Prototyping To Cellular Platforms

Austin, TX - Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and Virtio Corporation have partnered to reduce handset development time by providing handset manufacturers with the ability to develop and test their software without waiting for hardware availability.

Virtual Platforms provide developers with added debug capabilities by providing visibility and control of software/hardware interactions that are more difficult to observe on the physical hardware platform.

"The typical development cycle for a handset is 12 to 24 months. With Virtual Platforms from Virtio allowing parallel software development, you can potentially reduce that development cycle by six to nine months," said Berardino Baratta, director, Wireless Strategy Office, for Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. "We have seen a huge reduction in our development time by being able to test and validate software before the first silicon samples are received. We then pass the benefit on to our customers with even more flexible and scalable roadmaps and reduced time-to-market for their handsets."

The VPMX31 Virtual Platform models the application development system for the recently announced i.MX31 multimedia applications processor. Available immediately, the i.MX31 is a 32-bit applications processor for cell phones and other handheld wireless entertainment devices. It boosts multimedia, video and graphics performance while providing outstanding battery-power management.

The virtual digital baseband for the MXC and i.300 platforms is used internally by Freescale and expected availability is in Q3 2005. MXC is Freescale's mobile, extreme convergence platform that includes a modem, applications processor and RF on a reconfigurable chip package the size of a postage stamp. It allows access to WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth technology, targeting wireless Internet, multimedia and gaming applications. The i.300-30 platform targets 3G-cell phone design and includes both a processor and DSP along with an integrated video processor. The chipset also includes tri-band WCDMA and quad-band GSM RF functions.

Shay Ben-Chorin, president and chief executive officer for Virtio, said, "Working with Freescale gives Virtio an inside look at products under development, ensuring the highest accuracy in our models. We work with them to jumpstart early software development and testing, a critical issue to the industry."

SOURCE: Freescale Semiconductor