Qualcomm Announces EVDO Rev B Chipset

Qualcomm announced on Monday that its new Mobile Station Modem MSM7850 chipset, which will support EVDO Revision B, will be available later this year.

As an update to the recently launched Rev A - the wireless radio broadband data standard that some CDMA mobile carriers like Sprint and Verizon are now using in certain U.S. locales - Qualcomm says the newer version of the spec will surpass revision A, allowing for download speeds of up to 9.3 Mbps.

In February, Verizon Wireless launched its EVDO Rev A network along with the USB720 wireless modem. That modem, in combination with the speedier network, gave Verizon users download speeds of around 450-800 kilobits per second.

EVDO Rev B, while maintaining the capabilities of the latter revision, will enable future applications like mobile TV to run more smoothly on cell phones, Qualcomm said. Additionally, users will be better able to run concurrent applications, like streaming music while making a voice call, or conducting a VoIP conversation while simultaneously browsing the Internet or transmitting multimedia content over the network.

"The evolution of CDMA2000 networks from EVDO Rev. A to EV-DO Rev B allows network operators to remain leading-edge in their service and performance offerings without the need for any infrastructure hardware changes," said Dr. Sanjay K. Jha, chief operating officer of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies in a statement Monday.

"Qualcomm's technology will allow 3G CDMA networks to meet next-generation data requirements," Jha added.

According to Qualcomm, the MSM7850 device chipset will support for EVDO Rev B, along with full backward compatibility and will start sampling in the next couple months.

The wireless communications company also said that a software upgrade release that lets its Cell Site Modem CSM6800 solution (a series of CDMA digital baseband modems) support multi-carrier EVDO Rev B will be available by the end of this month.

Qualcomm expects the first commercial EVDO Rev B products to be data modems available in late 2007. Additional wireless devices will be released next year.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International

Related stories:

Hands-On With HTC's First Laptop
Smartphone maker HTC announced the first major surprise of the CTIA wireless trade show this year by unveiling the Shift, its first Windows Vista PC. The company also displayed a US version of the Advantage, a device that straddles the line between a large PDA and an ultralight laptop.
Israeli mobile operator mulls 3.5G upgrade
Following meetings with representatives from Qualcomm, Nortel and Motorola, Israeli mobile operator Pelephone is mulling an upgrade to 3.5G.
Verizon Launches Global BlackBerry
The new Verizon BlackBerry 8830's killer feature is dual CDMA/GSM functionality, which makes it Verizon's first global BlackBerry.
Cisco to Ship 3G Support for Integrated Services Router
The router with its new wireless card is designed to be used by remote businesses and emergency workers or in areas where traditional high-speed wired connections aren't available.
Kyocera Melts, Squirts Steel to Make New Phone
Forget reinventing the phone. Kyocera decided to reinvent the steel molecule for a radical new hinge on their E5000 design phone announced here at the CTIA trade show.
Molecular switch found in mice could lead to future obesity treatments
A surprise discovery -- that calorie-burning brown fat can be produced experimentally from muscle precursor cells in mice -- raises the prospect of new ways to fight obesity and overweight, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Oral pill turns slacker mice into marathonists: study
US researchers have come up with a pill that promises to give a typical junk-food snacking couch potato the silhouette of an athlete and the endurance of a marathon runner.
Proposed Particle Help Explains Odd Galactic Photons
In 2002, a satellite called INTEGRAL was launched by the European Space Agency with an instrument on board to detect and measure gamma rays from space. Four years later, it yielded some intriguing data: An unusually high number of gamma-ray photons from the galactic center carried the same energy—a particular, significant energy—and nobody could figure out why.

News discussion:

Electronic Devices news