Wireless arrival as subscribers dip
01 April 2007
At this year’s 3GSM congress, SAM FARNLEY learned how wireless carriers are being forced to look elsewhere to make up for a decrease in wireless subscribers.
At Barcelona, manufacturers showed music enabled wireless handsets and smartphones to show the industry’s attempts to increase the ARPU (average revenue per user) and revenue streams. There were also ULCHs (ultra lowcost handsets) introduced at the Congress, for the developing world, to expand the potential marketplace for wireless consumption.
Subscriber take-up has slowed in recent years, halving to 12.8 per cent growth this year and expected to slow down more next year and beyond, with 9.6 per cent growth rates in 2008, seven per cent in 2009 and just 5.7 per cent in 2010.
Carriers are now offering services such as Internet access, mobile TV and music to generate more revenue than communications alone can command. By 2010, industry analysts iSuppli (www.isuppli.com) reckon that the mobile phone content such as music, video and gaming will be worth around $36billion.
Kontron (www.kontron.com) chose Barcelona as the opportunity to introduce, what it claims is, the industry’s first mid-size AMC (advanced mezzanine card) with multiple Intel Duo core processors for computeintensive applications in the wireless infrastructure.
The AM4010 processor module (pictured) is available this quarter. Options include L and ULV Intel Core Duo and Intel Core 2 Duo processor choices for processing power variations and maximum MIPS/W for Advanced TCA and MicroTCA redundant system designs.
It is available in mid-size and full-size form factors, with 2Gbyte DDR2 memory and ECC running at 400MHz. There is also up to 4Gbyte flash memory via an onboard USB 2.0 flash controller. Two Intel dual GbE controller each have four PCIexpress lanes and two 2GbE connections. One of the connections can be used as an option for GbE on the front panel. There is also support for up to four SATA connections, for media processing with high disk throughput.
The board can be used as a main controller, data server, traffic processor or media processor for applications processing a large volume of transactions at low latency levels. The module can also be used with four-slot AdvancedTCA AMC carrier blades for AdvancedTCA system designs. Four AM4010 dual core modules can be configured per carrier blade and populate up to 14 carrier blades in a 16-slot chassis to transcode live streaming video at close to double the normal transcoded speed of single core AMCs.
Another option, suggested by the company, is to use two AMC processor and two AMC storage modules as the basis of a system.
The boards are suitable for use in communications as well as transport/ entertainment and medical, image processing systems.
For more design ideas, there is a Wireless Design feature in this month’s issue.
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