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chip posts

Samsung develops first chip for US mobile digital TV transmission, provides no release date

by Darren Murph posted Oct 19th 2009 @ 9:33AM

Mmm, nothing like a pinch of predictability to wake us in the morning. Just days after the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) finally announced that a North American mobile DTV standard was struck, Samsung has jumped in with what it's calling the planet's first single chip solution designed to handle those very transmissions. All we're told is that the solution combines RF and "digital chip components" into one 65 nanometer chip, making it ideal for smaller devices such as smartphones, car-mounted televisions and portable media players. Of course, Sammy doesn't even bother to mention a mass production date, so we're guessing we all just rise awkwardly and start a roaring slow clap to celebrate the accomplishment.

Samsung, LG, and SKT hook up for chip design

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 27th 2009 @ 1:33PM

There's a lot of Kumbaya going around in South Korea this morning with the announcement that Samsung and LG -- normally the most bitter of archrivals -- will start working together to develop the next generation of chips for digital TVs and phones. Also being pulled into the love fest is domestic carrier SK Telecom, South Korea's largest, who will be working specifically on designing wireless systems-on-chip for use in handsets. Interestingly, it seems Sammy will be left out of the loop on actual design; that'll be left to LG and others, while Samsung will be responsible for manufacturing and testing the goods. For its part, the government seems to like what it sees here -- it's pumping some 19.5 billion won (about $15.7 million) into the project, though there's no word on when we'll see the fruits of the labor in a retail product.

CSR fits WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, and GPS into CSR9000 wireless chip

by Nilay Patel posted Feb 17th 2009 @ 6:49PM

We don't know if CSR's latest all-in-one chip benefits from the recent acquisition of GPS chipmaker SiRF, but the CSR9000 does manage to bundle the location-based technology with WiFi, Bluetooth, and FM. It's also boasting low energy output and small form factor. The company says it's already sampled it for key, unnamed customers. Those canoodling in Barcelona can check out a live demonstration of the chip running on Android at the company's booth.

Samsung growing its own 4G chipsets

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 30th 2008 @ 12:43AM

You know those annoying little stickers you get on new handsets proudly boasting that they're packing 3G technology from Qualcomm? Yeah, well, those have already started to go away as manufacturers have turned to competing chipsets -- but Samsung buyers definitely won't need to peel those off anymore in a year or two when the Korean giant starts rolling out its WiMAX- and LTE-based phones. Its own homegrown WiMAX silicon is already available in sample quantities to both its own phone guys and other companies, and LTE versions are on the way (though it's not clear whether the LTE stuff will be ready in time for their very first phone models to use the technology). Ultimately, Samsung hopes to shave costs and avoid a few pesky royalty payments by doing things in-house, and seeing how every single phone in a few years is going to need one of these two technologies on board, we'd say this is a good place to start.

[Via GigaOM]

New Broadcom chip for phones does 802.11n, lots of other stuff

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 9th 2008 @ 12:18AM

Phones have lagged -- understandably, we suppose -- behind desktops and laptops in bringing 802.11n to market, but it was bound to happen eventually; to that end, Broadcom has announced its BCM4329, one of the first mobile 802.11n solutions on the block. On top of delivering up to 50Mbps of real-world WiFi throughput on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the darned thing throws in Bluetooth, an FM receiver, and an FM transmitter, too -- in other words, everything but the kitchen sink, where the "kitchen sink" is the cellular radio itself. Sadly, the 4329 sticks with single-stream transmission to conserve battery life -- no MIMO here, folks -- but considering the 802.11g alternative, we'll take what we can get. The chip's already being sampled (and hopefully being integrated into future products) by Broadcom's customers with mass production following on sometime in 2009.

Broadcom packs Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and FM transceiver on 65nm combo chip

by Darren Murph posted Oct 24th 2008 @ 8:20AM

You can just tell from the wording in Broadcom's latest press release that it's still beaming from the late September court ruling involving it and Qualcomm, as we've never seen any one company so excited about a piece of silicon. The BCM2049 combo chip is built on 65-nanometer technology and combines Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and an FM transceiver in one convenient place. Obviously, the chip is being aimed at up and coming music phones, and it also features SmartAudio voice processing, Bluetooth audio streaming and an FM transmit function that will surely be next to worthless in mid- to large-size cities. Whoever made it onto Broadcom's early access list can get samples now, but you'll have to bypass the bouncer in order to get pricing.

Start-up debuts crazy new noise reduction tech for mobiles

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 12th 2008 @ 10:55AM

A small company coming out of stealth mode at MWC this week is making some pretty wild promises about its new silicon -- and phone manufacturers must be buying the hype, because several have apparently have signed their names on the dotted line. The California start-up, Audience, is showing a 2.7 x 3.5mm chip that it claims uses some pretty wild algorithms to go beyond existing technologies like Motorola's CrystalTalk to reduce outgoing and incoming noise on calls by up to 25 decibels, enough to significantly reduce or entirely eliminate the sound of trains and yappy morons at Metro stops, car traffic, and loud music. The firm didn't disclose who its manufacturer partners were, only saying that there'd be further announcements later in the year. What's tha-- huh? No! We said, THERE'D BE FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS LATER IN THE YEAR.

[Via New York Times]

Qualcomm intros new chipsets that handle Bluetooth, FM and GPS

by Darren Murph posted Nov 19th 2007 @ 4:51AM

Hot on the heels of its dual-3G Gobi chip comes a new trio of units from Qualcomm that cram a modem, multi-band RF transceiver, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, FM radio and GPS capabilities into a 12- x 12-millimeter package. The units support UMTS, HSPA and EV-DO (depending on which you select), and there's also an ARM11 CPU that hums along at up to 600MHz for processing applications. Furthermore, each chip can handle a 5-megapixel camera, VGA display and TV output, and in case you hadn't guessed, they're all fabricated using 45-nanometer technology. No word on where exactly we'll see these used, but samples are scheduled to ship out in Q4 of next year.

[Via PhoneScoop]

NTT DoCoMo cooks up low-power chip for Super 3G

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 21st 2007 @ 5:05AM

In technology, speed is almost universally the enemy of power, and that rule certainly holds true in the world of cellular data standards. You heard it from His Steveness himself -- one of the main reasons we don't have a 3G iPhone on store shelves is because he isn't happy with battery life on HSDPA chipsets yet (consumers' opinions be damned, apparently), and in general, runtimes on 3G handsets large and small flag their 2G cousins, sometimes by a significant margin. Happily, the wiz kids at NTT DoCoMo are on the case, crafting Super 3G / LTE chipsets on 65nm dies capable of burning through 200Mbps at "sufficiently low power consumption" for mobile use. There's still no word on when NTT DoCoMo (or anyone else, for that matter) will be launching a commercial network at LTE speeds, but the company's hailing this latest batch of chips as a "milestone" on that journey -- and let's be honest, odds are good that Japan's gonna be rocking this stuff years before the rest of us anyhow.

[Via PhoneMag]

HTC to soldier on with Qualcomm chips

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 14th 2007 @ 5:34PM

Apart from Verizon, it seems that carriers and manufacturers alike have kept a pretty steady stance on Qualcomm's far-from-over spat with Broadcom -- and in light of the most recent ruling allowing Qualcomm customers to ship products containing its chips, that stance may be paying off. HTC is the latest major manufacturer to reaffirm its relationship with the chip maker and patent holder extraordinaire, saying that it intends to release ten new models sporting Qualcomm innards by year's end. Big man Peter Chou himself chimed in on the issue, proclaiming "we are pleased to have a close strategic relationship with Qualcomm and look forward to bringing continued industry-changing devices to market." 'Course, you won't be bringing those industry-changing devices to the US if the court system ultimately rules against your bedfellow, Peter. Just thought you should know.

US Prez upholds Qualcomm chip ban, Verizon snickers

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 6th 2007 @ 6:51PM

Qualcomm -- a company that's arguably more used to suing than being sued -- isn't finding much luck in its protracted quest to avoid a Broadcom-led ban of its 3G hardware from coming into the States. Following a recent denial of its motion to stay the ban in the court system, the President of The United States himself (or his administration, anyway) has swooped in to render an executive judgment, and it ain't looking any better for Qualcomm. Saying that the importance of protecting IP rights outweighs the inconvenience of the ban, the Bush folks have stood by the ITC's decision to impose the ban in the first place, making it seem all that much smarter now for Verizon to have sidestepped the whole ordeal and paid Broadcom itself. Barring any last minute antics, the ban gets enforced starting tomorrow.

Toshiba set to release best-ever 3D chip for handsets

by Brian White posted Jul 21st 2007 @ 11:12AM

Wireless handsets are becoming better gaming machines, although we're not seeing PSP-level playability yet on that slim-n-fast handset just yet. Toshiba, though, may want to change that -- and it's announced that a new 3D LSI chip that can render 100 mega-polygons per second to take mobile gaming and realism to the next level. As such, Toshy's new "TC35711XBG" chip is slated to be available to OEMs and ODMs in October. With 38 times the performance of existing solutions, built-in shading and reflectivity and WVGA support, we're chomping at the bit to see what this brings to the handset gaming table soon.

iPhone CPU up close and personal

by Sean Cooper posted Jul 11th 2007 @ 9:44AM

We've seen a bevy of pics featuring the iPhone's internals, but this set goes a step further and gets us into the action microscope-style. The gents at μblog sliced and diced some poor specimen and discovered that the chip contains both CPU and RAM, and while both have serial numbers, no brand markings can be made out. These pics are rather beautiful in some ethereal, deep-sea way, though aside from blowing them up and draping them on a wall, we're not too sure what else can be done with them. A reader pointed out that the images look like Legend of Zelda maps, though we're convinced they are definitely more Gauntlet-esque. Thoughts?

[Via Hacked Gadgets]

Clock ticking for ITC to justify Qualcomm chip ban

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 14th 2007 @ 1:38AM

It seems the feds agree with us that a broad, sweeping ban on little morsels of 3G goodness is just flat-out uncool. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has turned the proverbial hourglass upside down, giving the US International Trade Commission two weeks to justify its partial halt on the import of devices equipped with 3G chipsets manufactured by Qualcomm. The spat originates over a Broadcom claim that Qualcomm's silicon infringes on its patents, and the court system is interested in hearing why the USITC thinks the ban should remain in place while Qualcomm appeals. Intellectual property issues aside, the ITC's cold-turkey ban stands to have a significant impact on carriers, handset manufacturers, and customers (that's us, by the way) as the selection suddenly dries up -- so at the very least, we're hoping everyone affected has a little more time to get their ducks in a row while the patent suit navigates the legal system (please?).

Sharp crafts chip with T-DMB and DVB-H support

by Chris Ziegler posted May 28th 2007 @ 11:47PM

One of the most fragmented up and coming technologies in the mobile segment appears to be mobile TV. Europe's converging on DVB-H, Korea likes T- and S-DMB, Japan does one-seg, and the US seems to be moving toward MediaFLO. We can't necessarily expect a single device to support reception around the globe any time soon (if ever), but two in one is a good start -- and that'll soon be a reality thanks to a newly-developed chip from Sharp. The so-called VA3B5EZ915 (catchy name, if we do say so ourselves) supports both T-DMB and DVB-H while at the same time setting a new record for minimal power consumption. Theoretically, we guess this means travelers could get reception in both Europe and South Korea, though we're betting the more immediate application will be to unify Europe's few deployed T-DMB networks with the more popular DVB-H format without needing different lineups of phones for both. No word on when we might see the new chip in production handsets.