Windows moves to phones

Microsoft and Texas Instruments (TI) have announced the Windows Powered Smartphone 2002 reference design, giving handset manufacturers a blueprint to quickly produce new GPRS models. Phones based on the design, formerly codenamed Stinger, will offer access to personal data, wireless email and the Web, according to Microsoft.

The unveiling of Smartphone 2002 at the 3GSM communications conference in Cannes coincided with the launch of Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition. This adds wireless voice and data capabilities to Microsoft's handheld platform.

Ed Suwanjindar, product manager for Microsoft's mobility group, said TI's wireless chipsets are key to the product's success.

"We need devices that can do more, in both personal productivity and communication. The challenge has been to do this with a small footprint," he said. Putting an applications processor and radio on a single die was also a challenge, he added.

Products based on the reference design should appear in Europe within months.

TI's TCS2500 chipset is based on the firm's Omap architecture. It incorporates a GSM/GPRS engine and an ARM-compatible applications processor on the same chip.

Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition and Smartphone 2002 are based on Windows CE 3.0, rather than the newer CE.Net version announced in January. Suwanjindar said a CE.Net version of the software will appear "when schedules allow".

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard said it will release a handheld based on Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition. The Jornada 928 WDA (Wireless Digital Assistant) is also based on TI's Omap chips and will have GSM and GPRS capabilities when it ships this summer.

Juergen Anthoni, HP's wireless marketing manager for Europe, sees the device as a PDA with wireless capabilities rather than a smartphone. "It's a recognition of the fact that mobile data will become more important on devices like this," he said.

Both Microsoft and TI are taking a broad approach to smartphones and are involved in initiatives beyond this joint reference design. Microsoft is collaborating with Intel to create a second smartphone design based on Intel's Personal Internet Client Architecture (PCA) and XScale chips.

TI is working on other smartphone designs. Kada Systems will use a different TI Omap chipset for GPRS phones, and Sun Microsystems is collaborating with TI on chipsets to support Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) on mobile clients.

www.microsoft.com/mobile

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