| Renesas samples mysterious multi-core mobile phone processor |
Aug. 25, 2005
Renesas is sampling a highly integrated mobile phone processor combining an SH-Mobile-based application processor with a "dual baseband processor" supporting both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS. The chip was jointly developed with NTT-DoCoMo, and targets dual-mode W-CDMA-GSM/GPRS handsets that will help NTT-DoCoMo and others promote their 3G services globally, Renesas says.
NTT-DoCoMo is the largest mobile operator in Japan, a country that arguably boasts the most advanced mobile phone networks in the world. It chose Linux as its handset operating system in December of 2003, and took a $3M equity stake in embedded Linux supplier MontaVista just before Christmas last year.
Renesas has not specified a name for the new chip, referring to it simply as an "LSI" (large scale integration) -- a term used for chips with 3,000 to 100,000 gates, and often used to designate mobile phone baseband processors that run real-time software for processing voice signals and controlling the radio modem. Renesas originally announced the joint mobile processor development project with NTT DoCoMo in July of 2004.
According to Renesas, the new LSI incorporates NTT-DoCoMo's W-CDMA technology, along with Renesas's GSM/GPRS technology. It also incorporates an application processor based on a third-generation Renesas SH-Mobile core.
Renesas announced its second-generation SH-Mobile core, the SH-Mobile3, in May of last year, claiming that chip was powerful enough to run multimedia applications on general purpose OSes such as Linux. In April of this year, it began shipping an SoC based on an SH-MobileJ3 -- possibly the same core used in the new LSI. That SoC targets mid-market feature phones.
MontaVista has said it is currently contributing to real-time Linux technology it hopes will enable Linux to support single-chipset mobile phone designs, such as the new Renesas LSI. However, all of MontaVista's current Linux mobile design wins are based on Intel XScale (ARM9-derived) PXA-series application processors, as far as we know.
NTT-DoCoMo says it will use the jointly developed LSI to promote its FOMA ("Freedom of Mobile Applications Everywhere") W-CDMA-based 3G services globally. The company's managing director of customer equipment development, Mr. Koji Chiba, said, "I believe this single-chip LSI will lower the cost of FOMA handsets while improving such basic performance features as length of standby time, and will encourage the adoption of FOMA services on a global scale."
Brisk sales of Linux-based mobile phones in Japan helped Linux trounce Windows in global phone shipments in Q1 of 2005, according to Gartner.
Availability
Customers are now evaluating samples and reference boards, according to Renesas.
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