Europe : UbiNetics, the world leader in WCDMA and HSDPA terminal and test and measurement technology, has revealed its plans to launch PUMA – a Multimode 3G platform for mobile phone manufacturers wishing to make the transition to 3G.

Inset above is the TM500 Test Mobile solution.

The PUMA platform provides a ‘reference design’ for the essential radio ‘modem’ building block within a 3G mobile, the key new component for 3G phones compared with current 2/2.5G (GSM/GPRS) products. The hardware part of the platform includes ‘best in breed’ baseband and RF chipsets from premium silicon vendors, together with UbiNetics’ circuit designs and PCB layout. The key software component is the UbiNetics 3G multimode protocol stack, which has undergone extensive inter-operability testing through its use in UbiNetics test mobile products.

Other benefits of PUMA include lower BOM (Bill Of Materials) cost and lower component count than today’s handsets, and EDGE capability – no current 3G handset offers combined WCDMA and EDGE functionality. The platform is provided with all software and hardware ‘pre-integrated’. Users can easily adapt the platform to their specific requirements by minor changes to the hardware and software, with support from UbiNetics.

“Handset players are facing a big hurdle in transitioning their 2G portfolio to cover 3G models,” said Raj Gawera, vice-president in charge of the PUMA platform development at UbiNetics. “The PUMA offering from UbiNetics is designed to give these players a springboard to execute this transition swiftly and smoothly. The design of the PUMA platform will allow them to make the leap to 3G with reduced timescales, risk and development effort.”

The initial release of the PUMA platform supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA functionality. Later evolutions of PUMA will support HSDPA – a technology which UbiNetics is heavily involved in through its TM500 Test Mobile solution which is already being used to test early HSDPA networks.