Ericsson teams up with TI on 3.5 and 4G designs

ERICSSON WILL be using its expertise in the wireless arena to create 3.5G and 4G handset reference designs based around TI's OMAP range of processors.

The pair say the platform will enable manufacturers to build handsets which are effectively OS agnostic. The handsets' 'OPEN OS' capability will enable them to run Windows Mobile, Linux, Symbian Series 60 or UIQ.

The combination of Ericsson's cellular modem chips and TI's applications processors will present customers with a pre-verified and tested platform on which to build their handsets.

This move will see the pair squaring up to the likes of Qualcomm which likes to offer complete working platforms to handset vendors.

As usual, the two vendors claim the combination will improve time to market for handset vendors - especially important as technologies like HSUPA are joined with HSDPA to create HSPA/3.5G capabilities.

Ericsson is also working hard on LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is generally expected to provide 4G capabilities.

Handsets based on the Open OS platform are expected to go on sale in Q3-Q4 2008.

It opens up interesting possibilities. In theory a handset vendor could create one device but offer it to mobile operators running the OS of their choice.

In itself that possibility could be turned into lower R&D costs as a vendor would have three models but only need to hardware test just once. µ