Marvell announces first 'World Phone' single chip solution

BARCELONA, SPAIN: Marvell continues to build on its heritage of mobile communications innovations with the announcement of its world phone platform based on the Marvell PXA978 communications processor with Marvell HSPA modem.

Marvell's PXA978 is the industry's first single-chip solution to feature 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and China's TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) standard with HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) support and is intended to enable mobile developers to design 3G cellular devices and tablets that can be used and supported globally.

"The quest to deliver seamless connectivity on a global scale requires fundamental breakthroughs in mobile telephony. I'm very proud of our engineering teams for continuously delivering some of the most innovative technologies in our industry.
It's truly amazing that a tiny chip like the PXA978 integrates both 3G and TD-SCDMA basebands, a powerful application processor, all advanced 3D graphics capability, with a very low-power profile and affordable cost structure ideal for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets," said Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-Founder.

"With the addition of Kinoma's elegant and intuitive software experience and integration of cutting-edge mobile technologies, Marvell has enabled the entire ecosystem – in both its depth and breadth – to convert conventional cell phones into multi-functional mobile gadgets ideal for gaming, video chatting, live news, and more. This small device has the potential to make a huge impact on our world. I envision that a true world phone will transform the global economy by lowering the cost and barriers to entry for billions more consumers and innovators."

Unlike current technology on the market, the Marvell world phone development platform is the world's first and only available solution of its kind featuring R7 3G UMTS and TD-SCDMA with HSPA. Additionally, the platform will feature the industry's first Mobile MIMO, Avastar 88W8797, an 802.11n 2x2 dual-band Wi-Fi SoC designed to support high data rates for next-generation mobile devices. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) no longer need to design separate development platforms to accommodate different wireless standards and target markets around the world, saving months of design time and cost.

Instead, they can focus on creating a wide portfolio of 3G UMTS supported phones that can be used globally with other UMTS carriers worldwide – all based on a single development platform.

China Mobile, the world's largest carrier with more than 500 million subscribers, recently reported that there are currently more than 18 million TD-SCDMA users in China. With that number expected to grow exponentially, Marvell's world phone platform based handsets will provide wireless handset OEMs with a wireless phone platform designed to deliver unmatched performance and addresses the rapidly expanding requirements of one of the world's largest populations.

Marvell's PXA978 single chip solution uses advanced 40nm process technology and is designed to deliver 3G TD-SCDMA baseband combining high performance 1.2 GHz application processor with advanced 3D graphics and 1080p multimedia, ensuring a feature-rich, fast and exceptionally smooth user experience. Additionally, the processor's extremely high power efficiency and true multitasking capabilities is intended to enable OEMs to design mobile devices that represent a significant leap beyond today's most advanced smartphone and tablet devices. The platform will support all leading OS platforms.