Ericsson launches ground breaking platform for multimedia mass market devices
Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) today announced its U500 mobile platform, a next generation architecture with a triple processor solution and a powerful multimedia subsystem, enabling new multimedia functionality and advanced multitasking capabilities. The U500 will not only pave the way for new consumer services, but also improve the usability and quality of existing multimedia services.
Robert Puskaric, head of Ericsson's mobile platforms business, says: "The U500 is a powerful multimedia platform with performance, graphics and usability, more resembling a mobile computer than today's mobile phones. With the U500 platform Ericsson will keep its world leading position within the multimedia mass market for years to come."
The U500 mobile platform is a response to the rapidly growing demand for advanced multimedia features and services requiring enhanced user experience. Designed for mass market mobile devices, the U500 is capable of groundbreaking features such as high quality camcorder, 12 Mpix camera, WVGA displays, advanced 3D gaming and 3D user interface, CD quality audio performance and high resolution video for a true mobile TV experience.
The Ericsson U500 mobile platform combines raw power through the implementation of three ARM11 CPUs and hardware accelerators, with state-of-the-art platform architecture through the integration of the digital baseband and an advanced multimedia companion chip into a single-die processor. The result is a powerful multimedia platform that is smaller and more cost efficient than what is currently available.
The advanced graphics capabilities available in the U500 are enabled through the implementation of ARM Mali200 GPU, a programmable, OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics processor producing fast, high quality graphics with the low power consumption required for a handheld device.
The U500 will be commercially available in the first half of 2009.
Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. The market leader in 2G and 3G mobile technologies, Ericsson supplies communications services and manages networks that serve more than 185 million subscribers. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, and broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and developers. The Sony Ericsson joint venture provides consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.
Ericsson is advancing its vision of 'communication for all' through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 70,000 employees generated revenue of USD 27.9 billion (SEK 188 billion) in 2007. Founded in 1876 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on the Stockholm, London and NASDAQ stock exchanges.
For more information, visit www.ericsson.com or www.ericsson.mobi.
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About Ericsson Mobile Platforms
Ericsson Mobile Platforms offers complete, end-to-end interoperability tested platforms across 2.5 and 3G. A common software platform for GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, and HSPA terminals enables application portability, stability and security, and state-of-the-art power consumption and size. Ericsson has the smallest, most cost-optimized HSPA chipset in the market, making it possible for its customer to enable ultra-small HSPA phones.
About U500 mobile platform
The U500 mobile platform is a highly integrated solution with three ARM11 CPUs providing world class multimedia performance including a 12 Mpix camera, camcorder (MPEG4, H.264 D1@30fps), TV-out, MIPI camera and Display I/F, HW Video Encoding and Decoding D1(H.263, H.264, MPEG4 (AS), VC1, DivX,), and Mobile TV (MBMS phase 2, DVB-H, Unicast). Connectivity solutions include WLAN 802.11, wireless USB(UWB) and high speed USB. The U500 supports quad-band WCDMA radio, 7.2/5.76Mbps HSPA broadband capabilities, a world class security solution as well as highly optimized power consumption.
The U500 is the first mobile platform to support 4x full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) with no performance penalty, boosting the quality of all graphics rendered to the screen. ARM Mali software will be provided as an integral part of the U500 platform software. The close link between graphics processor and middleware (the Mali Graphics Stack) reduces the time-to-market and integration risks for handset manufacturers. As well as the Khronos standards, the Mali software supports the Java JSR standards for 3D and vector graphics maximizing the options for third-party software developers and backwards-compatibility with existing Ericsson platforms.