NTT-DoCoMo is the largest mobile operator in Japan, a country that arguably boasts the
most advanced mobile phone networks in the world.
Renesas has not specified a name for the new chip, referring to it simply as an "LSI" (large scale integration) -- a term used for chips with 3,000 to 100,000 gates, and often used to designate mobile phone baseband processors that run real-time software for processing voice signals and controlling the radio modem. According to the company, the new LSI incorporates NTT-DoCoMo's W-CDMA technology, along with Renesas's GSM/GPRS technology. It also incorporates an application processor based on a third-generation Renesas SH-Mobile core.
Renesas announced its second-generation SH-Mobile core, the SH-Mobile3, in May of last year, claiming that chip was powerful enough to run multimedia applications on general purpose OSes. In April of this year, it began shipping an SoC based on an SH-MobileJ3 -- possibly the same core used in the new LSI. That SoC targets mid-market feature phones.
NTT-DoCoMo says it will use the jointly developed LSI to promote its FOMA ("Freedom of Mobile Applications Everywhere") W-CDMA-based 3G services globally. The company's managing director of customer equipment development, Mr. Koji Chiba, said, "I believe this single-chip LSI will lower the cost of FOMA handsets while improving such basic performance features as length of standby time, and will encourage the adoption of FOMA services on a global scale."
Availability Customers are now evaluating samples and reference boards, according to Renesas. Mass production is scheduled for the second quarter of 2006. The company says it will also offer a 3G mobile phone platform incorporating the LSI to FOMA and GSM/GPRS handset manufacturers.
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