iPod chip builder teams for wireless and 3G capabilities

Posted on 9 Feb 2006 at 12:47

PortalPlayer, the company best known for making processors for iPods, has announced two new technology partnerships.

The first will enable PortalPlayer to integrate its PP5022 applications processor family with CSR's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips to provide wireless networking support for downloading and synchronising content between portable devices and computers and to provide support for Bluetooth devices such as headsets.

'CSR's UniFi was designed for this type of application,' said Simon Finch, vice president of strategic marketing at CSR. 'The company worked long and hard to get both power and coexistence - operating both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in a single design - to levels that make these technologies suitable for portable devices.'

The second, with Icera, will enable the development of a personal media player with an integrated HSDPA modem (high-speed downlink packet access, a variant of the 3G mobile standard) to deliver an always-on Net connection for browsing and fast download of music and video files, at up to up to 7.2Mbps.

'The advent of cellular broadband, as HSDPA is launched in 3G and GSM networks, is set to revolutionise the mobile industry, driving new classes of mobile devices and services," said Nigel Toon, VP of marketing at Icera. 'Integrating Icera's wireless soft modem and PortalPlayer's core media-player technology will help bring to market compelling new products that are very low power and have high-speed, always-on connectivity.'

Rumours of a wireless-enabled iPod have circulated ever since Apple's iPod division advertised for two hardware engineers with experience in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but the main stumbling block has been thought to be the technology's high power requirements. Both CSR and Icera claim low power consumption for their hardware.

Author: Simon Aughton