Date: 17/02/2009

Qualcomm targets 3G/LTE market with some new chipsets scheduled for year 2010

The new Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM8960 chipset from Qualcomm supporting most of the mobile broadband standards, is slated to be sampled in mid 2010.
The MSM8960 features radio frequency, software and pin-compatibility with the MSM8260 and MSM8660 chipsets for HSPA+ and HSPA+/EV-DO Rev. B, allowing device manufacturers to benefit from the economies of scale and existing investments into designs based on those two solutions. The MSM8960 chipset also supports LTE-TDD.

The MSM8960 is compatible with the QTR8610 transceiver, which integrates support for all worldwide CDMA2000 and UMTS radio frequency bands and eliminates the need for standalone GPS, Bluetooth, FM radio chips and codecs. The QTR8610 is scheduled to sample in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Qualcomm will also be offering Femtocell Station Modem (FSM) chipsets featuring the broadband speeds of 3GPP HSPA+, in addition to utilizing CDMA2000, including 1X and EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B. The chipsets includes baseband functions, network listen and integrated RF capabilities for all major wireless bands.

This chipset addresses the issue of interference between femtocells and the macro network. Qualcomm will offer FSM chipsets for both residential and enterprise applications to its OEM customers.

However customers got to wait till mid 2010 to receive samples of these devices.

Qualcomm also announced, Sony electronics has selected Qualcomm's Gobi mobile Internet technology for use in its VAIO notebook PC lines.