Wireless chipmaker, Ericsson and Texas Instruments Inc have announced a plan to integrate Ericsson’s radio chips with TI’s applications processors. They will co-develop custom 3G handsets, which will leverage TI’s OMAP processor line and Ericsson’s 3G RF and modem technology. The pact will help handsets makers to save time and money on designing new data enabled mobile devices.
Ericsson’s chip division customers will include mobile phone leader, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, the mobile joint venture with Sony Corp. The companies have did not disclosed the terms of their pact. The companies are expecting to launch the first integrated chips for high speed wireless phones in the second half of 2008.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of the agreement, but said that handsets containing their integrated chips should hit the market in the second half of 2008. The handset would be based on the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) air interface with downlink rates of 7.2 Mbits/s and uplink rates of 2.9 Mbits/s.
According to the general manager of Ericsson’s chip division, Robert Puskaric, the higher level of integration, this will reduce cost and time.
While according to iSuppli technology analyst, Francis Sideco, the pact between TI and Ericsson will save up to $10 million in manufacturing, which have been spent getting chips from different companies to work together within a new product.
Image Credit: Cell Making & IWPC
Via: Reuters
