuesday, saying Intel hasn't proven it can compete in the market for advanced wireless phones.
Intel said Tuesday that it has become a member of TI customer Nokia Oyj's development team, giving it a potential avenue to get its chips in sophisticated wireless devices known as third-generation, or 3G. Intel is also collaborating with Symbian Ltd., which makes operating systems that run software on phones, to create a prototype device.
TI noted that some phonemakers already use its advanced communications chips. Intel has customers for its processor chips but has struggled in the market for communications technology.
"They haven't at this point proven they have a successful product," said TI spokeswoman Gail Chandler.
Dallas-based TI's long relationships with Nokia and Symbian face no imminent danger, analysts said. But Tuesday's tit-for-tat announcements show how TI and Intel are gearing up for the next phase of their battle.
The wireless industry is counting on 3G devices to create the next great wave of demand. The devices handle the high-speed transmission of data as well as voice communications.
TI wants to maintain the momentum it built during the last major advance of wireless technology, and Intel hopes to establish itself in a market that has largely eluded it thus far.
"A lot of people counted us out," said Intel spokesman Mark Miller. "We're not taking our ball and going home. We remain committed, and we continue to compete."
Intel's agreement with Nokia doesn't necessarily mean Nokia will use Intel's chips. Intel will work with Series 60, Nokia's version of the Symbian operating system, as it designs products for the wireless market.
Finland-based Nokia, which has U.S. headquarters in Irving, said the partnership with Intel would encourage more phonemakers to use Series 60 and the Symbian operating system. Nokia is one of several phonemakers that collectively own Symbian.
Nokia has been TI's biggest customer and tightest collaborator. And Symbian has relied heavily on TI's components.
Of the 31 advanced Symbian-based devices available or soon to come, 28 use TI technology, the chipmaker noted Thursday. But the competition to win slots in 3G phones is just beginning, analysts said.
"There are going to be plenty of additional entrants," said John Jackson of the Yankee Group. "There is plenty of time for others to gain market traction." <<
- Eric -
Qualcomm v. TI
Business as usual, as usual, as usual ...
Delaware Court Rules in TI's Favor
http://tinyurl.com/6l9bd
Dallas, Oct. 6: The Delaware Court of Chancery has rejected a second claim by Qualcomm Incorporated that Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) materially breached the parties' cross-license agreement. This latest ruling, in which the court found that no breach of the agreement occurred, follows an earlier ruling, issued in July of this year, in which the court rejected a separate assertion by Qualcomm that TI materially breached the same agreement. With Qualcomm having abandoned in August a previous claim for damages, the latest ruling disposes of all outstanding claims before the court in the existing litigation between the parties, with the license rights of each party under the cross-license agreement remaining in effect. "We're grateful for the court's ruling and are pleased to conclude the trial on this note," said Senior Vice President and General Counsel Joseph F. Hubach. ... <snip rest> ...</I>
- Eric -
Series 60 Symbian Platforms ...
Slacker,
<< Nokia and Intel are going to work together for development of a Series 60 (Symbian) platform for 3G handsets. This is quite a departure from Nokia's traditional reliance on TI and it's OMAP platform. >>
That's interesting. Particularly since the new Series 60 UMTS 6630, which itself appears to be the 1st model of a new architectural platform supposedly uses the OMAP 1510 apps processor.
<< ... or if they are just developing a platform to provide more choices for other handset manufacturers who choose Series 60. >>
That could be the case. It fits with the objectives of the MIPI alliance founded originally by TI, STMicro, ARM, and Nokia. Intel, like TI, is more than just an ARM licensee, they are "architectural licensees," and Intel is certainly a player in the 3G game. We have also recently had the recent STMicro (Nonadik) Series 60 announcement (below).
Looks like Nokia is covering all bases, Series 60 wise. The Register comments here:
>> Intel, Symbian To Define 3G Smart Phone 'Standard'
Tony Smith
The Register
5th October 2004
Intel's attempt to conquer the mobile phone chip market took a mighty step forward today when the chip maker announced a partnership with leading smart phone OS maker Symbian and leading smart phone manufacturer Nokia to co-operate on the development of 3G handsets.
The deal will see the trio create 3G reference platforms powered by Intel's ARM-based XScale chip family running Symbian's OS and Nokia's Series 60 user interface.
Intel's approach neatly mirror's Symbian's own. Both want their respective hardware and software platforms to become de facto standards, and with the momentum building behind the shift to 3G, now is a good time to make it easy for handset vendors to break into the market, primarily by offering a ready-made handset platform.
Perfect: the vendors are saved millions in R&D expenses, and Symbian and Intel are guaranteed a customer base. It it's big enough, its gravitational pull will warp the paths of other vendors toward the de facto standard.
Certainly, Intel is someway behind rival ARM-based chip maker Texas Instruments in the 2G/2.5G Symbina smart phone. TI today claimed more than 85 percent of the 5m-odd Symbian based phones shipped in the first half of 2004 were based on its OMAP platform.
Nokia is perhaps less keen on establishing Series 60 as a smart phone standard since it has to compete with the very companies it's licensing the UI to. But with its big market share lead and the prospect of all those licence fees, it no doubt feels it's in a winning position no matter what.
Enter the horizontal integration of the smart phone market. Just as the personal computer market was once a collection of companies developing or sourcing their own components to build unique solutions, but now, thanks to Wintel, they're all the same, so too 3G will mark just such a shift in the smart phone market, if Intel and co. have anything to do about it.
Hence the statement from Intel's Cellular and Handheld Group general manager Sam Arditi that "the next generation of handsets for 3G networks will require a platform approach".
Having learned from its relationship with Microsoft, Intel is less concerned with the overall composition of the platform so long as its chips and no one else's sit at the 3G reference's heart. Today's announcement is pro-Symbian, but Intel's just as happy being considered the chip maker of choice for Palm OS- and Windows Mobile-based smart phones. It can afford now to be OS agnostic. ® <<
>> ST Joins Series 60 Community
Unstrung
Espoo and Geneva
09.28.04
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) today announced that they have expanded their cooperation into the area of Series 60 product creation. ST's Nomadik family of multimedia application processors for 3G mobile devices have been adapted and optimized to support the Nokia Series 60 Platform, enabling faster handset development for Series 60 licensees.
ST will demonstrate the Series 60 Platform on the Nomadik processors at the CDMA Americas Congress at the Miami Beach Convention Center on September 28-30. The demonstration will showcase a Nomadik Development Kit built on the STn8800 (Nomadik) processor running on the Series 60 Platform. The solution will be available for Series 60 handset manufacturers before the end of 2004.
"We are very pleased to welcome STMicroelectronics to the Series 60 Product Creation Community. The commitment of silicon vendors will facilitate the acceptance of the Series 60 Platform across the industry," says Antti Vasara, Vice President, Nokia Technology Marketing and Sales. "Series 60 brings a feature rich software platform and multi-vendor economies of scale to the smartphone market, while ST's Nomadik platform family brings the essential requirements of low cost, low power, and high performance."
"The Series 60 Platform with ST's ultra-low-power Nomadik multimedia application processors will accelerate market acceptance of innovative third-generation (3G) handheld communication products and personal digital assistants (PDAs)," says Guy Lauvergeon, General Manager of STMicroelectronics' Multimedia Platform Unit. "It also represents a new level of cooperation between ST and Nokia."
The Nomadik open multimedia platform, winner of the Microprocessor Report's 2004 Best Application Processor of the Year Award, enables portable terminals, like mobile phones and PDAs, to play music, take pictures, record video, and host two-way video communications in real time. Based on an innovative architecture built around smart accelerators, Nomadik chips deliver best-in-class, 30-frames-per-second video images while minimizing power consumption and cost. <<
- Eric -
An interesting development....Nokia and Intel are going to work together for development of a Series 60 (Symbian) platform for 3G handsets. This is quite a departure from Nokia's traditional reliance on TI and it's OMAP platform.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041005/uktu004_1.html
Of course, when I read the statement, I'm not sure if Nokia is bringing a handset to market based on XScale or if they are just developing a platform to provide more choices for other handset manufacturers who choose Series 60. Any thoughts?
Slacker
Slides from prior ...
- Eric -
Kevin March (TI CFO) Presentation ...
Kevin March, TI SVP and Chief Financial Officer presented at the Banc of America Securities 34th Annual Investment Conference on September 21, 2004 in
San Francisco, CA:
His slides are here:
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/investor/speeches/2004/bofasept04/index.shtml
The webcast is here:
http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/bas/34th-annual-2004/id59212122.cfm
- Eric -
NTT DoCoMo Partners with Semiconductor Companies for Global Expansion
September 27, 2004 (TOKYO) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc announced on July 12 that it will invest a total of 7 billion yen in Renesas Technology Corp over three years from fiscal 2004 to 2006 to promote technology development. The following day, it announced that it also is making a 5.5-billion-yen investment in Texas Instruments Inc for the same purpose.
NTT DoCoMo has proposed to each of the two companies to jointly develop single-chip LSIs that would integrate the baseband function for W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS with the CPU core (application processor), which is mainly responsible for executing applications. With this, NTT DoCoMo aims to reduce the handset development costs for its third-generation mobile communications service, FOMA.
As the result of these partnerships, which will bring benefits to the two semiconductor companies as well, handsets incorporating the newly developed LSI are expected to be available in the first half of 2006.
Anticipation for Massive Cost-Saving
What prompted NTT DoCoMo's decision to make investments in Renesas Technology and Texas Instruments is its understanding that support from semiconductor manufacturers would be essential if NTT DoCoMo, an advocate of W-CDMA technology, is to take the lead in spreading this technology in the Japanese market as well as in the global market.
The biggest concern for NTT DoCoMo, which wishes to promote the W-CDMA FOMA phones, is the high cost of development while sales of FOMA handsets are still low. In presenting its financial report for the first quarter of fiscal 2004 (April to June 2004), it revealed that the average wholesale price of a FOMA handset from NTT DoCoMo to handset distributors in the quarter was as high as 65,600 yen, more than 25,000 yen higher in comparison to the "mova"-brand phones based on the conventional PDC system, which are priced at an average of 39,800 yen.
NTT DoCoMo aims to make these partnerships a start in the effort to reduce the manufacturer prices of handsets by 30% to 40%. Currently, the combined cost for the baseband LSI and application processor is estimated to be 5,000 yen to nearly 10,000 yen. If the company could integrate these two chips into one chip, and cut the costs to around 3,000 yen, NTT DoCoMo may reduce the costs for purchasing the handsets from manufacturers by at least 30 billion yen on an annual basis.
Integrating the chips into one can also be effective in reducing the handset development costs, which continue to grow. Multiple sources have confirmed that the development costs for FOMA handsets are approximately 10 billion yen per model.
On the other hand, development costs for third-generation handsets using single-chip LSIs from Qualcomm Inc are about 2 billion yen to 4 billion yen. This is because the Qualcomm chip incorporates graphics and Bluetooth functions, which have to be added on in the case of chips from other manufacturers, reducing the number of inspection processes. It seems that NTT DoCoMo is hoping to have manufacturers develop chips similar to the Qualcomm chip, so that it can cut the purchasing price of the handsets.
New Chip Expected to Help DoCoMo Increase Global Presence
The partnership deals also can be interpreted as glimpses of NTT DoCoMo's hope to increase revenue from the worldwide sales of the jointly-developed, single-chip LSI, because NTT DoCoMo will receive royalties for the LSIs sold from Renesas Technology and Texas Instruments.
In the joint-development of single-chip LSIs, Renesas Technology and Texas Instruments will each provide their GSM/GPRS baseband chipset and application processor, while NTT DoCoMo will provide its W-CDMA baseband chipset, in which it has know-how obtained from experience with FOMA. This is what the royalty, estimated to be a few percent of the LSI sales price, covers.
If the LSI unit price is 3,000 yen and the royalty fee 3%, NTT DoCoMo will receive 90 yen per LSI chip sold. This raises new revenue for NTT DoCoMo. The LSIs could be sold for use in NTT DoCoMo's competitors' handsets, and they could be sold outside Japan. For NTT DoCoMo, expanding its market takes precedence over keeping its know-how to itself.
Renesas Technology and Texas Instrument will also greatly benefit from having access to NTT DoCoMo's know-how in W-CDMA technology, which has accumulated over the years since the start of commercial service in 2001.
Another benefit is being able to adjust their interpretation of the W-CDMA standard while they are still in the development stage of the LSI. This is important, because although standardization groups such as the 3GPP have developed the W-CDMA standard, in practice there are differences among the semiconductor manufacturers' interpretation of some parts of the standard.
For NTT DoCoMo, the partnerships will enable them to spread a common interpretation of the W-CDMA standard globally through the semiconductor manufacturers.
DoCoMo to Adopt Symbian, Linux in Future FOMA Handsets
These partnerships also imply development of a new platform for cell phones, and this may affect software development. One such example is the operating system to be supported. Renesas Technology has made a new decision to port Symbian, an operating system for cell phones from the UK company Symbian Ltd, to SH-Mobile, which it plans to integrate into the single-chip LSI.
NTT DoCoMo plans to use Symbian and Linux as the operating systems for FOMA phones. For certain reasons concerning the review works, for the present it plans to have the LSI jointly developed with Renesas Technology supporting Symbian, while having the LSI jointly developed with Texas Instruments supporting Linux. Renesas Technology has started working towards supporting Symbian in compliance with this direction.
Supporting Symbian will give Renesas Technology a foothold in expanding into the European W-CDMA market. Many major phone companies have invested in Symbian, including Finland's Nokia Corp. To promote the widespread use of the single-chip LSI in Europe through these companies, it will be essential to support Symbian.
NTT DoCoMo and Renesas Technology also plan to develop a reference board for handset development, which will include the operating system.
Related link: NTT DoCoMo's press release
(Takahiro Kikuchi, Associate Editor, Nikkei Electronics)
TI and Xilinx to lower order volumes at UMC, say sources
Sources indicated that TI (Texas Instruments) will cut 50% of the volume of its handset-use baseband chip orders at UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) in 4Q. Xilinx will also cut orders for 90nm-made products. [Commercial Times, Sep 27]
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20040927PR205.html
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