Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008 - (Page 10)

10 NEWS By JP Joosting, Microwave Engineering Europe IN BRIEF NXP powers sub $30 eBOM HSPA phone NXP Semiconductors has started sampling a dual-mode Nexperia multimedia baseband chip for HSPA and EDGE phones that feature H.264 decoding on QVGA at 30 frames per second (fps). Made in a 65-nm process, NXP says the baseband will play a signiﬁcant part in achieving sub-$30 electronic bill-of-materials (eBoM) for a multifunctional mobile phone. NXP also claims the Cellular Multimedia Baseband PNX6712 outperforms existing HSPA-EDGE basebands in its category, offering up to 750 hours of standby, 45 hours of MP3 and 8 hours of video playback, and a multitude of connectivity options. The device’s architecture is based on an ARM926-EJ processor, with novel algorithms for voice and video, hardware accelerated low-power video, graphics and camera features, and built-in security and digital rights management (DRM). www.mwee.com/205918610 Israeli wireless consortium seeks links to European R&D Israel has formed a consortium for short range communication, dubbed ISRC, whose participants are looking into worldwide co-operation, especially within the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The ISRC consortium recently concluded the ﬁrst phase of its efforts with the demonstration of technological building blocks that will form the basis for the next generation of short range, high bandwidth communications systems operating at over 100 Mbits/second. Members of the ISRC include the Technion, Tel Aviv University, Elbit, Tadiran Spectralink, Metalink, Wavion, Telematics Wireless, Tower Semiconductor, Pulsicom, Ceva, Hebrew University, Bar Ilan University and Ariel Academic College. The consortium is focusing on two technologies: the continuation of the IEEE 802.11 standard, namely IEEE 802.11n, and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology. ISRC has been working within the framework of the MAGNET Consortia Program of the Chief Scientist in the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which integrates joint initiatives between industry, including systems companies, infrastructure companies, startup companies and academia. www.mwee.com/205918618 Ofcom, operators on collision course over spectrum British communications regulator Ofcom is heading for a showdown with the country’s two largest and original mobile operators over plans to take back part of the radio spectrum the operators have used since the 1980s to provide mobile phone coverage, and sell it to their rivals for 3G services. Ofcom announced the plans last September and set in motion a scenario that would see another spectrum auction as it revealed plans to open some of the 900-MHz bands to more efﬁcient use and increasing competition in mobile services. The regulator suggested that some spectrum currently used for 2G networks by Vodafone and 02 be freed up and used for higher data rate networks by other operators. The two operators would, Ofcom says, retain “most” of the spectrum for their own networks. It maintained that reclaiming part of the old 2G (second-generation) spectrum and re-auctioning it to rivals Orange, T-Mobile and 3 will lead to cheaper services, better indoors mobile coverage, fast wireless broadband in rural areas, 10,000 fewer masts across the country, and £6 bn worth of beneﬁts to the economy. Now, in stark contrast, O2 estimates that implementing Ofcom’s plan would cost both companies a total of £13 bn and require 7,000 new mobile phone masts across the country. In its response to Ofcom’s proposals, Vodafone has also accused the regulator of making its decision “based on a hypothetical and fanciful version of the future”. O2, meanwhile, contends that “if the proposals are implemented, they will be based on a ﬂawed policy mechanism and will have the certainty of occasioning very substantial costs and disruption to customers while conferring beneﬁts which are poorly researched, inadequately supported by evidence, wholly speculative and, on a proper view, insufﬁcient to justify the intervention”. The Ofcom proposals are in line with European Commission plans to remove restrictions from 2G spectrum across Europe. The EC proposed in July to repeal long-standing European regulations on using frequency bands that are currently employed for the GSM network. The aim was to allow European network operators to use the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands more efﬁciently, increasing the number and choice of wireless services available and expanding their geographic coverage. This is part of a process dubbed “refarming” of the available frequencies. Both O2 and Vodafone insist that Ofcom’s analysis of the market is fundamentally ﬂawed. Vodafone, which describes the regulator’s analysis as “manifestly deﬁcient”, believes the regulator has exaggerated the beneﬁts of refarming 2G capacity “by at least a factor of 10”. Not surprisingly, Orange and T-Mobile both support Ofcom’s proposals, not least because it does not include any reclamation of their 1800MHz capacity. In fact, T-Mobile demands that Vodafone and O2 be precluded from bidding in any auction of 900-MHz spectrum. www.mwee.com/205918580 UWB-based TransferJet: the latest go-it-alone technology from Sony Sony Corp. has recently unveiled a new proprietary Near Field wireless technology called TransferJet, whose underlying technology is based on a variation of UWB. TransferJet allows high-speed wireless data transfer from a camcorder, for example, to a ﬂat panel HDTV, simply by placing the camcorder on top of a wireless ﬁled unit. It operates in the 4.5 GHz frequency range, is capable of 560 Megabits per second PHY rate at a distance of up to just over 3 cm. Sony believes that TransferJet could co-exist with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Ko Togashi, deputy general manager of Sony’s network software development department. acknowledged, “While NFC can take care of payment, TransferJet can download content.” www.mwee.com/205918627 Microwave Engineering Europe ● January/February 2008 ● www.mwee.com 010_MWEE.indd 10 25/01/08 16:11:41 http://www.mwee.com/205918618 http://www.mwee.com/205918610 http://www.mwee.com/205918580 http://www.mwee.com/205918627 http://www.mwee.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008

Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008 Contents News Comment Radio: Raising the Bar for the Radio: Making 802.11n Work Cover Feature: The RF-System-In-Package Trend - Efficient Design with Advanced Design System 2008 Wireless Sensor Networks: The Zigbee PRO Feature Set: More of a Good Thing Very Fast Measurements of Wireless Devices with Small Antennas in Reverberation Chambers WiMAX Update 2008 Bridging the Gap from the CMOS DSP to the Antenna in OFDM Systems Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008

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