Forward Concepts has published another of its excellent newsletters.  This week:

• Mindspeed jumps into base stations with impressive 12-processor SoC
• CEVA strengthens its position as Qualcomm’s main competition
• Predictions for Mobile World Congress
• The obligatory look inside Apple's iPad
• …and more

The full newsletter follows.

Mindspeed Jumps Into Cellular Arena With a Splash

Mindspeed Technologies Inc., a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for wireline network infrastructure applications, has jumped into the cellular market with a remarkable base station chip offering.  The company's new Transcede™ SoC integrates an unprecedented 26 programmable processing elements into a single device, including two ARM Cortex-A9 multi-core symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) RISC processors, 10 CEVA DSPs and 10 DSP accelerators that support the complete W-CDMA, LTE or WiMAX (Layers 1, 2 and above) processing needs of single- and multi-sector base stations. Transcede is said to be able to deliver three sectors of LTE processing in a single device while still providing substantial processing headroom, allowing manufactures to deploy their own value-added features as part of an overall Transcede-based solution.

Since it's 2003 spinout from Conexant Systems Inc., Mindspeed has been best known for its DSP-based SoC solutions for carrier-class VoIP applications.  Clearly a powerhouse in both RISC and DSP technology, the jump from wireline to wireless requires additional technology skills. Further, entering the wireless market will require a different marketing mindset.  Not only that, going up against entrenched base station DSP suppliers like (a resurgent) Freescale, LSI Corp., Texas Instruments and FPGA houses Altera and Xilinx will be a challenge. 

Spreadtrum & Hisense Jointly Launch World's First TD-SCDMA Phone Supporting CMMB Digital TV

Shanghai-based chip supplier Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. and Qingdao-based handset supplier Hisense Communication Co., Ltd. have announced the co-developed Hisense N51, said to be the only "affordable" TD-SCDMA mobile phone that supports CMMB digital TV through China Mobile's "TD-SCDMA Terminal Special Incentive Fund Project" program.  The Hisense N51 uses Spreadtrum's integrated SC8800H-baseband (based on the CEVA-X DSP core), QS3200-RF and SC6600V-CMMB chips (based on CEVA's TeakLite II DSP core) to support TD-SCDMA/HSDPA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE and mobile TV functionality.  Spreadtrum appears to have recovered nicely from a dreadful 2008 revenue performance, while Hisense is best known as a major provider of flat panel TVs and household appliances in addition to its handset business.

CEVA-powered 3G Baseband Chips: Only Viable Merchant Market Alternative to Qualcomm?

Qualcomm is unquestionably the largest supplier of chips to the cellular handset market.  With an estimated 95% of the CDMA baseband market, and currently the only supplier to the CDMA-1xEV-DO market (at least until Via Telecom ships its EV-DO basebands), their dominance is not as great in the GSM markets. Qualcomm has zero products in the vanilla GSM/GPRS/EDGE markets (albeit they are now in a few GSM/CDMA handsets in China) and shares the UMTS/HSPA market with NEC (in Japan handsets), Marvell (RIM), Texas Instruments (Nokia), Infineon (Apple's iPhones & Samsung), ST-Ericsson (Sony-Ericsson, and LG's new Moorestown-based GW990) and Broadcom (Samsung & Panasonic).

The point is, that aside from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments (who's eventual exit from the baseband market is certain), NEC and Marvell, the other companies mentioned all have UMTS/HSPA basebands based on licensed IP from CEVA, Inc.  Of course, CEVA's IP is also in a significant number of GSM and GPRS/EDGE handsets. Although Tensilica is making a play in the 3G (and LTE) baseband markets with some announced IP design wins, none are yet shipping in handsets.  So, CEVA's dominance in the non-Qualcomm segment of the market is clear. Rumor has it that CEVA will show a single-chip LTE baseband solution at MWC, so they are not falling behind.

Bad MWC Timing

The Mobile World Congress, to be held in Barcelona from February 15th through the 18th is ill-timed.  The Chinese New Year (the Lunar New Year for most Asian countries) begins on February 14th (year of the Tiger), and to miss that would be like a Westerner skipping Christmas, New Year's, Easter and even his birthday, altogether (by traditional reckoning, Chinese count age based on the Lunar year, not the day of birth). Consequently, a number of China-, Taiwan-. Singapore- and other Asia-based companies will not have exhibits at MWC this year.  Since China is now the biggest wireless market, this is truly regrettable. With that said, those Asian companies that will exhibit will likely be manned by their U.S. or European employees.

Chinese New Year (as in most Asian countries) is based on the lunar calendar and last year began on January 26th and will fall on February 3rd next year.  It's difficult for Westerners to understand its great significance, since New Year festivities last for several days and is more than an occasion for family (and company) celebrations, it is a time to exchange presents, settle debts, and to renew households (to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck).  I lived in Taiwan for two years as a young engineer and lived the experience.

Now, the CTIA Conference in Las Vegas (March 23-25) looks even more attractive, since Chinese and other Asian vendors and attendees will find it more to their liking.

What do We Expect at MWC?

MWC is usually the annual "coming out" party for most new wireless products...not just cellular.  It should be noted, however, that the recentConsumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was the showcase for cellphones to consumers; MWC is the showcase for  to operators. However, we are hearing that some companies will be skipping the Fira conference venue and demonstrating their wares in nearby hotels and office buildings (like Nokia and LG).  From a chip standpoint, we expect to also see the following somewhere in Barcelona:

• New base station processors from Freescale, Mindspeed, Octasic and Texas Instruments
• New femtocell chips from Percello and picoChip
• LTE baseband chips from Altair, Comsys, Infineon, Qualcomm, Sequans, ST-Ericsson and Wavesat
• LTE software stacks from Comneon, InterDigital and mimoOn
• LTE RF Transceivers from Fujitsu, Infineon, Qualcomm, Renesas, and ST-Ericsson
• New Application Processor chips from Freescale, Intel, Marvell, Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments

Apple's iPad: an iPhone on Steroids?

Clearly, Apple's new A4 processor is based on an ARM instruction set, otherwise there wouldn't be total compatibility between the iPad and the iPhone/iPod.  My assumption is that it's based on Arm's V7 architecture employed in the Cortex-A8 processor.  To achieve its 1GHz operation, it's likely based on an architectural license from ARM. So now we know why Apple acquired P.A. Semi...for the low-power processor design talent. (I'd love to see the A4's power consumption compared with Intel's Moorestown Atom processor.)

Available in Wi-Fi-only and 3G/Wi-Fi versions, the 3G capability is still tied to AT&T's GSM/HSPA network followed by a worldwide rollout.  I'm certain that Infineon's worthy 3G modem technology is also employed, because of compatibility and type approval reasons.  I see the iPad as a member of the so-called "smartbook" market, competing with mobile internet devices (MIDs) and netbooks.  With that said, I suspect that the fast-growing e-book market now has its biggest competitor.

Apple's mobile OS/X runs on the iPad while competing ARM-based smartbooks tend to run Linux variants, including Android, Maemo and Moblin. Unfortunately, the iPad version is not multitasking. You can't listen to Pandora while you surf the Web, or switch back and forth between Facebook and Twitter, or write a document while talking on a VOIP call.  I wonder if Apple would ever consider selling (an improved) OS/X for other smartbooks?  That would set up a parallel universe to Microsoft's Windows world.  Just food for thought.

Plessey Semiconductors Lives Again

Plessey Semiconductors has been resurrected as the new name for Plus Semi (Swindon, England), following the company's December acquisition of the Plessey-built Roborough fab (Plymouth, England) from X-Fab Silicon Foundries GmbH.  Currently, the Roborough facility produces 0.35-micron CMOS chips on 200mm wafers.  The company plans on transferring a specialized analog bipolar process to the acquired facility. 

My last visit to the original Plessey Semiconductors was memorable as my first encounter with the "Magic Roundabout" near Swindon which consists of 5 mini-roundabouts around a circle off the M4 roadway.  As a Yank used to driving on the other side of the road I mentally prepared myself with the appropriate automotive pirouetting strategy based on reading several training signs as I approached.  With my brain almost in overload, I reached the Roundabout to find that there were no other vehicles from any direction, so I winced with relief and simply drove straight through the intersection.

Shameless Plug:

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