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BANGALORE: After Texas Instruments and Motorola announced their plans for a $20 mobile chip platform, it was the turn of Germany company Infineon Technologies, to announce the availability of its ultra low-cost (ULC) chip platform for GSM handsets.
S Surya, the company's senior VP, head, corporate software and MD, Infineon India said that the chips would be available for volume production by the end of the year.
“We have used the lowest bill of material for this sub-$20 chip and very few components,” he said. To make the chip even more accessible to the markets, for the first time in the industry, Infineon has used the AAA batteries.
Surya also demonstrated a proof-of-concept phone during the launch and revealed that the company would work on price of the chip would drop further (by around 20%) next year. Some of the work on the phone such as the software protocol stack were done out of Infineon's India development center.
The chip platform is ready for release to handset manufacturers as a reference platform for new product designs. The company is in talks with handset manufacturers.
While an average GSM phone chip currently has around 200 components, the Infineon has managed to scrunch down the number to 100 on the ULC platform. Reiner Schonrock, senior director, media relations technology, Infineon, said that the ULC would be ideal to reach the under-tapped markets in Africa, Asia and emerging economies.“
Market-research firm Strategy Analytics expects that more than 150 million ultra low-cost handsets, costing less than US $50 wholesale will be sold throughout the world in 2010. BANGALORE: After Texas Instruments and Motorola announced their plans for a $20 mobile chip platform, it was the turn of Germany company Infineon Technologies, to announce the availability of its ultra low-cost (ULC) chip platform for GSM handsets.
S Surya, the company's senior VP, head, corporate software and MD, Infineon India said that the chips would be available for volume production by the end of the year.
“We have used the lowest bill of material for this sub-$20 chip and very few components,” he said. To make the chip even more accessible to the markets, for the first time in the industry, Infineon has used the AAA batteries.
Surya also demonstrated a proof-of-concept phone during the launch and revealed that the company would work on price of the chip would drop further (by around 20%) next year. Some of the work on the phone such as the software protocol stack were done out of Infineon's India development center.
The chip platform is ready for release to handset manufacturers as a reference platform for new product designs. The company is in talks with handset manufacturers.
While an average GSM phone chip currently has around 200 components, the Infineon has managed to scrunch down the number to 100 on the ULC platform. Reiner Schonrock, senior director, media relations technology, Infineon, said that the ULC would be ideal to reach the under-tapped markets in Africa, Asia and emerging economies.“
Market-research firm Strategy Analytics expects that more than 150 million ultra low-cost handsets, costing less than US $50 wholesale will be sold throughout the world in 2010.
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