Microwave Engineering Europe - December 2008 - (Page 10) 10 NEWS By JP Joosting, Microwave Engineering Europe IN BRIEF ST wins NFC design-in with LG mobile phone LG Electronics has developed a phone that offers Near-Field Communication (NFC) capability courtesy of the ST21NFCA NFC controller IC from STMicroelectronics NV. LG’s KU380-NFC phone features Paypass contactless payment capabilities enabled by a SIM card, as well as contactless reader functions. The KU380-NFC phone will allow mobile network operators to validate and accelerate NFC technology deployment. The KU380-NFC mobile phone has an “open architecture” and supports ETSI standards, such as the Host Controller Interface (HCI), Single Wire Protocol (SWP) for communication with the SIM card, in addition to 13.56-MHz RF communication standards. First KU380-NFC prototypes are being demonstrated using a Gemalto (U)SIM card, fully compliant with all relevant ETSI standards, and featuring both Reader and Paypass applications. www.mwee.com/212000528 CommAgility and AxisNT demonstrate interoperability for WiMAX and LTE baseband CommAgility and Axis Network Technology have announced that they are working together to develop solutions for WiMAX and LTE (Long Term Evolution of 3GPP) baseband processing for wireless basestations. The two companies recently demonstrated the interoperability of AxisNT’s Remote Radio Head (RRH) with CommAgility’s AMC-3C87F signal processing board. In the demonstration, data is generated on the CommAgility board, passed to the AxisNT RRH over CPRI and then output as a OFDMA modulated RF signal, with 8 W output power at 64 QAM, meeting the ETS 302 544 spectral mask and stringent EVM specifications. The AMC-3C87F provides a mix of DSP and FPGA processing power together with flexible, high bandwidth I/O connectivity. It includes three Texas Instruments TCI6487 multi-core DSPs running at 1 GHz and a Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T FPGA. It provides a complete three sector WiMAX/LTE PHY capability on a single-width Advanced Mezzanine Card (AdvancedMC). AxisNT’s integrated RRHs are available for a complete range of WiMAX and LTE applications and patented amplifier technology delivers market-leading uplink and downlink performance. The convection-cooled RRHs use substantially less power than traditional basestations, and can reduce the site CAPEX and OPEX of a wireless network by as much as 90 percent. www.mwee.com/212100427 Motorola demonstrates LTE on 700-MHz spectrum Motorola has completed what it claims is the first over-the-air Long-Term Evolution (LTE) data transfers using 700-MHz spectrum. Motorola (Schaumberg, Ill.) said its demonstration used its LTE Radio Access Test Network and LTE eNode-B platform along with a prototype LTE device. The test was conducted at Motorola’s lab and at an outdoor location in central Illinois. The sessions included mobile video streaming and various high data-rate applications along with executing applications priority procedures to ensure throughput using quality-of-service specifications in the LTE standard. In North America, 700-MHz spectrum auctioned earlier this year is part of the 470- to 862-MHz band freed up in the transition from analog to digital TV. In Europe, the 790- to 862-MHz band used for TV broadcasts is expected to be auctioned between 2009 and 2012, coinciding with mobile operators’ plans to deploy LTE. www.mwee.com/212000526 UWB pioneers Staccato and Artimi merge Ultrawideband and Wireless USB chip and software specialists Artimi (Cambridge, England) and Staccato Communications (San Diego, Calif.) have merged, with the new entity also closing a $20 million round of equity financing. Financial details were not disclosed and the combined operation will retain the Staccato name for “practical and logistics reasons.” Staccato is a member of the WiMedia Board of Directors and also chairs several WiMedia technical working groups. The U.S. group is also a contributor to the Wireless USB 1.1 working group. The company suggests that by maintaining the Staccato name, existing agreements and voting rights do not need to be modified. The new entity will leverage Staccato’s Ripcord2 CMOS IC family, claimed to be the first and only singlechip solution certified in Band Groups 1, 3 and 6 for worldwide operation. www.mwee.com/212200811 Taiwanese manufacturer HTC doubles forecast for Android phone shipments Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC has almost doubled its forecast for shipments of the first commercial device to be based on the Android operating system. HTC now expects to have shipped 1 million units of the G1 by the end of the year, available on T-Mobile networks in the U.S. and Europe. This is up from earlier projections of 500,000 for this year, rising to between 1.5 and 2 million by the end of 2009. The company seems to have stolen a march on larger Android backers such as Motorola, but all its phones to date bear either the Google or T-Mobile moniker. The device, which is a showcase for Google’s Open Handset Alliance (OHA) mobile operating platform, launched in the U.S. in late October, and hit UK outlets this month. Sales will expand into a number of other countries including Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands, in early 2009. Analysts at Strategy Analytics recently suggested Android phones would represent 4 percent of the US smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2008, out of a total market of 10.5 million units. www.mwee.com/212200816 Microwave Engineering Europe ● December 2008 ● www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com/212100427 http://www.mwee.com/212000528 http://www.mwee.com/212000526 http://www.mwee.com/212200816 http://www.mwee.com/212200811 http://www.mwee.com
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