Infineon Brings HSDPA High-Speed Data Access with Data Rates of up to 7.2 Mbit/s to Mass Market Mobile Phones, Offers Complete Scalable Multimedia Phone Solution

Munich, Germany / Barcelona, Spain – February 13, 2006 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today, at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, announced sample availability of its latest baseband processor supporting HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) data rates of up to 7.2 megabits per second (Mbit/s). The chip’s high integration level enables Infineon to be the first semiconductor supplier to offer such HSDPA data rates for the mid-range multimedia phone segment.

 

The new S-GOLD3H chip is the latest addition to Infineon’s renowned S-GOLD® baseband processor family. It expands the company’s portfolio of HSDPA mobile phone solutions, which now includes baseband processor, radio frequency transceiver, power management IC, protocol stack and APOXI application framework. The S-GOLD3H is the heart of Infineon’s next-generation HSDPA / WCDMA / EDGE multimedia reference platform, the MP-EH.

 

“Infineon strives for innovative integration of functionalities into its chips to provide our customers with a wide range of reference platforms designed for all segments of the mobile industry, from ultra-low-cost phones to feature phones, including technology ranging from 2G, or second generation, to 3.5G. Our new HSDPA chip enables more than triple the data rates possible in mass market phones today. This makes broadband multimedia applications, such as video streaming or high-speed audio/ video download, available to the mass market,” said Professor Dr. Hermann Eul, Member of the Board and head of the Communication Solutions business group at Infineon Technologies AG. “The scalability, versatility and completeness of our latest reference design platform enable our customers to meet extremely challenging time-to-market requirements when evolving from 2.75G phones to 3G and 3.5G phones, while being flexible enough to quickly adapt to changing markets.”

 

Growth of more than 50 percent projected during the next five years in the WCDMA mobile phone arena

 

The market research company Strategy Analytics expects that EDGE / WCDMA mobile phones will show a steady growth in market share, from 15 percent in 2005 to 78 percent in 2010, for a compound average growth rate of 51 percent per year. By 2010, Strategy Analytics expects about 70 percent of WCDMA handsets to be HSDPA-enabled.

 

S-GOLD3H: baseband processor for 3.5G mobile devices

 

The S-GOLD3H is designed for use in future multi-mode HSDPA / WCDMA / EDGE / GPRS / GSM multimedia phones, in PDAs and in data cards. Without the need for an additional dedicated application processor, the S-GOLD3H offers adequate processing power to realize video telephony and video streaming, as well as high-quality video recording and playback. It also supports high-resolution cameras up to 5 Megapixels, 3D and 2D graphics, and the latest video and audio standards, such as MPEG4, H.264, MP3, and enhanced AAC+. Its connectivity technologies provide Bluetooth, Assisted GPS and WLAN support.

 

The S-GOLD3H chip enables a true broadband mobile experience, allowing the mobile phone user, for example, to surf the Internet, download e-mail or data to an SD card with HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s speed, and simultaneously listen to MP3 music over a Bluetooth stereo headset.

 

Infineon’s scalable HSDPA / WCDMA / EDGE multimedia platform sets performance standards

 

Featuring S-GOLD3H, Infineon’s next-generation HSDPA / WCDMA / EDGE multimedia platform, the MP-EH, sets new industry standards. It is the industry’s most integrated platform. In addition to all EDGE four frequency bands, it can simultaneously support any three of the six frequency bands specified for WCDMA cellular standards, while offering HSDPA data rates of up to 7.2 Mbit/s based on the 3GPP Release 5 protocol stack. The MP-EH shares the platform architecture and design concept with its platform derivatives, MP-E+ (for 2.75G phones) and MP-EU+ (for 3G phones), thus enabling mobile phone manufacturers to quickly extend their product portfolios or easily migrate to a higher cellular standard.

 

The key components of the MP-EH platform are Infineon’s S-GOLD3H baseband processor; its SM-Power3 power management chip; its SMARTi 3GE radio frequency transceiver, which handles currently defined six-band WCDMA and quad-band EDGE; its Bluemoon UniCellular IC for Bluetooth connectivity; its Hammerhead chip for A-GPS positioning; and its Wildcard LP chip for WLAN.  

 

The MP-EH platform is available as a complete development package, including protocol stack, a wide range of applications embedded in the APOXI framework and a complete tool set for software development.

 

Availability

 

Samples of the S-GOLD3H are available today. The reference design platform MP-EH is expected to be available in mid 2006 with the prospect for manufacturers of mid-range multimedia phones to ramp-up in summer 2007.

 

Infineon will present its new platform solutions for multimedia mobile phones at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona (13-16 February) at booth C 08 in hall 1.

 

 

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for automotive, industrial and multimarket sectors, for applications in communication, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2005 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 6.76 billion with about 36,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.