14 DAY TRIAL // It is being speculated (and for good reason too) that Infineon's recently introduced transceiver chip, the SMARTi LU, may be making its way into new Apple handheld devices.
Touted as the first single-chip radio to include the new Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard for 4G Internet access, the chip boasts a small, 65 nanometer assembly process, and includes the HSPA+ standard (3G).
The chip also supports 2G-EDGE data and GSM calling, the Infineon reveals. In the company's own words, “SMARTi LU is a highly integrated 2G / 3G / LTE multi-mode RF transceiver compliant to 3GPP Rel.7 and Rel.8. It supports up to six 3G and LTE Bands simultaneously with Quad Band GSM/EDGE.”
“Its long feature list includes LTE FDD class 4 (up to 150 Mbps downlink, 50 Mbps uplink) MIMO Rx diversity (2Rx + 1Tx), HSPA+, HSPA, WCDMA and GSM / GPRS / EDGE,” Infineon adds. “The device is supporting the global spread of HSPA / LTE spectrum throughout a wide variety of bands, and has an integrated MIPI DigRF v4 compliant high-speed digital Baseband interface.”
Main features of theSMARTi LU include LTE / 3G / 2G multimode RF Transceiver; 3GPP Rel.8 and 3GPP Rel.7; MIMO RX Diversity; RF bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 Mhz; 65nm CMOS Technology and MIPI DigRF v4 digital Interface to Baseband.
Electronista points out that carriers across the US, but also abroad are expected to adopt faster cellular data within the next two years. AT&T has already announced its support for HSPA+ this year, while LTE will be the focus over at companies such as Bell, Telus, Verizon, Vodafone and other carriers in 2010, the report says.
But need we look for clues in company announcements and trends, when Apple is almost certain to use the best of the best for its upcoming embedded devices? This doesn't seem like much of a rumor, but rather a fact. Of course, nothing is certain until Apple confirms it.