EE Times - August 6, 2007 - (Page 6)

News analysis Guarded optimism greets auction plan By Rick Merritt and Loring Wirbel Palo Alto, Calif. — The Federal Communications Commission adopted an auction plan for the 700-MHz UHF band that appears to incorporate requests made by Google Inc. The search engine giant asked the FCC to ensure the bands be open to any devices, applications, services and third-party networks as conditions of the company having bid $4.6 billion for the spectrum. Wireless executives expressed guarded optimism about the decision to require the networks to be open to any device or application. “The devil is in the details, but I don’t think we will see a flood of people trying to use old handsets,” said Len Lauer, a Qualcomm group president speaking on a panel at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit here. He noted that all but 2 percent of cell phone users accept subsidized phones with service contracts. Phil Alvelda, chief executive of MobiTV, was upbeat about the possibility of new broadband wireless nets’ being open to third-party applications such as his mobile TV service. “One of the biggest challenges we have had is with carriers who are reluctant to give us access to their customers. That has really stifled our growth and mobile commerce in general,” said Alvelda, who claims his service has 2 million active subscribers. “I’m pretty skeptical of any government moves to mandate network openness,” said Larry Lang, general manager of the mobile group at Cisco Systems. Lang said the deal Apple struck with AT&T is a better sign that carriers are becoming more willing to give system makers a free hand in designing innovative hardware for their networks. Alvelda of MobiTV agreed. “We find ourselves struggling with carriers about all sorts of details, and that really hampers innovation. The Apple-AT&T deal will encourage the whole industry to raise the level of its game,” he said. Deep Nishar, director of product management for Google’s Asia-Pacific division, said the Apple iPhone indicates there is still a lot of innovation possible in handsets and that users are willing to pay for quality hardware. The 700-MHz network holds lots of promise, he added. Google lobbied the FCC to make the spectrum open to any device, app or carrier. “There’s a lot more that’s possible now. The doors have been opened,” he said. The FCC ruling is for licensees for Band C, which covers 710 to 716 MHz and 740 to 746 MHz. It states that licensees “will be required to provide a platform that is more open to devices and applications. This would allow consumers to use the handset of their choice in this spectrum block, subject to certain reasonable network management conditions that allow the licensee to protect the network from harm.” The FCC did not specify what it meant by “network management conditions.” The Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA) has cautioned that use of handsets without certification by wireless operators could cause network problems. 2009 deadline The Digital Television Act of 2005 sets a deadline of Feb. 17, 2009, for all terrestrial broadcast to transition to digital. It also mandates the FCC to auction unused commercial spectrum in bands between 698 and 806 MHz prior to Jan. 28, 2008. There are five spectrum blocks specified for auction in the July 31 ruling. Only one of them, the 22-MHz Band C, has open-access requirements. The new auctions will use anonymous bidding procedures. Details that could identify the bidder are withheld until after the close of the auction. The 12 licenses within the C Block will be subject to package-bidding procedures to help bidders that want to build out a national footprint. Nokia chief executive officer OlliPekka Kallasvuo lauded the FCC decision, saying the open-device rule will “promote even greater competition and innovation in the U.S. wireless industry.” The CTIA was more circumspect, praising the FCC for not restricting the number of potential bidders or making them fulfill wholesale licensing requirements. However, CTIA president and chief executive officer Steve Largent said the association was “disappointed that a significant portion of this valuable spectrum will be encumbered with mandates that could significantly reduce the number of interested bidders.” ■ www.eetimes.com U.S. should let ITC ruling stay, Broadcom says By John Walko London — The United States’ strong enforcement of intellectual property rights could get a major jolt today, when U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab decides whether to allow or reject the International Trade Commission’s ban on the import of 3G phones using Qualcomm Inc. chips that Broadcom Corp. claims infringes its patents. Broadcom has called on the Bush administration to let stand the ITC’s ruling in June against Qualcomm for infringing the patents. Qualcomm, meanwhile, has been seeking White House intervention to reverse the ITC ruling. In the runup to the Aug. 6 decision, Broadcom said it is willing to grant free licenses for its patented wireless technology to state and local public-safety users. But the companies have not been able to reach a consensus, and Qualcomm has rejected Broadcom’s offer of a $6 license fee for each handset for the three years remaining on the main “983” patent that’s at the heart of the dispute. The license fee would account for about 2 to 2.5 percent of the price of a handset. Qualcomm said that the terms requested by Broadcom “could have a material impact on our licensing business” and continues to claim that the ITC ruling was unjust. ‘Beyond our shores’ David Rosmann, Broadcom’s vice president of intellectual property litigation, told EE Times Europe: “This has become a huge issue for how the U.S. views and enforces IP across the world. It goes beyond our shores, and the outcome will interest, for instance, Nokia, who is involved in its own dispute at the ITC with Qualcomm. “And what will the Chinese think, who are very adept at overriding IP rules?” Rosmann suggested the White House ruling, which he suspects will be in favor of Qualcomm, will have a significant impact on U.S. efforts to pressure other countries to enforce IP rights. “A veto would [appear] to be rewarding behavior that courts and the ITC have ruled illegal and, obviously, would make it more difficult for the U.S. to persuade other countries to respect American companies’ IP rights,” Rosmann said. ■ CMP acquires teardown specialist By Patrick Mannion Business intelligence, acquired by tearing down systems and ICs, is essential to engineers. Brought to an art form by specialists, teardowns can even offer insight into a rival’s overall strategy. CMP Technology, parent company of EE Times, last week acquired Semiconductor Insights (Kanata, Ontario), an outfit with expertise in the technical investigation of ICs and electronic systems. The move caps a four-year relationship between the companies that culminated recently with the popular Apple iPhone and gaming-platform teardowns on the TechOnline and EE Times Web sites (view them at www.techonline. com/underthehood). “Interest [in teardowns] is definitely A Semiconductor Insights SPM lab engineer invesgoing mainstream,” tigates profiles of semiconductor substrates using said Jenn Markey, a Scanning Capacitance Microscopy technique. vice president of marketing for analysis at SI. According to Markey, SI has “There’s clearly a connection beseen an increase in requests for top-lev- tween Semiconductor Insights’ capael or summary information. She cited bilities and the audience we reach,” IC floorplans as an example. “These are said Paul Miller, president of CMP’s often used to help determine where to Electronics Group, who said SI is one focus much more detailed analyses, of the group’s biggest acquisitions. For either on a specific device or on a part her part, Markey said that the acquisiof the device. The primary reason for tion will help bring SI’s core expertise this has been cost effectiveness and to a broader engineering audience delivery time as chips have become and will expand opportunities for the more complex,” she said. use of integrated video and multime“Business intelligence has always dia capabilities. ■ been emphasized within companies determined to get and stay ahead,” said David Carey, president of Portelligent, a teardown specialist whose contributed teardowns are also part of CMP Technology’s Under the Hood content. “Only now it’s a bit more public. “Every device has fingerprints: you can use that to find out how they think, how they do design,” Carey continued. “Enough details over a given time tells you how that company works and how they do things.” Electronic Engineering Times | August 6, 2007 http://www.eetimes.com http://www.techonline.com/underthehood http://www.techonline.com/underthehood

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EE Times - August 6, 2007

Cover Contents NHK Demos Key Component Systems of 8K by 4K TV Reaction to FCC's 700-MHz Auction: Guarded Optimism Emerging Application Buoys Hard-Disk Drives For Industry, Inventory Ills Continue Connect the Dots: American But Only in Name Analyzing Dynamic Voltage Drop at 90 nm and Beyond Under the Hood: Counterfeit Parts, Legitimate Woes Making MEMS Accelerometers Work in Motion Control Designers Flow With Debug Flux

EE Times - August 6, 2007

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