Reference Platforms Deliver Quality Mobile Solutions

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【文件名】:0665@52RD_Agere Reference_Platforms_Deliver_Quality_Mobile_Solutions.pdf
【格　式】:pdf
【大　小】:201K
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Today’s mobile phone market offers consumers a wider choice of handset styles and capabilities than ever before, ranging from voice phones in different sizes and shapes to handsets with cameras and personal digital assistants. New data transmission capabilities on Global System for Mobile (GSM) networks have also given rise to data-capable handsets and PC cards that extend connectivity for laptop computer users beyond remote dialup or wireless local area network sites. While mobile phones have traditionally been designed and manufactured by companies with roots in the telecoms business, the demand for these varied styles and new capabilities is drawing more consumer electronics players—especially Asian-based companies—into the market. Since handset manufacturers are focused on user applications and the look-and-feel of their products, they have traditionally turned to silicon vendors to provide the electronics—also referred to as the core engine—at the heart of a mobile phone. Silicon vendors offer this core engine in the form of a reference platform—integrated circuits, firmware and protocol stacks, and increasingly, services such as radio frequency electronics compatibility verification, network infrastructure operational verification, easy-to-use development tools, and conveniently located regional engineering and technical support groups. Handset makers are therefore free to customize operating commands and procedures, create screen displays, and deploy a selection of calling features to distinguish their product from the competition’s, without incurring the time or expense involved in designing the fundamental electronics and software. The reference platform is an extension of the reference-design concept, a well-established practice in mobile handset design that has traditionally involved a silicon vendor supplying chip sets and firmware, and in some cases, the protocol stack, but little else. That typically left handset makers with a greater electronics integration challenge, requiring that they be more intimately involved in feature creation and service selection along with RF and network interoperability verification. The more comprehensive reference platform approach, however, makes it easier for established handset vendors to rapidly extend their product portfolio with new and exciting designs in time to meet evolving market demands, and for new entrants to the mobile market—even those with significant resources, skills and experience—to engage with unfamiliar technology.