Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

$20 Cellphones Possible with TI's New Chip

Posted by timothy on from the ever-cheaper dept.

swimgeek writes "Texas Instrument's Indian branch has succeeded in developing a single chip which combines the functions usually performed by multiple chips in a GSM cellphone. By doing so, cellphone costs can be dramatically reduced, thus making cellphones more affordable in developing economies. Nokia has been contracted to make the initial sets, with market launch in as soon as 9 months. More coverage here and here."

4 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dupe...

    http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/ 25/1735243&tid=215&tid=100

  2. I'm sure the networks will swallow it by grahamsz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Phone costs will drop, but generally since they are subsidized by your contract you'll never know.

    Also it's worth noting that most of the world use 900 or 1800 mhz cellphones, whereas gsm phones in the US typically run on 1900 mhz - I doubt this chipset will be initially manufactered in US frequencies, although some latin american countries do use 1900.

  3. Infineon was first by S.Gleissner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well... last month infineon introduced a mobile phone for under $20.
    (link in german)
    http://www.heise.de/newsticker/result.xhtml?url=/n ewsticker/meldung/61656&words=Infineon%20Handy

  4. Re:Why not before? by NadMutter · · Score: 3, Informative
    One of the main limitations to doing this in the past is that the rf and baseband sections typically were fabricated using different technology - CMOS wasn't up to amplifying/(de)modulating signals in the GHz range for the 'off the shelf' fab processes. Hence you needed at least two IC's - one CMOS for the baseband & CPU/DSP stuff and a SiGe for the RF amplifiers and demodulator.

    With fabs dropping feature size, incorporating low-k dielectric etc, this has become no big deal to fab in CMOS. Further, from this, the converters (ADC and DAC) can run faster - up to the broadband freqs so they can do 'direct conversion' and then demodulate etc using DSP. This pushes the burden over to software but makes it easier to have dual band or tri-band phones without lots of oscillator circuits in there. Other standards such as EDGE/GPRS can be done in software which is expensive to design but it's easier to re-program flash memory than to re-spin an IC. All this means more integration and lower unit cost.