Architecture and design trends for convergence devices [wireless communication]

Summary form only given. With an ever increasing number of complementing and competing wireless standards to be launched worldwide, consumer connectivity becomes a question of having all of the protocols available while being able to actively run just a subset of them at any oven point in time. The complexity of such multi-protocol products clearly challenges the business strategy of the semiconductor industry to provide complete solutions with short time-to-market and leaves OEMs with ever shrinking margins. The author proposes a different value-chain approach where the semiconductor supplier provides an open platform for system integration. A highly efficient C-compiler allows OEMs to integrate their own and 3rd party IP in minimum time and thus provided customized solutions to an increasingly segmented consumer market. Both RF and baseband design considerations are discussed in the light of 90 nm and beyond technologies.