Texas Instruments and Motorola today said they have entered into a strategic partnership to develop 3G and WiMAX handsets, using TI silicon. The new low-cost multimedia mobile devices are expected to be in the market in 2008.
TI and Motorola are jointly developing a WiMAX chip to be used in Motorola customer premises equipment devices. TI will develop a chipset to Motorola specifications, which will include TI solutions. TI will also make the chip in its own fabrication plants. TI is providing a similar customized solution for Motorola’s 3G chips.
Though Motorola did not name TI as an exclusive provider of WiMAX chipset, it draws into question how much larger a part in the WiMAX ecosystem Intel is playing in Sprint’s planned Mobile WiMAX network, says Telephony Magazine. Motorola will expand their use of TI’s Omap, says EE Times.
Sprint named Intel as a key partner in the new network buildout, supplying chipsets that would ultimately power the CPEs. Sprint is expected to develop a wide range of devices. Other partners with Sprint include Samsung, which is developing its own WiMAX silicon and Nokia, which has not specified where it will purchase its silicon, but also has a long relationship with TI.
As part of the deal, Motorola has agreed to buy TI’s OMAP multimedia processor chipsets. Motorola is looking to the low-end of the OMAP portfolio, selecting single-chip radio-processor silicon that can be used to power advanced multimedia features in low-cost phones, says Telephony.
Sprint Nextel said last August it would spend $3 billion to build an entire Web-based phone network dedicated to Mobile WiMAX.
In other WiMAX news, Kyocera, a San Diego, Calif.-based supplier of CDMA wireless devices and accessories, and Runcom, an Israel-based developer of OFDMA technologies for mobile WiMAX, have inked a development agreement to make WiMAX-enabled consumer electronic devices. Runcom and Microsoft are developing Windows Mobile drivers for the WiMAX solution.
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[...] Motorola and Texas Instruments are developing chipsets and plan to focus on 802.16e mobile WiMAX, supporting voice, video and data for low-power mobile applications, according to the report. [...]
Left by dailywireless.org » Moto WiMAX: Going Mobile on January 31st, 2007