Cellular solution targets mid-range handsets

A new version of Philips' Nexperia Cellular System Solutions provides a complete hardware/software design for low- and mid-range mobile handsets.

A new version of Philips' Nexperia Cellular System Solutions provides a complete hardware/software design for low- and mid-range mobile handsets.

In rapidly growing mobile telephony markets manufacturers are looking for solutions to bring first-rate, cost-effective handsets rapidly to market.

New applications - such as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) - are gaining popularity and it is essential to be able to turn out new designs in the shortest possible time.

The new Nexperia Cellular System Solution, with its enhanced baseband IC and quality voice application, meets that need.

In an increasingly competitive market, the Nexperia Cellular System Solutions provide manufacturers with a flexible, future-proof, low-risk and cost-effective approach to handset designs.

The functional design delivers high integration, low power consumption and improved multimedia capabilities.

"In emerging markets such as China there is a need for proven, low-cost GSM/GPRS components.

Handsets with quality voice applications as well as multimedia capabilities will play a major role in helping operators to increase their average revenue per user", said Peter Baumgartner, Senior Vice President and General Manager Global Market Segment Mobile and Personal, Philips Semiconductors.

The enhanced baseband IC enables Java for gaming and business applications, WAP 2.0 and multimedia messaging service (MMS) functionalities.

It also supports additional features, including pulse code modulation (PCM) for speech recognition.

The design supports all four GSM bands (GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900MHz) as well as GPRS Class 10.

Accompanying software allows designers to add new features quickly.

The protocol stack - extensively tested for interoperability (IOT) - comes along with an extendable man-machine interface (MMI).

The system also supports multimedia extensions such as JPEG, MPEG, FM radio and SP midi polyphony.

Key components include an enhanced baseband IC, the RF front-end, power management unit (PMU) and charger IC, and the software mentioned above.

This complete reference design frees up engineers to focus on the user interfaces, complex multimedia features and aesthetic issues such as ergonomics and phone package design.

With its high level of integration, the Nexperia Cellular System Solution meets industry demands for reducing the bill of materials (BOM).

Fewer than 110 core components lower the BOM with as much as 10%.

In addition, a smaller memory footprint - less than 2Mbyte of Flash for GSM operation - saves cost and board space.

More than 50 million Nexperia-based systems have already been brought to market, and one in every ten GSM/GPRS handsets built in 2003 will use the Philips' Nexperia Cellular System Solution.

Philips pioneered the system solution approach in 1999.

As a worldwide leader in cellular communications, Philips offers a global network of expertise to help customers succeed.

Reference designs based on this system solution are available now and mass production will start in Q2 2004.

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