nec
nec

nec

TTPCom and NEC Collaborate to Develop Dual-mode 3G/2G Chips

TTP Communications and NEC Electronics Corporation, the leader in single-mode (W-CDMA) 3G baseband chips in Japan, today announce that they are joining forces to develop dual-mode chips that will include TTPCom Limited’s EDGE/GPRS/GSM silicon and software architecture. This fast-track route to the development of 3G/2G chips will help NEC Electronics increase its presence in the global market. NEC Electronics is developing a dual-mode 3G/2G chipset to address the growing world market for dual-mode wireless products that can handover to EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks outside pockets of 3G coverage.

Underwhelmed by DoCoMo's Next-Gen premini

DoCoMo’s first premini mobile was a tiny (90mm) stripped-down, no-frills 2G phone weighing a feather-weight 69 grams. Just out is its successor, the bigger and juicer premini-II, redesigned with a 1.3-megapixel camera, enhanced music elements, bar-code reader and memory stick. While the premini nicely occupied an open niche in Japan’s mobile ecosystem (as a second celly to use where cam phones aren’t allowed), it’s difficult to see what need the more full-featured premini-II fulfills. Manufactured by Sony Ericsson, the premini-II is slim, polished, weighs 79 grams, has 1.9-inch QVGA screen and comes in three colors: silver, black and brown. Given its beefier size (105 mm), it should probably have been called the pre-midi.

NetGear's 108-Mbps Wireless in Japan

NETGEAR announced their new line of MIMO G wireless products based on the True MIMO(TM) chipset from Airgo Networks. Available in Japan this month, the MIMO G Wireless Router (Model WGM124) and PC Card (Model WGM511) provide customers with the highest-performing wireless networking technology on the market with up to 8x the speed and coverage of standard 802.11g devices. “Whether in the home office, family room, or back yard, customers will enjoy a smooth, consistent connection,” said Naoki Hayashida, Japan Country Manager.

Fujitsu Enables Prolonged Viewing of Digital Broadcasts to Mobile Phones

Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of a low-power analog to-digital (AD) converter that employs a delta-sigma(*1) modulator for mobile phones that are capable of receiving digital terrestrial television and radio broadcasts(*2). The new delta-sigma modulator-based AD converter can reduce power consumption levels of tuners embedded in mobile phones to 30 milliwatts (mW), approximately one-sixth to one-third the power drain of current levels, thereby enabling prolonged viewing of terrestrial digital broadcasting on mobile phones by significantly lessening the power consumption of mobile phone batteries. In addition, the integration of the new AD converter with OFDM demodulator (*3) onto a single chip is expected to facilitate the development of mobile phones that are more compact than currently available.

ACCESS NetFront Browser: 150 mn Deployments Worldwide

ACCESS announced that its market leading NetFront(tm) browser has surpassed 150 million deployments worldwide. Widely recognized as one of the most advanced Internet browsers in the world, NetFront now also stands as the most widely deployed and actively used browser in the beyond-PC market, which includes mobile phones, PDAs, Digital Televisions, set-top boxes, digital televisions, automobile telematics, game consoles, Internet kiosks, email terminals, and many other Internet devices.

3G FOMA 901i Launch

3G FOMA 901i Series LaunchThe 901i-series of 3G FOMA cell phones is DoCoMo’s latest tactical weapon in Japan’s escalating “lighter and smarter” mobile arms race. The four 901i handsets come packed with sophisticated go-go fun: twin stereo speakers and spatially enhanced sound; fat video and music files (500KB); pre-loaded games from Square Enix, Capcom and others; FeliCa smart-card e-wallet functions (in three models); 2-megapixel cameras; a TV guide for accessing TV program listings as far as eight days in advance (in one model) with genre and keyword searches including customized settings and registration for favorite TV shows plus it doubles as a remote control for TVs, DVD-Ds and VTR machines. Wow!