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Complete Chipset for TD-SCDMA Handsets

16th November , 2004

ASIA : Analog Devices introduced the world's first complete chipset from a single supplier for developers of 3G mobile terminals based on the TD-SCDMA Low Chip Rate (LCR) air interface, thereby adding to the company's legacy of technological achievements in the wireless industry.

Powered by ADI's Blackfin(R) Processor, the new SoftFone(R)-LCR chipset, provides all the critical functions necessary to build a TD-SCDMA handset, including the baseband signal processing and control, analog-interface functions and radio. With the Chinese government expected to grant licenses for the 3G cellular service in the next few months, handset manufacturers and ODMs are racing to develop devices for China's massive cell phone market, and today's announcement provides them with the industry's first flexible, highly integrated platform to bring their 3G handset designs to market quickly and cost effectively.

"Today's announcement of the world's first complete chipset for the TD-SCDMA standard is yet another important milestone in Analog Devices' roadmap of wireless technologies - a roadmap that has provided innovative products to the wireless industry for the past 15 years," said Christian Kermarrec, vice president, RF and wireless systems, Analog Devices, Inc. "We expect TD-SCDMA handset design activity to increase rapidly over the coming months and the SoftFone-LCR chipset is the most complete, flexible and cost-effective solution for handset manufacturers and ODMs to leverage for fast time to market."

"China's 345 million subscribers represent the largest cellular market in the world, and a market where we expect sustained, robust growth through 2006," said John Jackson, senior wireless technologies analyst at the Yankee Group. "Significant numbers of Chinese cellular subscribers are now entering a replacement cycle, or choosing to own multiple devices. The broadening availability of enhanced features, as well as faster data speeds in low-cost handsets, will drive purchasing patterns away from voice-centric devices and toward innovative designs and feature sets that promote the adoption of value-added wireless services. The TD-SCDMA standard will compete as a migration path to 3G performance in that region. Network deployments almost invariably lead mass-market device availability, creating a network-terminal 'gap.'

Being first to market with a complete TD-SCDMA chipset at a time when handset manufacturers are aggressively ramping up design activity is a significant advantage for Analog Devices. With the SoftFone-LCR chipset, Analog Devices is well-poised to be a leading supplier to the TD-SCDMA market."

About the SoftFone-LCR Chipset

Analog Devices' SoftFone-LCR chipset is based on the popular RAM-based SoftFone architecture used in Analog Devices' GSM/GPRS and EDGE chipsets. The chipset incorporates a digital baseband processor, which is based on Analog Devices' successful Blackfin Processor, achieving over 250 MHz performance and exceptionally low power consumption through Blackfin's Dynamic Power Management capability. Unlike less complete chipsets targeting TD-SCDMA applications, the SoftFone-LCR's baseband signal processing, including joint detection and decoding, is performed entirely in software running on the embedded Blackfin Processor core instead of a hardware implementation.

This allows terminal developers to quickly and easily adapt to evolutionary changes in the LCR standard. The software for the SoftFone-LCR chipset is provided by Datang Mobile, which is the founder of TD-SCDMA and has the world's leading TD-SCDMA terminal protocol stack MeCo(R) and other fundamental technologies. Datang Mobile has been using the Analog Devices Blackfin Processor in development platforms to provide the world's first TD-SCDMA mobile terminal and the first TD-SCDMA PCMCIA data card to achieve TD-SCDMA MTNet test.

Analog Devices' SoftFone-LCR's analog baseband and power management IC provides a full set of audio features, as well as efficient power management. The SoftFone-LCR chipset also includes the Othello(R)-W direct-conversion radio transceiver, offering solid performance and flexibility for either LCR time division duplex (TDD) or W-CDMA frequency division duplex (FDD) terminals. Additionally, the
SoftFone-LCR chipset includes interfaces for cameras, color displays, IR, USB and SD/MMC, allowing handset manufacturers to create several designs with varying levels of feature sets for a wide range of phone models.

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