Single-Chip Processor Gives Cell Phones An EDGE

To survive and hopefully succeed, cellular-phone designs must be able to take one platform and apply it to various networks. This dream seemed unattainable in today's pre-3G landscape. Now, however, an announcement from Intel Corporation is showing mobile-phone makers that a single-platform approach can potentially be realized. The company went public with a single-chip processor for cellular phones using Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) wireless networks.

Known as the PXA800EF, this cellular processor uses Intel's "Wireless Internet on a Chip" technology. By combining the key components of today's cellular phones and handheld computers onto a single microchip, it vows to enable advanced features, new data capabilities, longer battery life, and more innovative designs for mainstream phones.

EDGE is an emerging technology that is predicted to send and receive data two to three times faster than today's cellular networks. It enables higher-quality multimedia and other broadband applications for mobile-phone users. High-speed wireless networks like EDGE promise to increase the amount of data that can be processed on a handset. As a result, they will turn the cell phone into a "converged" device that's capable of high-performance computing and communications.

The Intel PXA800EF cellular processor is currently sampling. Production volumes should now be available. Cellular phones that use the new processors will be available later this year.