| Freescale wants out of cellular business |
Oct. 03, 2008
 Freescale Semiconductor announced it is looking to sell its cellular handset chip division. The products it plans to jettison comprise baseband processors, RF transceivers, and power management/audio products for handsets, says the semiconductor firm, and are likely to include its MXC line of "cellphone-on-module" chips.
According to a release issued yesterday, Freescale said it "will explore strategic options for its cellular handset chipset products business and intends to complete a sale, joint venture agreement or other transformation in the coming months." The company went on to state that it will increase investments in automotive and networking microcontrollers, communication processors, and radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs). It also plans to bolster its efforts in microcontrollers, microprocessors, application-specific processors, and analog, power, and sensor ICs aimed at industrial and consumer markets.
Market consolidation
The move appears to be a response to the growing scale and consolidation of the cellular chip market. Earlier this year, STMicroelectronics (STM) and NXP announced a a joint venture (JV) that would merge the companies mobile processors into a new business called ST-NXP Wireless. Together, the two firms' wireless and mobile businesses generated some $3 billion in 2007, the companies said.
Stated Freescale Chairman and CEO Rich Beyer, "As the semiconductor market continues to consolidate, it is essential that we maximize our investment on growth opportunities that enable us to extend our market leadership and to ultimately create shareholder value. We feel the investment required to achieve that scale by Freescale will be better served extending our product portfolios where we are the leader and expanding our application expertise in sensors, analog, power and multimedia processing."
A privately held company headquartered in Austin, Texas, Freescale operates in more than 30 countries and posted $5.7 billion in 2007 sales. Freescale was launched in 2004 as a spin-out from Motorola, a company that is planning on splitting off its own cellular handset business as a separate company next year. A major customer of Freescale, Motorola has now agreed to pay "a consideration" to Freescale in exchange for waiving minimum purchase agreements for cellular chips, says Freescale.
MXC for sale?
A key product apparently looking for a new home is Freescale's MXC ("Mobile Extreme Convergence"), a line of "cellphone-on-module" chips that integrates an ARM11 core and a DSP core (digital signal processor) on a postage-stamp-sized die that also contains a chunk of shared memory. Announced in 2003, the MXC architecture debuted in 2005 with the launch of the MXC275-30, based on an ARM1136 core and a Freescale StarCore SC140e DSP (digital signal processor) with VLIW (very long instruction word) instruction processing capabilities.
Freescale's MXC architecture
(Click to enlarge)
Freescale says the MXC architecture (above) naturally segregates application processing from real-time modem control. This segregation is said to shield developers from the complexities of interacting with the modem during the development process. It is also said to let users continually update the application environment, while leaving the baseband environment unchanged and unaffected. Basebands change much less often than application stacks, Freescale points out.
The MXC275-30 went on to see use in Motorola's Linux-based MotoRokr Z6 (formerly MotoRizr Z6), pictured above. However, it never made it into any Windows-based phones known to WindowsForDevices.com.
On the road with Windows CE
Future directions for Freescale, which claims to be "the leader in automotive semiconductors," include integrated microcontroller, analog, power, and sensor technology for hybrid vehicles, as well as products that reduce emissions and improve safety standards. The company says it plans to continue the cross-fertilization of technology concepts between its automotive and consumer products. Already, for example, accelerometer sensor technology that Freescale developed for crash detection in automotive airbags is being "designed into new gaming controls, smartphones and other portable multimedia devices."
Microsoft Auto technology uses Freescale's i.MX31
(Click image for further information) |
On the automotive front, Freescale technology is a key enabler of Microsoft's Windows CE software stacks for automotive use, Microsoft Auto 3.0 and Windows Automotive 5.0. For example, the Microsoft Auto 3.0 hardware reference platform is based on Freescale's i.MX31 SoC (system-on-chip), first shipped in 2006.
The i.MX31 integrates an ARM1136 processor core along with a Java accelerator, a vector floating point math coprocessor, and a video processing engine that supports full-motion (30 frames/sec) VGA video. The SoC integrates an ARM1136 processor core along with a Java accelerator, a vector floating point math coprocessor, and a video processing engine that supports full-motion (30 frames/sec) VGA video. It also contains a host of system functions and peripheral interfaces (see block diagram).
Microsoft's Windows CE-based automotive technology made its debut in Europe and South America on Fiat vehicles, where it is known as Blue&Me. It is also offered in the U.S. by Ford as Sync, on passenger cars, and as Ford Work Solutions on pickups and vans. Hyundai and Kia have announced Windows CE-based technology on their 2010 vehicles, though their version has yet to be named.
Other i.MX processors
The i.MX31 mentioned above is merely the most popular in a family of Windows CE-friendly processors from Freescale, widely used in devices such as handheld computers and SBCs (single board computers). Others include the i.MX37, based on an ARM1176JZF-S core, which targets the portable media player (PMP), mobile Internet, and personal navigation device (PND) markets. The company's i.MX27 processor and its i.MX21, introduced in 2004, are both based on the widely used ARM926EJ-S core.
Related stories:
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
news feed