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