Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: Silicon Laboratories | Subject: Aerofone Si4905
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 25 October 2005
Single-chip phone produces budget
handsets
The Aerofone single-chip phone is billed as the industry's most integrated, highest performance, easiest-to-use solution for GSM/GPRS handsets.
New from Silicon Laboratories, the Aerofone single-chip phone is billed as the industry's most integrated, highest performance, easiest-to-use solution for GSM/GPRS handsets The Aerofone Si4905 is based on patent pending, breakthrough innovation enabling the first fully functional single-chip phone to integrate the power management unit (PMU), battery interface and charging circuitry, digital baseband, analogue baseband and a quad-band RF transceiver in a single monolithic CMOS IC
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 12 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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By leveraging Silicon Laboratories' proven Aero II RF transceiver technology, the Aerofone Si4905 offers industry-leading RF performance including sensitivity, blocking and transmit modulation spectrum characteristics.
The high level of integration paired with unmatched RF performance makes Silicon Laboratories' Aerofone solution ideal for entry-level GSM/GPRS handsets where cost and circuit board area are critical.
The high performance of the Aerofone single-chip phone also allows handset manufacturers to easily meet the stringent performance requirements of cellular network operators worldwide.
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"Handset manufacturers increasingly are faced with cost and performance pressures, particularly as they address the entry-level market, which is expected to amount to more than 200 million handsets per year until 2009", said Scott Smyser, Director and Principal Analyst, communications and consumer electronics for the market research firm iSuppli Corp.
"Highly-integrated semiconductor solutions are essential for making entry-level mobile phones cost effective enough to achieve their market potential".
Silicon Laboratories' approach to the single-chip phone offers a flexible, scalable and easy-to-use platform for entry-level GSM/GPRS handsets without requiring additional coprocessors or large software investments.
Silicon Laboratories' Aerofone single-chip phone offers the ultimate in software flexibility with an underlying system architecture adaptable to multiple software protocol stacks, operating systems and applications frameworks.
This unique approach lowers software-switching costs by enabling handset developers to either reuse existing software infrastructure or select one of the multiple protocol stacks and application software frameworks validated by Silicon Laboratories and its partners including TTPCom, CCww and Stackcom.
The Aerofone software suite also includes smart platform and system driver libraries, which greatly reduce software development costs while improving time-to-market, performance and quality.
"TTPCom provides a proven digital modem IP and protocol stack", said Julian Hildersley, Managing Director of TTPCom's Silicon Business Unit.
"The combination of Silicon Laboratories' system solution and TTPCom's cellular IP and GSM/GPRS protocol stack offers customers accelerated time-to-market for a complete and reliable mobile platform".
By reducing the typical bill of materials (BOM) by over 200 insertions on a printed circuit board (PCB), the Aerofone solution represents a dramatic reduction in the total cost of designing and manufacturing a GSM/GPRS handset.
The unprecedented integration of the Aerofone single-chip solution results in a significant reduction of component inventories, lower manufacturing costs, higher yields and higher reliability.
Additionally, because all major handset functions are integrated in a single CMOS IC, handset manufacturers can drastically reduce test and calibration time.
"By offering unmatched performance, integration and cost, the Aerofone solution delivers on the promise of a single-chip phone", said Li Xiao Zhong, President of Amoi, a leading supplier of cellular handsets to the China market.
"Silicon Laboratories' technical expertise has resulted in a novel design that includes a flexible software architecture allowing us to move to market quickly to meet the demands of the ever-growing entry-level handset market".
Compared with other integrated baseband solutions on the market, the Si4905 single-chip phone reduces component count by 75%, board area by 65% and manufacturing costs by up to 50%.
The Si4905 has an integrated digitally-controlled crystal oscillator, which eliminates the expensive external VC-TCXO modules used in competing solutions.
The Si4905 also integrates 2Mbit of on-chip SRAM, which enables handset manufacturers to build GSM voice-centric cellphones without the need for external SRAM.
The Aerofone single-chip phone also integrates an ARM9 family-based MCU.
"Silicon Laboratories' use of the industry-leading ARM processor is a testament to the ease-of-use and integration possibilities enabled by our microcontroller cores, which provide an ideal solution for mobile platform design", said Rob Coombs, Director of Mobile Solutions, ARM.
"Our innovative approach leverages our expertise in mixed-signal design as well as software and systems architecture to deliver a high-performance, fully integrated single-chip phone", said Dan Rabinovitsj, Vice President of Silicon Laboratories.
"When we began this effort, our objective was to deliver a fully-integrated phone that would help our customers reduce costs and simplify their designs without sacrificing performance or manufacturability".
"I am pleased to say that we have accomplished these goals and that the Aerofone single-chip phone is a real, working solution making calls on GSM/GPRS networks today".
"While the concept of a single-chip phone has been promoted by many highly credible IC companies, we believe we have made the idea of a merchant market, single-chip phone a reality with the same proven RF performance our customers have come to expect from Silicon Laboratories".
Silicon Laboratories will be demonstrating the Aerofone single-chip phone live in Taiwan this week.
The Si4905 is available in a standard 12 x 12mm, lead-free, RoHS-compliant plastic ball grid array (PBGA) package.
Pricing is dependent on volume.
The Si4905 is sampling now, with mass production scheduled for Q2 2006.
An evaluation platform is available for $5000.
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