Flash memory products meet future handset designs

A new family of Flash memory products from Spansion has been pre-qualified with Qualcomm's handset reference design platforms.

A new family of Flash memory products from Spansion has been pre-qualified with Qualcomm's handset reference design platforms which are intended to accelerate new subscriber growth in emerging markets.

The goal of the collaboration is to enable handset OEMs to create simplified, high-performance phones, bolstering efforts to attract new users and market share.

The reference platforms are designed for regions with rapid new subscriber growth, such as China and India.

These markets will account for 12% of total global handset sales in 2010, according to Strategy Analytics.

The analyst firm estimates that the market for low-cost phones will grow annually from 19 million units in 2006 to more than 150 million in 2010.

Spansion expects validation efforts of its new NOR VS family planned for emerging markets to be completed in the second half of 2007.

Entry-level phones targeted for emerging markets typically range from basic, voice-only models to colour screen handsets equipped with a low-resolution camera and 2D games.

Spansion Flash memory products enable handset manufacturers to use a single-platform approach to scale their offerings from basic, entry-level phones up to very high-end, content-rich phones, depending on the application needs and requirements for code and data storage.

"Working with Qualcomm, we are able to take a systems-level approach, bringing added value to handset manufacturers with a complete range of pre-qualified Flash memory solutions that respond to customer needs for new subscribers in both emerging and high-end replacement markets", says George Minassian, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Systems Engineering, Wireless Solutions Division, Spansion.

"Together, we are able to offer our customers the highest performing, most cost-efficient solution that meets handset OEM demands to gain more market share in new regions".

Spansion and Qualcomm have worked on previous compatibility efforts with Spansion MirrorBit ORNAND memory and software solutions that recently passed validation with select Qualcomm Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets for advanced multimedia and smartphone handsets.

"Qualcomm is committed to developing new technologies that address the growing demand for high-performing handsets in emerging markets", says Mike Concannon, Vice President of Strategic Products at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

"Streamlining the design process enables handset manufacturers to reduce their overall system solution cost and bring phones to price sensitive markets more quickly".

Spansion expects its upcoming NOR VS Flash memory solutions for emerging markets to be sampling at the end of Q2 2007 and in production in Q3 2007.

A Software Development Kit (SDK) to aid the design process is planned to sample in the first half of 2007.

The Spansion NOR VS memory and software solutions are in the process of undergoing validation for select chipsets from Qualcomm's single-chip (QSC) platform.

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