Agere says its highly integrated X115 chipset can reduce handset component counts by up to 100, while shaving 20 percent off of physical footprint and BOM (bill-of-materials) cost. The design targets midrange feature-phones, as well as high-end smartphones. It is designed to work with EDGE/GPRS networks, a transitionary "2.5G" system developed by Motorola to allow mobile carriers to add relatively high-speed Internet access to mobile networks without requiring full infrastructural upgrades.
Agere says the X115 supports streaming QVGA (320x240) video at 24fps -- the same framerate used in movie theaters -- along with QCIF video, which has a resolution of 144 x 176 and a framerate of 30fps. The chipset can accelerate popular video codecs that include H.263, MPEG-4, and H.264.
Additionally, the X115 features CD-quality playback audio (16-bit, 44.1kHz), in formats including MP3, AAC, aacPlusT, and Enhanced aacPlus. The combination of AAC stereo audio and video playback results in a "theater-quality experience," the company says.
X115 Block Diagram
(Click image for larger view)The two-chip X115 chipset comprises an analog baseband chip plus a multicore digital baseband chip. The analog baseband chip handles analog baseband processing, audio mixing and conversion, and system power management functions. The digital baseband chip contains three processor cores -- an ARM7TDMI-S communications processor, an ARM926EJ-S applications processor, and Agere's DSP16000 core for physical layer and audio signal processing. The communications processor serves as the system's "master controller," ensuring reliable communications regardless of running applications, the company says.
Agere says it designed the X115 to support Windows Mobile 5.0, Symbian, and Linux.
AnalysisMobile phone chipsets are becoming more integrated, driven by more and more stringent power and size requirements. Such technology could result in widespread mobile enablement of a broad class of consumer electronic devices, from portable music players to handheld gaming devices and PDAs.
Recently announced high-integration mobile chipsets include
Renesas's mysterious "LSI" (large-scale integration) effort, which began sampling in August, and
Motorola's MXC (mobile extreme convergence), which was successfully demonstrated in May. Mobile chipset marketshare leader Texas Instruments (TI), meanwhile, announced
support for Windows Mobile 5.0 on its OMAP reference platform in May. Philips, Freescale, and others also offer highly integrated mobile chipsets and multi-chip modules.
Compared with the LSI, MXC, and others, the X115 appears to be positioned as better supporting complex operating systems, including not only Windows Mobile 5.0, but also Symbian OS and embedded Linux.
AvailabilityThe X115 is expected to achieve mass production sometime this quarter, Agere says.
Related stories:
