Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

[khemara_qc]

Qualcomm readies single-chip cdma2000 1X radio
By John Walko

CommsDesign.com
Nov 15, 2004

http://www.commsdesign.com/news/tech_beat/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52601530

LONDON — Qualcomm has released details of a single-chip device for building cdma2000 1X-based handsets as well as a highly integrated version of its RF CMOS transceiver for the same format 3G air interface. The single chip 1X part is expected to start sampling in the fist quarter of 2006.

Separately, the company also said major infrastructure suppliers such as Lucent Technologies, Ericsson, Airvana, Hitachi, Samsung, Nortel and Motorola have started using its digital baseband modem, the CSM6800, to drive adoption of cdma2000 1xEV-DO, Revision A for high data rate cellular networks.

The latest cdma2000 1X device integrates a baseband modem, radio transceiver, power management and multimedia engines into a single chip, while the radio transceiver — a component of this single-chip — combines radio receiver and transmitter functionalities into a single design using RF CMOS.

The company says the single chip brings, for the first time, basic data and multimedia capabilities to entry-level wireless handsets with an architecture that lowers overall handset development costs. The single-chip solution also lowers the cost of wireless data by allowing operators to provide basic multimedia services on entry-level handsets.

"The single-chip solution is testimony to our relentless innovation," said Dr. Sanjay Jha, president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "This cost-effective solution is the next dimension of our integration strategy, and also builds on our ground-breaking radioOne solutions with the industry's first RF CMOS transceiver for cdma2000 1X."

Qualcomm says the industry has found developing a transceiver for a full-duplex system such as CDMA2000 to be a tremendous challenge due to the interference experienced from placing the receive and transmit functions on the same device. The latest part is said to overcome these problems.

Commenting on the program to drive adoption of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, Dr Jha said working with all these infrastructure providers would "significantly impact the global availability of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. A. (And) with the acceptance of 1xEV-DO — both Rev. 0 and now Rev. A — Qualcomm continues its leadership in CDMA technologies, supporting major OEMs and operators worldwide with complete system solutions." Supporting data rates of 3.1 Mbit/s on the forward link and 1.8 Mbit/s on the reverse link, Rev. A enables network operators to provide an even broader range of wireless multimedia and other data services for consumers and enterprise customers. Rev. A is optimized for packet data service and provides one of the lowest costs per bit when compared with other wireless wide area network (WAN) technologies.

"Qualcomm's Rev. A technology program creates a cooperation with the global leaders in wireless infrastructure to ensure a commercially ready, seamless migration path to the next generation of DO," said Jim Straight, vice president of Data and Wireless Internet Services for Verizon Wireless.