e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[cksla]

Posted by: cksla
In reply to: None Date: 11/13/2001 12:00:25 PM
Post # of 13546

I can see clearly now the rain has gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that made me crash
It's going to be a bright, bright sunshiny day
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music is nice, but give me MOS 3.0 for my $$$$$$$$$$$

Wireless Carriers, Phone Makers Back Open Standards
Audio/Video
By Peter Henderson

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The world's largest wireless handset manufacturers and leading wireless carriers unveiled plans on Monday to ensure compatibility between mobile phones and services by agreeing standards for deploying new networks.

Aiming to spur growth of the wireless phone market, the consortium plans to standardize technology to make it easier to develop and broadly deploy new services and to avoid proprietary systems.

Nokia (news - web sites) (NOK1V.HE) (NYSE:NOK - news) Chairman and Chief Executive Jorma Ollila announced the partnership in a speech at the COMDEX trade show. It includes major phone manufacturers, Motorola, Ericsson (news - web sites) (ERICb.ST), Toshiba Corp. (6502.T), Matsushita (6781.T), Samsung (69500.KS), Siemens (SIEGn.DE) and Sony Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T).

U.S. carriers AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, a unit of SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC - news) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - news) signed up along with Japan's dominant wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo (news - web sites) (9437.T) and the UK's Vodafone (VOD.L).

The partners did not announce financial terms or give a time table for the plan which involves the GSM, WCDMA (news - web sites) and GPRS mobile networks, but they outlined some standards they plan to jointly adopt, such as elements of browsers and messaging systems.

The adoption of global standards could run in to difficulties as companies disagree on the best way to implement technologies.

But Ollila said that success would open a broader market for wireless carriers and phone makers, make it easier for consumers to use their phones and speed the adoption of premium services.

The initiative comes at a time when mobile phone sales have leveled off globally after several years of runaway growth.

Setting the technology standards will be like setting rules for playing a game. Individual companies could make different phones and offer services but software programs could be written in languages understandable by all.

Today each often ends up doing things different ways. Short message service, the ability to send brief text messages on wireless phones, has taken off in Europe but has failed to take off in the United States due to disagreements on how to implement the systems, Nokia's senior vice president of mobile software, Pertti Korhonen, told reporters.

Agreeing standards would settle that, he said.

Thus a Nokia phone and a Sony Ericsson phone might look different, and one service provider might support an electronic banking service while another might not, but both phones would be able to download and run the same program.

``We need to create some uniformity behind the scenes,'' Niklas Sarander, vice president of Nokia mobile software, told reporters. ``The key driver why we are doing this is -- fuel market growth.''

Ollila said Nokia, the world's leading maker of mobile phones, would offer the source code for its phones ``openly and on equal terms.''

Ollila also said Nokia would license its smartphone platform to other manufacturers. Smartphones combine phones, personal digital assistants and Internet access devices.

The project's success hinges on the carriers and handset makers carrying out their vow to respect standards that each might want to make improvements.

Success would also be a cold shoulder to Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) as it tries to extend its influence on personal computers to the Internet with its .NET initiative of network standards.

Nokia's Korhonen said the alliance planned authentication procedures to allow mobile commerce which would be compatible with the Liberty Alliance, a new group spearheaded by Sun Microsystems Inc.(Nasdaq:SUNW - news), the network computer maker whose Java software which allows programs to run on multiple operating systems and devices.

Microsoft has set its own standards for the .NET program, while Korhonen said the wireless industry consortium was focused on completely open technologies not controlled by any one company.

``We think that we should not stick to the limited business models of the past,'' he told a group of reporters, referring to Microsoft's lock on the operating system which controls virtually all personal computers.

The consortium also includes MM02 (BT.L), Telefonica Moviles (NYSE:TEM - news)(TEM.MC), Fujitsu Ltd.(6702.T), Mitsubishi Electric Corp.(6503.T), NEC Corp.(6701.T), Sharp Corp.(6753.T), and Symbian.
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Texas Instruments Supports Industry Leaders' Open Mobile Architecture Initiative With OMAP(TM) Wireless Processors
Support for Java(TM) Programming and Symbian OS in TI's OMAP Product Family Demonstrates the Company's Support to Open Mobile Standards
LAS VEGAS, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN - news; TI) has announced its support for the open mobile architecture initiative, launched by Nokia with other industry leaders earlier today. This initiative demonstrates the commitment of industry leaders to the open mobile architecture, which will accelerate the growth of the mobile services industry.

``The open mobile architecture will receive a significant boost from TI,'' said Pertti Korhonen, senior vice president, Nokia Mobile Software. ``TI's OMAP platform enables optimal performance and power savings for next- generation mobile devices and support for bandwidth-intensive wireless applications.''TI's OMAP wireless architecture, selected by Nokia and other leading manufacturers as a platform of choice for 2.5 and 3G wireless devices, supports the open mobile architecture initiative. TI's OMAP family of powerful and scalable processors, features full support of advanced mobile operating systems such as Symbian OS. In addition, it provides Java programming support. The OMAP platform enables services such as multimedia messaging, short video clip and Internet audio downloads, e-mail, real-time Web browsing, advanced security and games.

``It is of utmost importance to create an open software platform for mobile services. TI is pleased to support Nokia and other industry leaders in order to ensure a balanced business ecosystem, which is built on open industry standards,'' said Gilles Delfassy, senior vice president, Worldwide Wireless Communications, TI. ``We believe that the OMAP platform is the ideal processing solution to support this initiative.''

Combined with easy access to TI's leading wireless expertise, OMAP technology and support infrastructure, this initiative that encompasses end- to-end solutions and services for mobile terminal vendors and operators, further enables application developers to foster rapid innovation and accelerate 2.5 and 3G services.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated is the world leader in digital signal processing and analog technologies, the semiconductor engines of the Internet age. The company's businesses also include sensors and controls, and educational and productivity solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing 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
===============================================Texas Instruments unveils processor for 3G market

By Darrell Dunn
EBN
(02/19/01 12:04 p.m. EST)

DALLAS--Shipments of 3G-enabled cellular handsets may not amount to much in the next few years, but Texas Instruments Inc. believes the silicon battle is already raging and today will unveil its first standard processor for the highly coveted market.

The first device in a two-processor solution, TI's OMAP1115 application processor is aimed at 2.5 and 3G wireless handsets. It uses the company's TMS320C55x DSP core and an ARM950 microprocessor combined with an optimized set of peripherals. Designed to execute Internet-based commands, the device will be paired in new phones with an upcoming communications processor that combines a separate 'C55x DSP and ARM950 with optimized modem layers.

Together, the devices will comprise TI's Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP), though individual Internet and communications processors could someday be integrated into a single DSP/ARM solution, according to Richard Kerslake, worldwide wireless computing marketing manager at TI.

By building handsets with its DSP and RISC processors, the company has realized cost, performance, and production efficiencies at a time when handset manufacturers are poised for the convergence of voice-centric cellular phones and more data-intensive PDAs, according to Kerslake. The company also believes OMAP will allow it to further expand its wireless revenue, which grew from $500 million in 1996 to $2.3 billion last year.

"The convergence of PDAs and phones is ongoing from both directions," Kerslake said. "PDAs are getting wireless capabilities, and we're seeing phones getting PDA functionality. Which platform eventually wins out will probably come down to regional tastes."

Though similar in approach to upcoming platforms from the likes of Analog Devices, Intel, and Motorola, TI believes its 3G design will help maintain its leadership role in the cellular market, where its DSPs are used in nearly two-thirds of all handsets.

Micrologic Research, Phoenix, estimates that 1.6 million 3G-class handsets will be shipped this year, primarily in Japan and Korea. Europe is expected to begin adopting 3G-class handsets by the end of this year and into 2002, while 3G shipments in the United States are not expected to reach significant volumes until 2003 or later. In the meantime, 2.5G GSM phones equipped with general packet radio service (GPRS) are expected to dominate in Europe and particularly in the United States.

The debate over whether 3G handsets will eventually come to more closely resemble phones or PDAs-and how that convergence will be best addressed through silicon-is becoming a battleground for competitors vying for position.

Intel Corp., which has limited participation in the handset market through its 1999 acquisition of DSP Communications Inc., believes the new wireless devices will be compute-intensive and require greater reliance on high-performance RISC engines such as Intel's XScale microprocessor. The chip is a recently introduced high-performance version of the StrongARM processor architecture Intel acquired in its 1998 purchase of Digital Equipment Corp.'s IC operations.

Intel plans to use a single XScale for its application processor, and a combination XScale and Micro Signal Architecture (MSA) DSP co-developed with Analog Devices Inc. for the communications processor. Together, the solution will represent Intel's Personal Client Architecture (PCA).

To date, the only announced design win for Intel's PCA is Mitsubishi Corp., but the company believes it has opportunity in the 3G market.

"Applications [for 3G] will become much more sophisticated than they are today," said Ron Smith, vice president and general manager of Intel's Wireless Communications & Computing Group, Folsom, Calif. "They will be largely control applications, and will require an extendible, reprogrammable microprocessor-type of architecture."

Jack Quinn, an analyst at Micrologic Research, said a RISC-intensive approach such as Intel's could find favor in next-generation PDA designs in which RISC "is a model people are more comfortable programming with. It's true that there are a lot of noncellular people out there who are not comfortable working with DSPs."

Other potential 3G silicon providers appear to be taking a DSP/MCU approach similar to that of TI's.

Analog Devices, for instance, has announced that Siemens AG has selected its ADSP218x DSP core and an ARM7 microprocessor for its 2.5G GSM/GPRS handsets. The Norwood, Mass., chip maker said that future handsets are expected to use the MSA DSP co-developed with Intel.

Motorola Inc.'s Semiconductor Products Sector is looking at multiple approaches. SPS' application engine will likely incorporate a future-generation Dragon-ball processor and possibly a DSP. And the communications processor will combine Motorola's MCore340 processor and a StarCore 140 DSP, which the company developed with Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group (now Agere Systems Inc.).

Motorola also has been replacing its in-house microprocessors with the ARM processor in a variety of product offerings. The company could provide 3G handset components for the merchant market that combine an ARM device with the StarCore DSP, according to observers.

Quinn said that despite the flurry of activity, TI's inherent position in the 2G handset market-and its announced 2.5 and 3G development agreements with handset suppliers Ericsson, Nokia, and Sony-will continue to prove an advantage.

"I think companies that are trying to get in now have an uphill fight," Quinn said. "Companies are designing stuff now, and maybe it's not the final product, but nevertheless, once you have a certain amount of intellectual effort put into the design, it's hard to change."

Competitors have virtually no chance of stealing Nokia away from TI, and an only slightly better opportunity with Ericsson, said Will Strauss, an analyst at Forward Concepts Co., Tempe, Ariz. "A company like Nokia is pretty much locked into TI's core and tools by this point," Strauss said.

For 3G CDMA applications, TI in December signed a cross-licensing agreement with Qualcomm Inc. that should provide San Diego-based Qualcomm with royalty revenue, said Greg Teets, an analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., St. Louis. But it appears there will be little head-to-head competition.

The OMAP1115 combines a 200MHz 'C55x DSP providing 320 mips performance with a 175MHz ARM9 offering 210 mips performance. The OMAP115 is scheduled to begin shipping in volume in the second half of this year. TI did not disclose pricing.
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TI's dsp used in e.digital's reference design is the same one that is at the core of TI's OMAP and new chipset for 2.5 and 3G

http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=815036