DALLAS (February 1, 1994) -- Texas Instruments is no stranger to the digital cellular market. Having been a leading supplier of DSPs for digital cellular phones for more than five years, the company leveraged its expertise in DSP components and mixed-signal technology to enter the chipset market late last year.
Last October, Texas Instruments introduced a low-power, single DSP chipset for baseband signal processing in IS-54B digital cellular telephones. The chipset cuts power consumption by up to 60 percent over competing solutions, and the integrated design will help make digital cellular services more affordable for consumers.
According to Herschel Shosteck & Associates, a Maryland-based analyst firm specializing in digital cellular telephony, the market for IS-54B cellular telephones is estimated to be 400,000 units in 1994. And, its enhanced sibling, IS-54C, now known as IS-136, is well on its way to implementation in North America.
IS-136, like its predecessor, uses a time division multiple access (TDMA) technique that increases capacity by a factor three over the AMPS system. It is different from previous standards in that it employs a digital control channel rather than an analog control channel, which enables cellular phones to incorporate power saving modes and other enhanced services. Customers currently designing under the now maturing IS-136 digital cellular specification can use the three components of TI's recently announced IS-54B chipset -- TI's DSP, ARCTIC and VBAP components -- with only minor changes to external hardware. Additionally, today, TI announced that it will jointly develop an IS-136 chipset solution with Teknekron Communications Systems, Inc. (TCSI), an industry-leading software developer of wireless communications technology. Introduction of the chipset is planned for late 1995.
Texas Instruments plans to provide DSP-based solutions for many standards in digital cellular telephony worldwide. These include the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) in Europe, the Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) in Japan, and eventually standards based on the code division multiple access (CDMA) technique.
TI participates in the digital cellular telephony arena by providing products at three levels to manufacturers -- single components and/or hardware platforms, components with software modules, and chipset solutions such as the TCS320IS54B chipset and the IS-136 solution now under development. Currently, TI offers DSPs that are used in telephones complying with all cellular standards, and will continue to develop new components for these standards, including new DSPs, microcontrollers, A/D and D/A converters for speech and RF signals, and transceiver circuits.
TI is now among the largest-volume suppliers of DSPs for GSM telephones in Europe and of IS-54 telephones in the U.S.
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