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Colorado Springs. CoIo. - Marvell Technology Inc. has wasted little time in launching Intel Corp.'s former Monahans application processor as the Marvell PXA 3xx series. By releasing samples ot" the fastest and highest-performance device, the PXA 320, Marvell hopes to carve out a niche at the higher end of the handset and gaming platform market.
Marvell also intends to offer ICs in the RF/IF chain closest to the handset antenna, although in the near term, the company is partnering with players such as Infineon Technologies AG for reference designs employing baseband and RF functions.
Most PXA customers will use a dualchip model, where applications and memory reside on the PXA core, with a DSP chip handling baseband and modem functions. A few customers, including Research In Motion for the Blackberry, will use custom single-chip designs in which the PXA core is integrated on the same die with DSP functions. In both versions, RF and analog front-end functions reside on a standalone chip,...