Underdog chipmaker Marvell has just unveiled a new single-chip LTE world modem called the PXA1801.
Unsurprisingly, the chip is described as high-performance, low-power and Internet-connected, ticking all the right boxes for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, set-top-boxes and TVs.
For those who want the alphabet soup specs, Marvell is touting its new chip as a “true Mobile Multi-RAT design combining 3GPP R9 Cat 4 FDD-LTE (Frequency Division Duplexing Long Term Evolution) and TDD-LTE (Time Division Duplexing Long Term Evolution).”
It also apparently includes R8 DC-HSPA+ (Dual Carrier Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) for both WB-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) standards as well as ye old EDGE.
Marvell’s value add has always been, and remains, price point, with the firm’s offerings usually cheap as, er, chips.
The company’s Co-Founder, Weili Dai has described the world modem as a “game-changing breakthrough,” especially for the Chinese market. Dai also said the new offering showed how Marvell was “leading the way” when it comes to global connectivity “for the masses” – of which China has rather a lot.
Of course, Marvell is a little late to the game here, with rival Qualcomm already pipping the chipmaker to the post with its Gobi chip. Also, it’s unclear just how Marvell can call its product a “world modem” if it doesn’t yet support CDMA.
Still, a cheap single chip 2G/3G/4G modem is a step in the right direction.
