Intel Mobile Communications drives fast-growing dual-SIM market with XMM 2138 platform

Mobile World Congress 2011, NEUBIBERG, GERMANY & BARCELONA, SPAIN: Addressing the emerging Dual-SIM market, Intel Mobile Communications, a leading vendor of advanced mobile semiconductors solutions for handheld devices, introduced the XMM 2138 platform supporting Dual-SIM Dual-Standby (DSDS) operation.

The XMM 2138 Dual-SIM platform is based on the popular and very successful X-GOLD™ 213 EDGE baseband chip, the lowest-cost EDGE single-chip solution for mobile Internet (browsing & messaging). Highest integration of GSM baseband, RF transceiver, mixed signal, power management, SRAM and FM radio in 65nm CMOS technology and the innovative 8x8 mm eWLB-217 lead-free package of the X-GOLD 213 enable very small and slim, but feature rich designs.

The XMM 2138 EDGE platform paves the way for mobile phone manufacturers to provide optimized and cost-effective solutions with short time-to-market for the increasing demand of the emerging Dual-SIM market.

Dual-SIM phones can natively work with two SIM cards, both of which may be active at the same time. While most of these active Dual-SIM phones have two transceivers, the new DSDS generation provides the ability to have two active SIM simultaneously using only one transceiver, with related cost savings.

A DSDS mobile enables the functionality of two mobiles in one device whether for separating business and private operation or when roaming. Just one convenient and compact handset offers the advantage of different calling plans from service providers to save costs, while frequent travelers benefit from the greater coverage.

Today, a high growth rate for Dual-SIM phones exists in the BRICA (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Africa) region and most significantly in the Asian-Pacific countries. The market research group Strategy Analytics forecasts that 206 million DSDS handsets will be sold worldwide in 2014, compared with 41 million in 2010. In some regions, India for instance, the Dual-SIM phone segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing market segment for mobile phones.

“With this dedicated, cost-effective design platform we again underline our commitment to provide complete and scalable solutions for all market segments, from ultra low-cost devices to high-end smart phones,” said Prof. Dr. Hermann Eul, president of Intel Mobile Communications.

“The XMM2138 is available in two flavors; the UTA-based XMM 2138 platform offering Tier 1 customers maximum re-use and design flexibility while the turnkey platform enables mobile phone manufacturers to produce optimized and cost-effective products with short time-to-market for the increasing demand for Dual-SIM handsets.”

The XMM 2138 platform supports touch screen, WQVGA display for improved mobile browsing capabilities, Bluetooth for file sharing and WLAN for Internet access. In addition it provides high audio and video performance with its on-chip integrated FM radio and the computing power of the ARM11 core in the X-GOLD 213.

The software re-usability and the hardware scalability based on the common ARM11 architecture make the XMM 2138 an ideal and flexible design platform. It offers handset manufacturers a scalable path from 2G to low-cost 3G due to reuse of a common hardware backbone across the entire IMC portfolio. In addition, mobile phone vendors benefit from the optimization of the XMM 2138 for the lowest system cost with 6-layer PCB for low-cost PCB manufacturing.