High performance chips for low cost phones

A Texas Instruments (April 2006-) product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 14, 2007

Texas Instruments has announced its third generation GSM system for the ultra low-cost handset market, specifically designed to enhance the user experience with added features and improvements.

Texas Instruments has announced at the 3GSM world conference, its third generation GSM system for the ultra low-cost handset market, specifically designed to enhance the user experience with added features and improvements.

This includes dramatic improvements in voice clarity and loudness; battery life; and support for a range of advanced features, including enhanced colour display, FM stereo, MP3 ring tones, camera, and MP3 playback.

The "LoCosto ULC" single-chip platform will reduce electronic bill of materials by up to 25% compared with the current generation.

The "LoCosto ULC" single-chip platform is an extension of TI's existing "LoCosto" family, which is in volume production today.

"LoCosto ULC" represents the latest advancement in TI's DRPT single-chip technology, a pioneering approach to wireless chip design that integrates the RF transceiver and analogue codec with the digital baseband.

This technology has significantly reduced board space and system costs and has extended battery life.

TI's new "LoCosto ULC" products, the TCS2305 and TCS2315, are single-chip mobile phone products for GSM and GPRS handsets built on a 65nm process.

They will sample in the first half of 2007.

"As high-growth emerging economies add subscribers, these consumers have made it clear they desire more than basic mobile phones", says Alain Mutricy, TI's Vice President and General Manager of Cellular Systems Solutions for its Wireless Terminals Business Unit.

Compared to the current "LoCosto" generation, the TCS2305 and TCS2315 solutions will enable 60% longer standby time and 30% longer talk time, significantly improving handset battery life.

The solutions will also offer a 2x improvement in voice loudness and will include full duplex voice call support to mitigate voice chopping, both of which are necessary in noisy environments.