John Glossner : SDR Insider
John Glossner
Sandbridge Technologies CTO & EVP. A fabless semiconductor company building SDR baseband processors.

February 2012

You are browsing the archive for February 2012.

Recent Processor Announcements

February 28, 2012

With a lot of exciting activities at MWC in Barcelona I thought I’d update everyone on the latest processor announcements. Sorted for the first five in order of smartphone applications processor market share (well, except for Apple): QUALCOMM: Snapdragon S4 (Krait) MSM8960 MDP is a dual-core 1.5 GHz in house designed ARMv7 architecture implemented in TSMC 28nm LP [...]

CEVA launches new low-power DSP cores for the broadest comms standards

February 21, 2012

Each XC4000 processor, which comes with a varying number of vector units, is designed to be scalable. The variations range from a single vector unit and 16 MACs to 4 vector units and 128 MACs Full story at EE Times.

ZTE to Show New Mimosa X Handset Featuring NVIDIA Tegra Dual-Core Processor and NVIDIA Icera Modem at MWC 2012

February 21, 2012

Features include advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), Dolby sound, digital living network alliance (DLNA) compatibility for easy sharing of content, HD video record and play, dual microphones, and built-in gyroscope. It also includes an Icera baseband processor, making it the first phone to incorporate this cutting-edge technology that was acquired last year by NVIDIA. Press release [...]

InterDigital signs two white spaces partners

February 18, 2012

Its eyes have lighted on the nascent white spaces segment, and it has announced two technology collaborations in the space of three weeks – with US database provider Spectrum Bridge, and India’s Ittiam Systems. Full Story at Rethink Wireless.

FCC Gets Unlicensed White Space Autonomy

February 18, 2012

In a last-minute compromise reached by House and Senate leaders on Thursday, both sides agree to pay for the payroll tax cut by auctioning off $22 billion worth wireless spectrum — expected to total some 120 MHz, from UHF channel 31 to 51. Full Story at DailyWireless.org.

Official: Sony and Ericsson are divorced

February 16, 2012

Sony will rename Sony Ericsson “Sony Mobile Communications”, and further integrate the mobile phone business as a vital element of its electronics business, with the aim of accelerating convergence between Sony’s lineup of network enabled consumer electronics products, including smart phones, tablets, TVs and PCs. Full Story at The Register.

Toumaz and Imagination form low-power wireless chip firm

February 15, 2012

Toumaz Microsystems gets all of the Toumaz chip design team and will focus on the design, development and sale of ICs and solutions for radios embedded in internet-connected devices in markets including: home automation, enterprise automation, healthcare, smart power, security, Full Story at Electronics Weekly.

Renesas rolls combo LTE/3G baseband

February 15, 2012

The MP5232 is a single chip that supports both LTE (TD/FD Cat 4) and HSPA+, aimed at enabling $150-300 devices. To date, most LTE chips require separate baseband chips to handle 2G/3G baseband connections. Full Story at EE Times.

FCC plans to reject Lightsquared’s 4G network

February 15, 2012

We’ve been hearing from government regulators since June that Lightsquared’s proposed LTE network could interfere with GPS devices. Today the NTIA, an agency that oversees spectrum use, issued a letter to the FCC that claims Lightsquared’s network will indeed impact GPS services, and that “there is no practical way to mitigate the interference at this [...]

Airlines join opposition to LightSquared project

February 9, 2012

Thomas Hendricks, SVP of airline trade group Airlines for America, said in written testimony to a US House hearing that LightSquared would have “ruinous effects” on aviation navigation systems because of signal interference and added. Full Story at Rethink Wireless.

Samsung Cuts LTE Cost in Half

February 9, 2012

The Galaxy Nexus sports a new version of the LTE baseband chip.  The new chip is estimated at nearly half the cost of the prior chip’s $23 price tag.  This type of cost reduction is an important milestone in securing the rapid migration to LTE throughout the world. Full Story at ABI.

OpenStax

February 9, 2012

Rice University, which has been pushing alternative distribution mechanisms for scholarly publications for years, has announced a new initiative, by which they hope to publish free, high-quality textbooks in core subjects like physics and biology via a non-profit publisher called OpenStax College. It’s the polar opposite of Apple’s iBooks textbooks, which, while they too help [...]

MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency

February 6, 2012

If they prove they’ve learned the materi­al, MITx will, for a small fee, give them a credential certifying as much. MITx is the next big step in the open-educational-resources movement that MIT helped start in 2001, when it began putting its course lecture notes, videos, and exams online, where anyone in the world could use them [...]

Apple’s Mobile Share

February 4, 2012

Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share. Two great posts from Asymco here and here.

White Space Show Down

February 4, 2012

Sen. John Kerry urged the Internet community on Tuesday to rally to push Congress to free up more unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi and other new wireless technologies. Full story at dailywireless.org