中國移動(dòng)周四(3月14日)宣布，計(jì)劃今年投入417億元人民幣(67億美元)開發(fā)4G技術(shù)。該計(jì)劃再度令人猜測，中國移動(dòng)最終準(zhǔn)備推出支持其網(wǎng)絡(luò)的蘋果iPhone。 先把iPhone放在一邊。中國移動(dòng)的大規(guī)模4G投資計(jì)劃，也暗示中國將出現(xiàn)另外一個(gè)趨勢：各廠商為多模LTE芯片展開激烈競爭。 高通和海信等幾家芯片廠商最有實(shí)力塔上中國移動(dòng)LTE投資熱潮早班車。海信與其客戶華為之間密不可分。 Marvell Technology擁有專有的、得到公認(rèn)的多模LTE modem芯片，包括TDD-LTE、FDD-LTE、WCDMA、TD-SCDMA和GPRS 2G。該公司也想像其它幾家廠商一樣，成為中國市場的主要多模LTE modem供應(yīng)商。 雖然業(yè)內(nèi)經(jīng)常認(rèn)為Marvell的智能手機(jī)芯片業(yè)務(wù)依賴黑莓手機(jī)(Marvell支持黑莓)的未來命運(yùn)，但外界卻很少充分關(guān)注這家美國公司前瞻性很強(qiáng)的策略(其總部在圣克拉拉)。特別是， Marvell計(jì)劃押注中國LTE市場這件事很少有人談?wù)摗? Marvell公司移動(dòng)業(yè)務(wù)全球副總裁李春潮周四對《EE Times》表示：“我們的五模LTE解決方案今年(開始進(jìn)入手機(jī))，將讓許多人感到意外?！? 實(shí)際上，Marvell已經(jīng)推出了一款多模LTE微調(diào)制解調(diào)器——PXA1802。這款產(chǎn)品通過了全球認(rèn)證程序，也可以輕松地與Marvell競爭對手的應(yīng)用處理器配合使用。例如，據(jù)說中興通訊下個(gè)季度將推出一款智能手機(jī)，就把Marvell的PXA1802與一家第三方的應(yīng)用處理器組合在了一起。 Marvell也在積極推出一款SoC——尚未宣布，把它的五模LTE modem與基于ARM A7的四核應(yīng)用處理器組合在一塊芯片上面。這將是PXA1088的LTE版后續(xù)產(chǎn)品。PXA1088是Marvell上月在世界移動(dòng)通信大會上推出的四核單芯片全球制式移動(dòng)平臺，面向3G市場。 上述新款SoC包含LTE功能，因此是五模解決方案，計(jì)劃在第二季度提供樣片?！敖衲昴甑浊皩胁捎眠@款單芯片SoC的手機(jī)出現(xiàn)，” 李春潮表示。他說，Marvell自信能夠在多模LTE競爭中獲勝，因?yàn)椤拔覀兗葥碛幸豢畛墒斓奈迥TE modem，也擁有一款成熟的應(yīng)用處理器”。 但是，Marvell的五模LTE modem解決方案中缺乏CDMA。李春潮的解釋是，全球有太多的運(yùn)營商并不要求CDMA?！凹词乖诿绹?，Verizon也宣布計(jì)劃從CDMA轉(zhuǎn)向LTE，”他說。李春潮表示，盡管這種轉(zhuǎn)變不可能一朝一夕就能完成，但Marvell的五模LTE芯片“不僅可以在中國使用，而且可以在北美和歐洲使用——基本上任何地區(qū)都可以使用”。 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 本文下一頁：是否操之過急？

相關(guān)閱讀：
• 艾媒咨詢：詳析2012年中國智能手機(jī)市場
• 中移動(dòng)TD-LTE這塊大切糕，哪些廠商有本事分享？
• 2013年全球LTE智能手機(jī)出貨量將達(dá)2.75億部6p4esmc

{pagination} 是否操之過急？ 有些產(chǎn)業(yè)觀察家懷疑，Marvell一頭扎進(jìn)LTE是否操之過急——甚至中國的網(wǎng)絡(luò)網(wǎng)絡(luò)還沒準(zhǔn)備好支持LTE。Marvell的競爭對手比較謹(jǐn)慎，比如展訊、聯(lián)發(fā)科技和英偉達(dá)，他們?nèi)嫱瞥龆嗄TE解決方案的計(jì)劃似乎至少比Marvell晚幾個(gè)季度。這些觀察家認(rèn)為，企業(yè)總想跑在競爭對手前面，但也絕不愿意提前太多。 20萬個(gè)TD-LTE基站 也有人質(zhì)疑，中國政府何時(shí)才能向中國運(yùn)營商發(fā)放LTE牌照。 李春潮不同意這些懷疑意見。他說：“這些問題都不再重要，因?yàn)檫\(yùn)營商現(xiàn)在開始動(dòng)手建設(shè)LTE網(wǎng)絡(luò)?！?中國移動(dòng)董事長奚國華在今年巴塞羅納世界移動(dòng)通信大會上表示，中國移動(dòng)計(jì)劃建設(shè)一個(gè)擁有20萬個(gè)基站的TD-LTE 4G網(wǎng)絡(luò)，覆蓋100多個(gè)中國城市，覆蓋人口超過5億。李春潮認(rèn)為：“20萬個(gè)基站是很大的規(guī)模。他們將覆蓋中國80-90%的地級市?！? 多數(shù)中國移動(dòng)手機(jī)都在使用3G網(wǎng)絡(luò)——中國聯(lián)通提供WCDMA網(wǎng)絡(luò)，而中國電信提供CDMA網(wǎng)絡(luò)。同時(shí)，中國移動(dòng)在使用中國自主開發(fā)的3G網(wǎng)絡(luò)TD-SCDMA。 現(xiàn)在在中國移動(dòng)的TD-SCDMA網(wǎng)絡(luò)上使用iPhone，速度可能像在2G網(wǎng)絡(luò)上一樣慢。但是，隨著中國消費(fèi)者對于智能手機(jī)(包括iPhone)的需求不斷增長，以及中國移動(dòng)堅(jiān)持發(fā)展LTE，似乎可以運(yùn)行在這種新興LTE網(wǎng)絡(luò)上的智能手機(jī)很快就會成為必備產(chǎn)品。 展訊有自己的TD-SCDMA解決方案，而聯(lián)發(fā)科技則提供全套設(shè)計(jì)。在被問到Marvell準(zhǔn)備如何與這兩家對手競爭時(shí)，李春潮表示，Marvell的獨(dú)特優(yōu)勢將在于“我們在國際市場上的實(shí)力，以及Marvell是領(lǐng)先LTE芯片組廠商之一”。 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 參考英文原文：Marvell to roll the dice on China Mobile's LTE,by Junko Yoshida

相關(guān)閱讀：
• 艾媒咨詢：詳析2012年中國智能手機(jī)市場
• 中移動(dòng)TD-LTE這塊大切糕，哪些廠商有本事分享？
• 2013年全球LTE智能手機(jī)出貨量將達(dá)2.75億部6p4esmc

{pagination} Marvell to roll the dice on China Mobile's LTE Among those best-positioned to ride China Mobile’s LTE wave early on are a handful of chip companies such as Qualcomm and Hi-Sense. Marvell hopes to join the club. MADISON, Wis. – China Mobile’s plan, announced Thursday (March 14), to spend 41.7 billion yuan ($6.7 billion) this year developing 4G technology has triggered a fresh round of speculation that China Mobile is finally getting ready to roll out Apple iPhones enabled for its network. But setting iPhones aside, China Mobile’s aggressive investment in 4G is also signaling another trend in China: the heated battle for multi-mode LTE chips. Among those best-positioned to ride China Mobile’s LTE wave early on are a handful of chip companies such as Qualcomm and Hi-Sense, the latter joined at the hip to captive customer Huawei. Marvell Technology, armed with the company’s own well proven multi-mode LTE modem chips that includes TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and GPRS 2G, is also jockeying to join an elite group of multi-mode LTE modem suppliers in China. While the industry often views Marvell’s smartphone chip business tied to the future fate of BlackBerry (and Marvell is standing by BlackBerry), it rarely pays enough attention to the Santa Clara-based company’s aggressively forward-looking strategy. In particular, little discussed is Marvell’s plan to roll the dice on China’s LTE market. Ivan Lee, vice president of mobile products at Marvell, in an interview with EE Times Thursday, said, “A lot of people will be surprised to see our five-mode LTE solutions [starting to make inroads in handsets] this year.” Indeed, Marvell already offers a multi-mode LTE thin-modem, called PXA1802. The modem, already cleared by global certification processes, is designed to pair easily with Marvell’s competitors’ apps processors as well. ZTE, for example, is said to be launching a new smartphone in the next quarter using Marvell’s PXA1802 combined with a third-party apps processor. Marvell is also gung-ho about the introduction of a new SoC -- yet to be announced – that combines Marvell’s five-mode LTE modem and ARM A7-based quad-core apps processor in a single chip. This will be an LTE version of the follow on to the PXA1088, a quad-core ‘world phone’ targeted at the 3G market, which Marvell announced last month before the Mobile World Congress. The new SoC, which includes LTE features to make it five-mode, is scheduled for sampling in the second quarter. “You will see phones using this single-chip SoC before the end of this year,” said Lee. Marvell is confident the company can win the multi-mode LTE battle because “we have both a mature five-mode LTE modem and a mature apps processor,” said Lee. Missing from Marvell’s five-mode LTE modem solutions, however, is CDMA. Lee explained that plenty of carriers around the globe do not require CDMA. “Even in the United States, Verizon announced its plan to migrate from CDMA to LTE,” he added. Although such a transition is not likely to happen overnight, Marvell’s five-mode LTE chip is “a device you can use not only in China, but in North America and Europe -- pretty much everywhere,” said Lee. Is it too early? Some industry observers wonder if Marvell is plunging into LTE way too early -- even before China’s cellular networks are ready with LTE. Marvell’s more cautious competitors, including Spreadtrum, MediaTek and Nvidia, appear to be at least a few quarters behind Marvell with full-blown plans for multi-mode LTE solutions. They argue that you always want to be ahead of your competition, but you never want to be on the bleeding edge, either. 200,000 TD-LTE base stations Others also question when LTE licenses will actually be issued to Chinese operators by the government. Marvell’s Lee dismissed such skepticism. He said, “That’s not that relevant any longer, because operators are going out and building the LTE network right now.” China Mobile’s chairman Xi Guohua said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year that the carrier planned to build a TD-LTE 4G network with 200,000 base stations to cover more than 100 Chinese cities, home to 500 million potential users. Lee observed, “200,000 base stations are very substantial. They will cover 80 to 90 percent of prefectural cities in China.” A majority of Chinese smartphones are using the 3G networks -- with China Unicom offering the WCDMA networks and China Telecom with CDMA. Meanwhile, China Mobile is using the nation’s homegrown 3G network called TD-SCDMA. Using an iPhone on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA today can be as slow as being hooked up to a 2G network. But with the Chinese public’s growing demand for smartphones (including iPhones) and China Mobile’s commitment to LTE, it seems only natural that smartphones capable of functioning in the emerging LTE networks will soon become a must. When asked how Marvell hopes to compete against Spreadtrum, which is capitalizing on its own TD-SCDMA solutions, and MediaTek, which pioneered its own turnkey designs, Lee said that Marvell’s differentiation will lie in “our strength in the international market and Marvell being one of the leading LTE chip-set companies.”