China's first 3G (third-generation) cell phone chip with independent intellectual property rights was recently developed in Shanghai and is expected to be commercialized before the end of this year.

Industry experts believe that the development marks a breakthrough in China's research of wireless telecom chips and software technologies and the dismantlement of the monopoly of foreign companies on core technologies for cell phone chips.

Developed by Spreadtrum Communications Co., Ltd. in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai, the new chip has been included in the list of projects financially supported by the 3G industry fund of the Ministry of Information Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Employing a mixed digital/analogue signal solution, the new development has realized a single-chip design, with digital baseband, analogue baseband and power management functions integrated onto one chip, says Wu Ping, chairman of Spreadtrum.

By contrast, many phone designers worldwide use three chips from transnational chip suppliers to separately control the analogue baseband and digital baseband communications and power management.

In comparison with the ordinary chip solutions, the new chip boasts a volume two-thirds smaller, a data transmission speed faster and a cost 50 percent lower.

The development of the new chip will help push forward the industrialization of the TD-SCDMA, an original communications standard of China for third-generation mobile telecommunication, in the country, says Jiang Shoulei, head of the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association.

Currently in the world outside China, only five companies master the 2G and 2.5G cell phone chip technologies, including Texas Instruments and Lucent of the United States and Infineon Technologies from Germany, and, only two, namely the US' Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, are able to produce 3G chips.

Official statistics show that there are over 300 million cell phone users in China, which has become the largest cell phone market in the world.

Last year, China produced 150 million cell phones, of which 65 percent were a domestic brand. The domestic manufacturers spent more than US$10 billion to import cell phone chips.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2004)