NEC weds baseband chip to Linux for future 3G "mobile terminals"

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Nov. 22, 2004

NEC and its semiconductor subsidiary, NEC Electronics, will jointly develop a dual-mode baseband chip that will enable NEC's Linux-based 3G mobile phones -- and other types of mobile terminals -- to work both inside and outside of Japan. The dual-mode baseband chip could appear in products by 2007.

Additionally, NEC says it will strengthen development efforts behind it's Linux platform for 3G mobile terminals.

The partnership between NEC and NEC Electronics is expected to produce a chip design of between 3,000 to 100,000 transistors that, once produced, could be used as the baseband processor in phones capable of operating on either NTT DoCoMo's 3G W-CDMA network, or on GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks such as those found in Europe, the US, and elsewhere.

Baseband processors run a very small real-time operating system such as VRTX, providing modem control, signal processing, and other time-critical functions. Mobile phones designed for 3G networks typically run baseband processors alongside a more complex processor, such as NEC's MP211 application processor, running Linux, Symbian, Microsoft Smartphone, or another sophisticated OS. NEC hopes to explore integrating the baseband and application processors, it says, to reduce minimum size and power requirements. Additionally, NEC says it will develop its Linux-based software platform for 3G terminals to pursue terrestrial digital TV, voice recognition, and various multimedia applications.

NEC lists major features of the new baseband chip as follows:

Compliant with 3GPP release 5 (as of September 2003)
Supports HSDPA (external accelerator)
Supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE and W-CDMA modes
Manufactured using 90nm process technology

NEC's mobile terminals business unit will be responsible for defining basic LSI specifications and verifying the LSI to be embedded in the mobile terminals. NEC Electronics will be responsible for the chip's design, development and production.

GSM is the fastest-grown 3G technology in North, South, and Central America, according to market intelligence firm EMC. The number of GSM subscribers in the region grew by 124 percent, more than doubling between September, 2003 and September, 2004, EMC says.

NEC Electronics is the leading provider of 3G baseband chips in Japan, it says, while NEC says it is the leading provider of 3G mobile handsets. NEC last week shipped the N900iL, a Linux-based 3G mobile phone that also supports VoIP operation on wireless LANs.

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