Communications: Collaborative Efforts Let Wi-Fi Chip Tag-Team With CDMA Or WCDMA

April 13, 2006

A collaboration between Atheros and Qualcomm will produce a low-power, high-performance chip set for cellular and wireless LAN-capable handsets and PDAs. Mobile devices based on the forthcoming chip sets will support CDMA and WCDMA technologies as well as 802.11g or 802.11a/g wireless LANs. Atheros will work to ensure the interoperability of its highly integrated single-chip Radio-on-Chip for Mobile (ROCm) with the MSM6550 CDMA2000 or MSM6280 WCDMA chip sets from Qualcomm. The combined chip sets will let cellphone manufacturers create phones that can seamlessly switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks to minimize connection charges and provide better data connectivity. Samples of the chip sets are expected late in the second quarter.

Atheros Communications Inc.
www.atheros.com

Qualcomm Inc.
www.qualcomm.com

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.