Qualcomm Unveils Chip for Low-Cost Phones

With an eye to the nascent market for low-cost mobile phones in emerging markets, Qualcomm has unveiled a new chip that integrates several components into a single system.

The CSC1100 combines the baseband modem, radio frequency transceiver, power management and system memory into a single chip, the San Diego, Calif., manufacturer said Monday.

Combining the components reduces costs for phone makers—Qualcomm didn’t say by exactly how much—and also cuts the amount of space the components would occupy on a circuit board by more than half, Qualcomm said.

The chip is designed to work in third-generation (3G) handsets based on Qualcomm’s Code Division Multiplex Access 2000 (CDMA2000) technology.

Several chip makers, including Infineon Technologies, Koninklijke Philips Electronics and Texas Instruments, have launched single-chip systems for ULC handsets based on Wideband CDMA, the rival 3G technology backed by Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators and equipment manufacturers.

Earlier this year, Motorola won a tender organized by the GSM Association to supply several million ULC phones to a group of GSM operators in emerging markets.

Strategy Analytics expects the market for ULC phones to grow annually from 19 million units in 2006 to more than 150 million in 2010.

-John Blau, IDG News Service (Dusseldorf Bureau)

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