To ensure compliance with IS-2000, the 3G CDMA chip set has been involved in test transmissions, which have shown gains in voice capacity and coverage, data throughput and coverage, and talk and standby time. Additional tests in operational networks are currently in progress. Commercial 3G 1x service is expected to be deployed in Korea by the end of this year, and similar service is expected in the United States and Japan sometime in 2001.

Tough test

The test transmissions were conducted between a CDMA wireless handset that used the company's MSM5000 Mobile Station Modem chip set and software, and a basestation using the company's CSM5000 cell site modem chip. A number of applications were demonstrated, including live two-way videoconferencing, simultaneous streaming video, chat, Web browsing and file-transfer-protocol (FTP) operations. The videoconference demonstration was conducted under the most difficult real-world conditions, Qualcomm said, between a stationary laptop and an in-vehicle laptop while the vehicle was in motion.

Both systems used Qualcomm's 3G CDMA 1x trial handsets to establish over-the-air packet data connections running at greater than 144 kbits/s in both directions simultaneously. As a benchmark, a measure was made of the time required to a 1-Mbyte file. During an FTP data transfer transmission, the QCT 3G 1x system transferred the file in 59 seconds, compared to an estimated 4.8 minutes for a 28.8-kbit/s landline modem (and 2.5 minutes, 2.2 minutes and 65 seconds, respectively, for 56-kbit/s, 64-kbit/s and 128-kbit/s landline modems).

"These successful transmissions illustrate QCT's complete, end-to-end 3G CDMA 1x solution," said Luis Pineda, vice president of product management for QCT. "The company is committed to providing handset and basestation manufacturers with the most advanced CDMA solutions that will continue to accelerate the rollout of 3G products."

Currently ramping for production shipment, the MSM5000 is designed to give operators up to twice the overall capacity available over IS-95A and IS-95B systems by providing features such as fast 800-Hz forward power control and new modulation and coding schemes. Significant standby time improvements in MSM5000-based handsets will also be achieved through the use of a new Quick Paging Channel, Qualcomm said. The MSM5000 chip set and software is fully backward compatible with existing IS-95A and IS-95B networks, providing a seamless migration path to 3G while maintaining existing wide-area coverage for all subscribers, the company said. The MSM5000 system software will also include support for packet data and a full Internet Protocol suite.

The CSM5000 solution, which is fully compliant with IS 2000 1x, provides operators with up to twice the overall voice capacity of IS-95A and IS-95B systems. It exceeds the International Telecommunication Union's 144-kbit/s requirement for data rates in full wide-area mobility, enabling data rates of up to 307.2 kbits/s on both forward and reverse links.

The chip integrates an ARM microprocessor for reverse link processing and provides a PowerPC-compatible synchronous interface. The architecture stresses flexibility by providing resource mapping of up to 64 forward-link channels and 32 reverse-link channels, while providing basestation manufacturers with a fourfold increase in the number of simultaneous calls per channel card. In addition, the channel card power consumption per call is greatly reduced, enabling the design of very compact basestations and picocells. Each channel element performs CDMA searching, CDMA modulation and demodulation, and Viterbi and turbo decoding. The CSM5000 solution is now sampling, and production shipping is expected in the fourth quarter.

Multimedia goes mobile

The sample shipment of the MSM3300 chip set and software is a further step toward the integration of advanced wireless Internet launchpad technologies. It includes position location, Bluetooth capability, MP3, MIDI and a mass-storage-device controller. The IFR3300 IF-to-baseband receiver enables the complete integration of a GPS-band radio without the need for additional external RF or IF devices. Sample shipments of the MSM3300 and IFR3300 began this month.

Johan Lodenius, senior vice president of marketing and product management for QCT, said: "With the industry's most powerful position-location technologies and highly integrated multimedia capabilities, Qualcomm's newest chip sets will drive the next generation of wireless products by providing wireless subscribers with an experience unprecedented in richness, and supplying manufacturers with increased cost savings and shorter time-to-market."

The MSM3300 at the center of a modem chip that also includes the RFT3100 analog-baseband-to-RF upconverter, the IFR3300 IF-to-baseband downconverter, RFR3100 RF-to-IF downconverter, PA3100 power amplifier and PM1000 power-management device.

The chip set and software incorporates the company's Wireless Internet Launchpad suite of technologies and software, including the gpsOne position-location solution featuring SnapTrack technology, Bluetooth connectivity capabilities, removable user identity module controller, and multimedia features such as Qtunes MPEG-1 MP3 player software and Compact Media Extension MIDI-based multimedia software. The MSM3300 solution also integrates a SIM controller that enables a direct interface with SIM cards, providing CDMA handset manufacturers with a comprehensive solution that will allow a subscriber's identity to be stored in a single, removable card.

The MSM3300 is available in a 208-ball fine-pitch BGA, and is pin-compatible with the MSM3100. The part can interface directly with the other parts in the chip set.

The IFR3300 offers all of the functions of the earlier IFR3000, and is pin compatible with that device, but features a low-pass filtering tailored for gpsOne capability. The chip operates down to 2.7 V and is offered in a 48 bump chip carrier.

Production quantities of the MSM3300 and IFR3300 are expected to be available in the fourth quarter.