Could Cellular Be Added To MP3 Players?

Freescale Semiconductor said Wednesday that it is sampling its Mobile Extreme Convergence embedded cellular architecture to customers, potentially adding wireless capabilities to a variety of mobile devices.

One of those customers is Motorola, Freescales former parent. Motorola enjoyed the strongest growth during the fourth quarter, thanks in part to its boutique Razr phone.

Freescale originally announced the Mobile Extreme Convergence (MXC) architecture in the fall of 2003. Although the technology was designed with cellular wireless communications in mind, the architecture allows for a number of wireless radios to be used in conjunction with it, such as Bluetooth or WiFi, according to Jose Corleto, worldwide systems and architecture manager for the company.

“Were using the basic elements of it to try and target outside of the cellular handset,” Corleto said. “The MXC processor already has interfaces [to other wireless protocols] that have been sampled by manufacturers, such as MP3 players” or portable video players, he said.

Some mobile phones can already play MP3s. The Freescale chip, on the other hand, could be used to provide a wireless link between next-generation portable multimedia devices, instead of requiring a wired connection.

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