Texas Instruments' new concept design sports GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and WLAN all-in-one, and runs Pocket PC Phone Edition. Now all that's needed is for manufacturers to bite.
Based on OMAP Processors and Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition platform, Texas Instruments' new concept design integrates three wireless technologies in one single device. Measuring smaller than the current crop of Pocket PC Phone Edition devices from HTC, the concept design - dubbed WANDA - offers GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and WLAN all-in-one. What TI needs now is manufacturers to bite the bait.
 | TI's new WANDA concept design bodes well for feature-hungry road warriors
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Code named "WANDA" for Wireless Any Network Digital Assistant, the new concept design is claimed by TI to be the industry's first to integrate wireless LAN, Bluetooth and GSM/GPRS technologies. Several processors from TI power the device, including the OMAP1510 application processor, the BRF6100 Bluetooth chip, the TNETW1100B 802.11b MAC/Baseband processor, and finally the TCS2100 GSM/GPRS chipset.
In addition to the new WANDA PDA concept design, TI already provides several other complete reference designs which aim to allow mobile device manufacturers to jump-start new product development, eliminate some design tasks and shorten time-to-market.
Designed by Accelent Systems based on TI specifications, the the WANDA PDA concept design is scheduled to be available in April 2003. From there, interested manufacturers are estimated to be able to bring a product based on the reference design to market in a minimum time frame of six months. The time required could vary, however, and no manufacturers have publicly announced to have licensed the WANDA design.
An additional hi-res picture of the Texas Instruments WANDA concept design is available on the following page.
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