John Glossner
Open Source Framework for Commercial Baseband Software Project Call for Contributions
The Wireless Innovation Forum (SDR Forum version 2.0), a non-profit organization dedicated to driving the future of radio communications and systems worldwide, announced today a Call for Contributions for the previously announced project focused on reducing cost and time to market in deploying 3G and 4G, “3G+” systems, including: Fixed WiMAX™ (802.16d), Mobile WiMAX (802.16e), [...]
Cellular and Wi-Fi bodies work on common roaming
The Small Cells Forum unveiled an initiative to bring standards efforts within the 3GPP, Wi-Fi Alliance and others closer together. Now there are signs of cooperation at the operator level, with the GSM Association announcing a deal with the main body of WLan providers, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).
Full Story at Rethink Wireless
Huawei claims 30Gbps ‘Beyond LTE’
More than 20 times the speeds of current 4G networks. It achieves this using a combination of advanced techniques including antenna structure and MIMO arrays, plus changes to the RF architecture and intermediate frequency algorithms.
Full Story at Rethink Wireless
The Startup Ecosystem
Great pic of the startup ecosystem.
Hat tip to Josh Brown.
Wireless breakthrough: one frequency, multiple signals
The technique is based on adding orbital angular momentum to the signal-carrying mix, essentially twisting the directed signal in a way that offsets multiple signals in the same frequency.
Full story at The Register.
Recent Processor Announcements
With a lot of exciting activities at MWC in Barcelona I thought I’d update everyone on the latest processor announcements.
Sorted for the first five in order of smartphone applications processor market share (well, except for Apple):
QUALCOMM: Snapdragon S4 (Krait) MSM8960 MDP is a dual-core 1.5 GHz in house designed ARMv7 architecture implemented in TSMC 28nm LP [...]
CEVA launches new low-power DSP cores for the broadest comms standards
Each XC4000 processor, which comes with a varying number of vector units, is designed to be scalable. The variations range from a single vector unit and 16 MACs to 4 vector units and 128 MACs
Full story at EE Times.
ZTE to Show New Mimosa X Handset Featuring NVIDIA Tegra Dual-Core Processor and NVIDIA Icera Modem at MWC 2012
Features include advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), Dolby sound, digital living network alliance (DLNA) compatibility for easy sharing of content, HD video record and play, dual microphones, and built-in gyroscope. It also includes an Icera baseband processor, making it the first phone to incorporate this cutting-edge technology that was acquired last year by NVIDIA.
Press release [...]
InterDigital signs two white spaces partners
Its eyes have lighted on the nascent white spaces segment, and it has announced two technology collaborations in the space of three weeks – with US database provider Spectrum Bridge, and India’s Ittiam Systems.
Full Story at Rethink Wireless.
FCC Gets Unlicensed White Space Autonomy
In a last-minute compromise reached by House and Senate leaders on Thursday, both sides agree to pay for the payroll tax cut by auctioning off $22 billion worth wireless spectrum — expected to total some 120 MHz, from UHF channel 31 to 51.
Full Story at DailyWireless.org.
Official: Sony and Ericsson are divorced
Sony will rename Sony Ericsson “Sony Mobile Communications”, and further integrate the mobile phone business as a vital element of its electronics business, with the aim of accelerating convergence between Sony’s lineup of network enabled consumer electronics products, including smart phones, tablets, TVs and PCs.
Full Story at The Register.
Toumaz and Imagination form low-power wireless chip firm
Toumaz Microsystems gets all of the Toumaz chip design team and will focus on the design, development and sale of ICs and solutions for radios embedded in internet-connected devices in markets including: home automation, enterprise automation, healthcare, smart power, security,
Full Story at Electronics Weekly.
Renesas rolls combo LTE/3G baseband
The MP5232 is a single chip that supports both LTE (TD/FD Cat 4) and HSPA+, aimed at enabling $150-300 devices. To date, most LTE chips require separate baseband chips to handle 2G/3G baseband connections.
Full Story at EE Times.
FCC plans to reject Lightsquared’s 4G network
We’ve been hearing from government regulators since June that Lightsquared’s proposed LTE network could interfere with GPS devices. Today the NTIA, an agency that oversees spectrum use, issued a letter to the FCC that claims Lightsquared’s network will indeed impact GPS services, and that “there is no practical way to mitigate the interference at this [...]
Airlines join opposition to LightSquared project
Thomas Hendricks, SVP of airline trade group Airlines for America, said in written testimony to a US House hearing that LightSquared would have “ruinous effects” on aviation navigation systems because of signal interference and added.
Full Story at Rethink Wireless.
Samsung Cuts LTE Cost in Half
The Galaxy Nexus sports a new version of the LTE baseband chip. The new chip is estimated at nearly half the cost of the prior chip’s $23 price tag. This type of cost reduction is an important milestone in securing the rapid migration to LTE throughout the world.
Full Story at ABI.
OpenStax
Rice University, which has been pushing alternative distribution mechanisms for scholarly publications for years, has announced a new initiative, by which they hope to publish free, high-quality textbooks in core subjects like physics and biology via a non-profit publisher called OpenStax College. It’s the polar opposite of Apple’s iBooks textbooks, which, while they too help [...]
MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency
If they prove they’ve learned the material, MITx will, for a small fee, give them a credential certifying as much.
MITx is the next big step in the open-educational-resources movement that MIT helped start in 2001, when it began putting its course lecture notes, videos, and exams online, where anyone in the world could use them [...]
Apple’s Mobile Share
Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share.
Two great posts from Asymco here and here.