Date: 26/06/2012

Marvell’s wireless chips power Samsung’s GALAXY Xcover and i8250 Smartphones

Marvell has announced that its Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) single-chip solution “the PXA968” is powering the Samsung GALAXY Xcover (GT-S5690). The solution is now in devices shipping in more than 20 countries, and has been certified on major carrier networks such as Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, and Hutchison.

The Samsung GALAXY Xcover smartphone has waterproof to a depth of one meter (max 30 minutes) and is IP67 compliant. The GALAXY Xcover sports a strong anti-scratch screen made from tempered glass and resilience is enabled through a reinforced display.

PXA968 includes:
1. PXA968 800MHz/1GHz chip set supporting WCDMA HSPA, GSM/EDGE, and 720p Encode / Decode of multimedia content
2. Marvell’s PM8607 integrated audio and power management
3. Marvell’s RF830 WCDMA RF transceiver
4. Marvell Avastar 88W8787 Wi-Fi system on chip (SoC)
5. An 802.11n-compliant solution with Bluetooth 3.0
6. FM combination radio
7. Support for Mobile Hotspot capabilities

“Samsung is one of the most successful mobile manufacturer in the world – its selection of Marvell as a strategic partner for its latest WCDMA smartphones validates our leadership in providing innovative, robust and integrated silicon platforms for leading global mobility standards, whether its TD-SCDMA, WCDMA or LTE,” said Weili Dai, co-founder of Marvell. “Today, we live and work in a world that connects every aspect of the digital lifestyle, utilizing social media, social networking, mobile gaming and mobile TV features all in one device. Powered by Marvell’s industry leading PXA968 single-chip WCDMA solution, I believe Samsung’s new GALAXY Xcover smartphone will be just the beginning of mass deployment of advanced WCDMA-based smartphones throughout the world, providing consumers around the world access to an affordable, rugged, high-performance Android smartphone.”

“Pre-certified silicon platforms give mobile device makers confidence that their products will operate with ease on critical carrier networks, ultimately enabling them to bring new devices to market more efficiently,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. “As device makers face increasing pressure to deliver devices that can operate on various global bandwidths, a total silicon solution that is certified by major operators across continents is a significant advantage for OEMs, significantly impacting the selection of a semiconductor platform.”

The PXA968 runs the Android Gingerbread operating system, with availability of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) by second half of 2012. The platform also supports up to a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touch screen interface and can have a 3 megapixel camera, video, geotagging and social networking applications built in.

Marvell has also announced that Samsung has released its new Android- smartphone for China Mobile powered by Marvell’s PXA920H single-chip solution. Marvell’s chip provides integrated 3G platform with TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE communication for multimedia-centric handsets.

Samsung’s new Galaxy i8250 smartphone features the Marvell Avastar 88W8787 wireless chipset, the 802.11n multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Wi-Fi + Bluetooth + FM radio combination and Marvell’s RF838, 2G/3G dual-mode TD-SCDMA radio frequency transceiver. The Galaxy i8250 is available now through China Mobile

“As the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world, Samsung has been investing in the China 3G TD-SCDMA market for almost a decade. I am so proud to see that through Marvell’s close collaboration with Samsung in the last couple of years, we are honored to support Samsung with our most cutting-edge, first field-proven smartphone technology through a broad range of solutions with superior performance and the most reliable connectivity,” said Weili Dai, Co-Founder of Marvell. “Now, Samsung is able to extend its leadership in the TD-SCDMA market. I believe that Samsung’s broad range of TD-SCDMA product offerings will accelerate the mass adoption of high performance, high quality and cost-effective smartphones to benefit hundreds of millions of consumers in China.”
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N