Seoul, Korea ---- Dec 21, 2004 (By Kim Kyu Tae, ETNEWS Writer) ---- EoNex, a Korean venture company, is the second company in the world to have successfully developed a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO modem. Even though the Korean mobile communication industry gave birth to and fostered the growth of the CDMA industry, it has been virtually dependent upon Qualcomm, which owns the intellectual property of the original technology. This dependence was due to Korea’s inability to commercialize a communication (baseband modem) chip requiring key technology.
However, the 100% homegrown technology that has been successfully introduced into the market for EV-DO, the high-end version of CDMA communication, is expected to enhance the competitive edge of the Korean mobile handset industry. In addition, the successful commercialization of this most sophisticated communication chip is considered as a positive message to Korea’s non-memory semiconductor industry which has been unproductive.
? The status of the commercialization of CDMA chips: Excluding Qualcomm, the only companies around the world that have commercialized CDMA2000 1X modem chips are EoNex, Via, Nokia and Samsung.
Qualcomm, as the owner of the intellectual property of the original technology, enjoys an almost 100% market share while designing the CDMA technology roadmap. It is worth noting that, except for Qualcomm, no other companies have successfully developed the CDMA2000 1xEV-DO chip up until now. EoNex is the only company besides Qualcomm to achieve this milestone. Therefore, EoNex has become the only alternative to Qualcomm in the EV-DO segment, a high-end baseband market.
? What is the impact?: As one of the most recent technologies in the CDMA communication technology, the EV-DO is expected to rapidly expand its market share since all the future CDMA services must be provided to be able to accommodate the EV-DO. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the share of EoNex in the CDMA market will increase as well. In addition, it is also expected that the mass production of EoNex’s EV-DO chips will contribute to the strengthening of the competitive power of the Korean mobile handset industry. Above all, it can reduce the dependency on Qualcomm. As an alternative to Qualcomm, EoNex’s chips may make it possible for handset manufacturers to develop a wider variety of products and to be relieved, to a degree, of the imbalance between supply and demand, which has up till now been driven mainly by the supplier. It may also be possible to create a specialized business model between domestic handset manufacturers and EoNex.
? The light of hope in the Korean SoC industry: The successful commercialization of EoNex’s chip shows the possibility of growth in the ASIC industry in Korea due to the fact that the communication modem, the pinnacle of System on Chip (SoC), was developed domestically. Not only communication technology, but also various multimedia technologies, microprocessor technologies, and memory technologies are used in the chip as well. In addition, CMOS nano process technology is used in the fabrication process.
EoNex’s success deserves attention from companies in the industry for the fact that software issues, the most difficult aspects of commercialization, were resolved internally. Dr. Sung H. Chun, EoNex C.E.O., has stated, “Developing software for commercialization was much more difficult than designing the chip,” adding, “It is significant that the software was executed successfully in an actual network environment.” Industry experts are hoping that world class technology will continuously emerge from other areas as well with the momentum provided by the successful introduction of EoNex’s CDMA chip.
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