Terminal Technology
Terminal Technology

Terminal Technology

DoCoMo & TI to Develop Multi-Mode UMTS

Texas Instruments Inc. and NTT DoCoMo, Inc., have announced a joint agreement to develop a cost-competitive, multi-mode UMTS (W-CDMA/ GSM/GPRS) chipset to serve the Japanese, U.S. and worldwide 3G handset market. An integrated UMTS digital baseband and applications processor will be developed based on TI’s OMAP(TM) 2 architecture and NTT DoCoMo’s W-CDMA technology for NTT DoCoMo handsets and other 3G handsets worldwide. Additionally, the agreement will include development and testing of power management, RF and protocol software that will be made available as system solutions to TI’s worldwide customer base.

DoCoMo to Invest in FOMA Single-Chip LSI

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company will invest in Renesas Technology Corp. to jointly develop a single-chip LSI making FOMA 3G handsets compatible with both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks. Currently, it is necessary to embed two chips in the handset in order to produce a dual-mode W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS handset. However, by combining DoCoMo’s W-CDMA technology with Renesas Technology’s LSI fabrication capabilities, multimedia application processors, and GSM/GPRS technologies, a single-chip will be developed that enables a lower-cost 3G handset to run on both network standards.

KDDI: Fuel Cells in 2007; Where's NEC?

The Nikkei reported on Saturday that KDDI aims to commercialize fuel cells for keitai using Hitachi and Toshiba technology by 2007; this is supposed to be at least two years behind claims often made by Japan’s mobile-phone leader NEC that it will have fuel cells ready for commercialization for mobile phones by next year at the latest.

Fujitsu's New IP Prototype Phone

IDG reports that Fujitsu Labs and Fujitsu spinoff Net-2Com have this week been showing the world’s first mobile IP/PHS dual-mode phone in central Tokyo. We’ve already shot a program and did an interview with the phone’s developer, we’ll have great video of the device coming up soon. Meanwhile, take a look at this story from IDG for some angles on the phone, which is still a prototype but could be on sale within a year. P(H)S. Did someone say China?

New PHS Phone with ACCESS Browser

Japan Radio Co. will release their new AH-J3003S candybar phone [.jpg image], intended for use with DDI Pocket’s Air-H” PHS network, on 15 July. In addition to being loaded with ACCESS’s HTML-supporting Web browser, Compact NetFront, the phone supports up to three POP3 and SMTP email accounts and is SSL-enabled. It also comes equipped with an onboard Mini-B-type USB port for synching data with your home PC.

Vodafone K.K. Unleashes Sharp V602SH

Here in Tokyo, the tension is killing us – waiting for Vodafone to break out of its bolt hole and unleash its global-spanning battlewagon of 3G W-CDMA phones. While new management here does whatever it’s supposed to be doing to sweeten up Vodafone’s sour performanceof late, Little-V still has the muscle, and Sharp always the technology, it seems, to pull something out of the hat; this time its the V602SH, packing a 2.02-megapixel camera (small yawn) plus a real eye opener – an optical zoom! See for yourself in our video program from the Tokyo Business Show in May.