Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Sandbridge has pioneered a series of SB3500 baseband processors that do software defined radio. That is, the chips can adapt on the fly to handling a variety of different radio signals. Hence, a single chip is all you need to handle a variety of different wireless protocols. Accordingly, it can be used in a phone that can get reception in any part of the world. The Sandbridge chips can handle eight different wireless protocols at once. It is kind of a Holy Grail wireless chip, since software-defined radio has been tried for many years without success.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":103779,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"mobile,","session":"C"}']In the past, chips have been unable to overcome big interference, heat and performance issues. But one of the big advantages of Sandbridge is that it combines what used to be multiple chips in a world phone into a single radio chip. That saves on both cost and space.
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A wide range of chip makers are trying to make next-generation cell phone chips, including Intel, Texas Instruments and Wavesat. Usually, new technologies such as LTE get started via data cards that you can plug into phones or computers. But the Sandbridge technology is so compact that it enables the LTE capability within the handsets themselves. The Samsung handset is expected to be fully compliant with the latest LTE specification.
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