2.5G and 3G Applications Partnership for Mobile Phones

Philips Electronics announced a partnership with Sasken, a leading telecommunications software solutions provider. Philips' Nexperia(TM) multimedia semiconductor baseband will be complemented by Sasken's software offering and engineering support. This will provide 2.5G and 3G module and terminal manufacturers with application-specific solutions. The partnership will speed up time-to-market for mobile multimedia devices and will allow reduced R&D investment. In addition, they will enable handset manufacturers to serve a wide customer portfolio and introduce advanced applications including multimedia messaging services (MMS), audio and video streaming, MP3 and polyphonic melody generation.

Building on the mass-market success of textual forms of communication such as SMS (Short Message Service), the mobile phone market is evolving to accommodate more advanced methods of audio / visual communication. In this mobile convergence era, applications like MMS will enrich the mobile experience enabling consumers to send and receive rich messages comprising graphics, photographs and audio / video clips for business and leisure purposes.

"Our extensive product roadmap is focused on the development and market realization of emerging technologies," said Colin Aitken, Director and General Manager Europe at Sasken. "A partnership with a semiconductor company and wireless leader of Philips' caliber reflects this and reinforces our leading position in the protocol stack and multi-media field. Our combined expertise will create a complete cellular baseband solution enabling mobile phone designers to realize a range of advance features that fit with cellular subscribers needs for modern methods of communication."

"By partnering with Sasken, Philips has enlarged the scope of its cellular semiconductor portfolio to support a range of new customers with best-in-class platforms for 2.5G and 3G applications," said Armand Guerin, 2.5G / 3G baseband marketing manager at Philips Semiconductors. "Our complete Nexperia multimedia baseband solution is complemented by Sasken's full wireless protocol stack, multimedia support and optimized resources. This results in reduced time-to-market and an enhanced customer support network for manufacturers."

Sasken's 2.5G software protocol stack with multimedia-capable software architecture will run on Philips' Nexperia multimedia baseband controller family (PCF5213), as well as customer's new generations of 2.5G and 3G ASICs. Sasken develops wireless protocol stacks, multimedia protocols such as H.324M and multimedia CoDecs, MMS client and multimedia players for next generation 2.5G and 3G mobile phones.