NEW YORK-With the introduction Dec. 1 of a suite of radio-frequency integrated circuit products, Texas Instruments, Dallas, made a giant leap forward toward providing all major system blocks for digital wireless phones.
“Right now, we are the number one supplier of digital basebands, and we also have analog basebands. This is the final part of the phone (that) we’ve never made before, so we now are pretty much manufacturing all silicon for a digital phone,” said Sam Pritchett, RF marketing director of the Americas for TI’s Wireless Communications Business Unit.
“The intention of this announcement is to demonstrate that we’ve invested in the core competency, that we’re in RF and these are our first eight products. It’s not a complete chipset. We don’t have a total turnkey solution.”
Texas Instruments is building a family of radio-frequency products for digital cellular, personal communications services and cordless phones that will perform each of the major RF functions within wireless handsets: receiver, synthesizer, modulator and power amplifier. The goal of the product program is to help handset makers achieve their goals of fast production cycles for smaller, lighter, cheaper handsets with longer talk and standby times.
“There are few manufacturers in RF, at least those that are supplying this kind of solution,” Pritchett said.
There also are a lot of niche players in the radio-frequency market, able to optimize certain functions within a phone but not others. Besides the capability to manufacture in large quantity as a competitive advantage, Pritchett said Texas Instruments also intends to leverage its existing capabilities in digital signal processing and other necessary functions within handsets.
Six of the eight new RF products, which comprise receiver, receiver front end, amplifier and synthesizer ICs, are available now from the manufacturer and some of its authorized distributors. Quantities of 10,000 pieces range in price from less than that of a single copy of a Sunday newspaper to less than the cost of a paperback book. Samples of the other two are available now.
“We are a very conservative company. We have other products close to the end of the pipe, but we don’t want to promote them because we’re not selling vapor ware,” Pritchett said.
Pritchett also said Texas Instruments is working with top-tier original equipment manufacturers on custom product development that cannot be disclosed because the work is being done on an exclusive basis.
Generally, in situations like this, major players seek exclusivity for one product cycle, after which competitors can obtain the technology. Access for Texas Instruments to broader markets over the longer term also benefits the OEMs by helping TI with economies of scale in manufacturing that drive down unit prices, he said.
