Marvell将押注中国移动的LTE计划

中国移动周四(3月14日)宣布，计划今年投入417亿元人民币(67亿美元)开发4G技术。该计划再度令人猜测，中国移动最终准备推出支持其网络的苹果iPhone。 先把iPhone放在一边。中国移动的大规模4G投资计划，也暗示中国将出现另外一个趋势：各厂商为多模LTE芯片展开激烈竞争。 高通和海信等几家芯片厂商最有实力塔上中国移动LTE投资热潮早班车。海信与其客户华为之间密不可分。 Marvell Technology拥有专有的、得到公认的多模LTE modem芯片，包括TDD-LTE、FDD-LTE、WCDMA、TD-SCDMA和GPRS 2G。该公司也想像其它几家厂商一样，成为中国市场的主要多模LTE modem供应商。 虽然业内经常认为Marvell的智能手机芯片业务依赖黑莓手机(Marvell支持黑莓)的未来命运，但外界却很少充分关注这家美国公司前瞻性很强的策略(其总部在圣克拉拉)。特别是， Marvell计划押注中国LTE市场这件事很少有人谈论。 Marvell公司移动业务全球副总裁李春潮周四对《EE Times》表示：“我们的五模LTE解决方案今年(开始进入手机)，将让许多人感到意外。” 实际上，Marvell已经推出了一款多模LTE微调制解调器——PXA1802。这款产品通过了全球认证程序，也可以轻松地与Marvell竞争对手的应用处理器配合使用。例如，据说中兴通讯下个季度将推出一款智能手机，就把Marvell的PXA1802与一家第三方的应用处理器组合在了一起。 Marvell也在积极推出一款SoC——尚未宣布，把它的五模LTE modem与基于ARM A7的四核应用处理器组合在一块芯片上面。这将是PXA1088的LTE版后续产品。PXA1088是Marvell上月在世界移动通信大会上推出的四核单芯片全球制式移动平台，面向3G市场。 上述新款SoC包含LTE功能，因此是五模解决方案，计划在第二季度提供样片。“今年年底前将会有采用这款单芯片SoC的手机出现，” 李春潮表示。他说，Marvell自信能够在多模LTE竞争中获胜，因为“我们既拥有一款成熟的五模LTE modem，也拥有一款成熟的应用处理器”。 但是，Marvell的五模LTE modem解决方案中缺乏CDMA。李春潮的解释是，全球有太多的运营商并不要求CDMA。“即使在美国，Verizon也宣布计划从CDMA转向LTE，”他说。李春潮表示，尽管这种转变不可能一朝一夕就能完成，但Marvell的五模LTE芯片“不仅可以在中国使用，而且可以在北美和欧洲使用——基本上任何地区都可以使用”。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：是否操之过急？

相关阅读：
• 艾媒咨询：详析2012年中国智能手机市场
• 中移动TD-LTE这块大切糕，哪些厂商有本事分享？
• 2013年全球LTE智能手机出货量将达2.75亿部pMResmc

{pagination} 是否操之过急？ 有些产业观察家怀疑，Marvell一头扎进LTE是否操之过急——甚至中国的网络网络还没准备好支持LTE。Marvell的竞争对手比较谨慎，比如展讯、联发科技和英伟达，他们全面推出多模LTE解决方案的计划似乎至少比Marvell晚几个季度。这些观察家认为，企业总想跑在竞争对手前面，但也绝不愿意提前太多。 20万个TD-LTE基站 也有人质疑，中国政府何时才能向中国运营商发放LTE牌照。 李春潮不同意这些怀疑意见。他说：“这些问题都不再重要，因为运营商现在开始动手建设LTE网络。” 中国移动董事长奚国华在今年巴塞罗纳世界移动通信大会上表示，中国移动计划建设一个拥有20万个基站的TD-LTE 4G网络，覆盖100多个中国城市，覆盖人口超过5亿。李春潮认为：“20万个基站是很大的规模。他们将覆盖中国80-90%的地级市。” 多数中国移动手机都在使用3G网络——中国联通提供WCDMA网络，而中国电信提供CDMA网络。同时，中国移动在使用中国自主开发的3G网络TD-SCDMA。 现在在中国移动的TD-SCDMA网络上使用iPhone，速度可能像在2G网络上一样慢。但是，随着中国消费者对于智能手机(包括iPhone)的需求不断增长，以及中国移动坚持发展LTE，似乎可以运行在这种新兴LTE网络上的智能手机很快就会成为必备产品。 展讯有自己的TD-SCDMA解决方案，而联发科技则提供全套设计。在被问到Marvell准备如何与这两家对手竞争时，李春潮表示，Marvell的独特优势将在于“我们在国际市场上的实力，以及Marvell是领先LTE芯片组厂商之一”。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Marvell to roll the dice on China Mobile's LTE,by Junko Yoshida

相关阅读：
• 艾媒咨询：详析2012年中国智能手机市场
• 中移动TD-LTE这块大切糕，哪些厂商有本事分享？
• 2013年全球LTE智能手机出货量将达2.75亿部pMResmc

{pagination} Marvell to roll the dice on China Mobile's LTE Among those best-positioned to ride China Mobile’s LTE wave early on are a handful of chip companies such as Qualcomm and Hi-Sense. Marvell hopes to join the club. MADISON, Wis. – China Mobile’s plan, announced Thursday (March 14), to spend 41.7 billion yuan ($6.7 billion) this year developing 4G technology has triggered a fresh round of speculation that China Mobile is finally getting ready to roll out Apple iPhones enabled for its network. But setting iPhones aside, China Mobile’s aggressive investment in 4G is also signaling another trend in China: the heated battle for multi-mode LTE chips. Among those best-positioned to ride China Mobile’s LTE wave early on are a handful of chip companies such as Qualcomm and Hi-Sense, the latter joined at the hip to captive customer Huawei. Marvell Technology, armed with the company’s own well proven multi-mode LTE modem chips that includes TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and GPRS 2G, is also jockeying to join an elite group of multi-mode LTE modem suppliers in China. While the industry often views Marvell’s smartphone chip business tied to the future fate of BlackBerry (and Marvell is standing by BlackBerry), it rarely pays enough attention to the Santa Clara-based company’s aggressively forward-looking strategy. In particular, little discussed is Marvell’s plan to roll the dice on China’s LTE market. Ivan Lee, vice president of mobile products at Marvell, in an interview with EE Times Thursday, said, “A lot of people will be surprised to see our five-mode LTE solutions [starting to make inroads in handsets] this year.” Indeed, Marvell already offers a multi-mode LTE thin-modem, called PXA1802. The modem, already cleared by global certification processes, is designed to pair easily with Marvell’s competitors’ apps processors as well. ZTE, for example, is said to be launching a new smartphone in the next quarter using Marvell’s PXA1802 combined with a third-party apps processor. Marvell is also gung-ho about the introduction of a new SoC -- yet to be announced – that combines Marvell’s five-mode LTE modem and ARM A7-based quad-core apps processor in a single chip. This will be an LTE version of the follow on to the PXA1088, a quad-core ‘world phone’ targeted at the 3G market, which Marvell announced last month before the Mobile World Congress. The new SoC, which includes LTE features to make it five-mode, is scheduled for sampling in the second quarter. “You will see phones using this single-chip SoC before the end of this year,” said Lee. Marvell is confident the company can win the multi-mode LTE battle because “we have both a mature five-mode LTE modem and a mature apps processor,” said Lee. Missing from Marvell’s five-mode LTE modem solutions, however, is CDMA. Lee explained that plenty of carriers around the globe do not require CDMA. “Even in the United States, Verizon announced its plan to migrate from CDMA to LTE,” he added. Although such a transition is not likely to happen overnight, Marvell’s five-mode LTE chip is “a device you can use not only in China, but in North America and Europe -- pretty much everywhere,” said Lee. Is it too early? Some industry observers wonder if Marvell is plunging into LTE way too early -- even before China’s cellular networks are ready with LTE. Marvell’s more cautious competitors, including Spreadtrum, MediaTek and Nvidia, appear to be at least a few quarters behind Marvell with full-blown plans for multi-mode LTE solutions. They argue that you always want to be ahead of your competition, but you never want to be on the bleeding edge, either. 200,000 TD-LTE base stations Others also question when LTE licenses will actually be issued to Chinese operators by the government. Marvell’s Lee dismissed such skepticism. He said, “That’s not that relevant any longer, because operators are going out and building the LTE network right now.” China Mobile’s chairman Xi Guohua said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year that the carrier planned to build a TD-LTE 4G network with 200,000 base stations to cover more than 100 Chinese cities, home to 500 million potential users. Lee observed, “200,000 base stations are very substantial. They will cover 80 to 90 percent of prefectural cities in China.” A majority of Chinese smartphones are using the 3G networks -- with China Unicom offering the WCDMA networks and China Telecom with CDMA. Meanwhile, China Mobile is using the nation’s homegrown 3G network called TD-SCDMA. Using an iPhone on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA today can be as slow as being hooked up to a 2G network. But with the Chinese public’s growing demand for smartphones (including iPhones) and China Mobile’s commitment to LTE, it seems only natural that smartphones capable of functioning in the emerging LTE networks will soon become a must. When asked how Marvell hopes to compete against Spreadtrum, which is capitalizing on its own TD-SCDMA solutions, and MediaTek, which pioneered its own turnkey designs, Lee said that Marvell’s differentiation will lie in “our strength in the international market and Marvell being one of the leading LTE chip-set companies.”