Ericsson, Texas Instruments to co-develop 3G solutions for handsets

Ericsson and Texas Instruments Inc. announced that they will form a strategic technology engagement to develop custom solutions for new Open OS enabled 3G devices.

Solutions from the two companies will combine small and power efficient 3G modems from Ericsson Mobile Platforms with high-performance OMAP applications processors from TI. Solutions from the joint engagement will include OMAP, custom basebands and connectivity technologies and will be able to support Open OS, which offer easy access to a rich array of applications and services. The will enable all device manufacturers to offer advanced Open OS handsets for both the high-end and the rapidly growing mid-range market.

Ericsson’s access technology leadership, current HSPA-enabled platforms, and future HSPA evolution and LTE technologies, combined with the cutting-edge multimedia performance enabled by TI’s OMAP 2, OMAP 3 and future generations of OMAP processors, will continue to push the performance boundaries of mobile devices and mobile entertainment features.

By leveraging TI’s OMAP platform with Open OS support for Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ and Linux, these solutions will provide OEMs and operators with a robust and flexible architecture for applications and services deployment, enabling easier delivery and management of services and content.

The result of the joint effort will bring to market an evolving portfolio of wireless technology platforms with Open OS support to reduce complexity, investment and time-to-market for device manufacturers. The solutions, which seamlessly integrate the modem and applications processor, will be presented in one pre-verified and tested platform reference design. This approach will drastically reduce development and verification efforts previously undertaken by device manufacturers, enabling customers to rapidly bring highly advanced yet competitively priced products to market.

Handsets based on these solutions are expected to be available on the market in the second half of 2008.