Tony,
I know much less about this than I would like, but I have the feeling that
the StrongARM and Dragonball have very little market in Japan. Hitachi comes
up again and again as a processor commonly used, but does anyone know of
others? Tony, either your focus on US (althought the StrongARM was developed
in England, it is now owned by Intel) component makers is misleading when
talking about the Japanese handset market, or the Japanese have done a
pretty good job at covering the tracks of origin. I have a StrongARM, but
that is in my Newton (don't laugh, it is a pretty f***ing good PDA as far as
speed and capabilities go, and I still use it as a convenient typing tool,
as well as dictionary and address book). Anyone know any more about what
Japanese handsets are using as processors than either Tony or I do?
Cheers,
Nik Frengle
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Chan" <tonyc@telecomasia.net>
To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 5:02 PM
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Keitai components
> The semiconductor companies that I have spoken to are pretty vague about
the
> where their chips end up. There seems to be two distinct business models
for
> chips in phones: licensing and OEM. Everyone knows that ARM is the biggest
> supplier of core processors for mobile phones, but how do you explain the
fact
> that Texus Instruments is the largest supplier of actual DSP chips for
mobile
> phones? TI actually licenses the ARM core for its DSPs, like most of the
DSP
> makers also license the core processor design from ARM.
>
> So there is the IC design that can be sold to another company to integrate
it
> into their own chip design (ARM for TI's DSPs for example). Then there is
the
> model where the company, such as ARM, sells the complete core inside their
own
> packaging to a mobile phone operator to put in a phone (not into another
chip
> design). Most 3G phones are talking about 2 processors. One DSP, which
might
> already include an ARM core for handling the basic phone features (UI,
> messaging, calendering, etc.) and another processor, dubbed "applications
> processor," which can also be an ARM processor, to handle more advance
features
> (video or MP3 for example).
>
> While ARM currently dominates the market, Intel is making a run into the
market
> with their StrongARM chip, which they brought off Compaq/DEC. Intel wants
the
> StrongARM to become THE "applications processor" on phones. They also have
> another strategy, calling PCA, which address the integrated DSP chip (in
> partnership with National Semiconductor - or whatever they are called
now).
>
> Other names with offering for advanced DSPs - Motorola (using their own
> DragonBall core) and Infineon (they have their own core too I think).
There are
> probably many others that I've missed.
>
> Some of the lesser silicon inside a phone, such as the analog decoders,
modems,
> memory, etc, usually come in their own packaging and are made by a host of
> other manufacturers. These are commoditized parts as far as I know and it
> really doesn't matter where they come from.
>
> Each chipmaker has its proposed solution, but so does each phone maker. So
will
> take the chipmaker's proposal and implement it whole, others have their
own
> specifications (to use one or two processors to provide or deprive this or
that
> feature on their products) and source components accordingly.
>
> And yes, power and heat are obvious considerations when phone makers
select
> their specs. Would be interesting to find out what NEC and Panasonic have
used
> inside their FOMA handsets.
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael Turner wrote:
>
> > This could be a smokescreen for the reverse-engineers.
> > It could also be second sourcing of parts, which makes
> > them more marketable. Or the pretense of second-
> > sourcing. And for all we know, a lot of the
> > chips in a mobile phone in Japan were designed
> > elsewhere. Chip labels? It's all just ink -- a very
> > inexpensive communications technology which
> > historically has been used to express the truth, the
> > whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me G--
> > [lightning bolt chars his fingers beyond recognition.]
> >
> > I'd help solve this mystery, but my scanning electron
> > microscope is in the shop for repairs.
> >
> > Not to mention that I'm typing this with my nose, now
> >
> > -michael turner
> > leap@gol.com
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Kyle Barrow" <kyle@X-9.com>
> > To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 8:50 AM
> > Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Keitai components
> >
> > > It looks like the same chips with different names depending on what
> > > phones they where destined to end up in although I would need to
confirm
> > > this.
> > >
> > >
> > > Kyle
> > >
> > >
> > > X-9 DESIGN LAB
> > > http://www.X-9.com
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > >
> > > Are you saying that they put different brand names on identical chips,
> > > or that they make several different chips and brand them with the
names
> > > of the companies that designed them? It would make sense to me that
> > > chips are printed with the name of the company that designs them, not
> > > the manufacturer.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > [ Need archives? How to unsubscribe?
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> > >
> > >
> >
> > [ Need archives? How to unsubscribe?
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>
>
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>
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Received on Thu Aug 23 16:06:01 2001