MOTOROLA CHIP GROUP GOES TO THE EXTREME

As Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector awaits a future that will see it sold or spun off by its struggling corporate parent, the chip developer is pushing ahead with new product strategies. Most recently, that included the introduction of the Motorola Extreme Convergence (MXC) architecture announced last week at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment show in Las Vegas.

With the MXC architecture, Motorola is aiming to produce a “postage-stamp system on a chip” for smartphone mobile devices, as well as redesign how communications functions and applications development are addressed on chip architectures.

The MXC converges the hardware needed to drive call processing technology and applications processing technology with a shared memory system, enhancing the performance of both functions, according to Franz Fink, vice president and general manager of the Wireless and Mobile Systems Group at Motorola SPS.

“We've also separated the modem function from application development to provide a cleaner applications environment that allows developers to write applications once and port them to any other device,” Fink said. Developers can use a single platform to target multiple product designs ranging from entertainment to enterprise applications that currently are delivered through as many as 300 to 400 components.

“We believe we can cut the smartphone bill of materials by up to 50% and help reduce development time from 18 months to about nine months,” Fink said. “The MXC could help fuel the smart device explosion.”

The first chips using the MXC architecture are expected to available in the second half of 2004, with commercial device availability resulting by 2005.