CTIA: RIM to use Intel's Hermon mobile chip

IDG News Service - Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) has agreed to use Intel Corp.'s mobile processor, code-named Hermon, in its lineup of BlackBerry devices, the companies announced today at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference.
In a significant boost for Intel's fledgling mobile phone program, RIM will become the first company to publicly commit to the Hermon chip, with plans to use the processor in a phone that will be available later this year, said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of RIM. Hermon is scheduled to be officially released by year's end.
RIM's BlackBerry devices and software allow users to access corporate e-mail outside of company networks, and the vendor is starting to release BlackBerry devices that double as mobile phones. It plans to expand its offerings in this category with a new mobile phone based on Hermon, Lazaridis said.
"Very few pieces of technology cross the line and become a cultural icon," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's mobility group, referring to the BlackBerry. The relief was palpable as he delivered word of Intel's first major customer win in its efforts to diversify beyond PC and server processors.
Intel's initial attempts at building communications silicon for the mobile phone market fell flat. A few contract manufacturers pledged to release phones built on Manitoba, Intel's first mobile phone processor. Manitoba combined an application processor, a GSM/GPRS modem and flash memory all integrated onto a single piece of silicon.
However, U.K. carrier O2 Ltd. was the only company to ever release a Manitoba phone, doing so years after the chip's initial release and only after several modifications, Intel executives told reporters in June. Intel has done well getting its xScale application processors into mobile phones but had yet to make a significant dent in the communications side of the market before today's announcement.
Manitoba was designed for GSM/GPRS networks, while Hermon can run on the more advanced UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) networks prevalent in Europe and just starting to appear in the U.S.
RIM's initial plans for Hermon, however, center on building a phone for EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks. The data download speeds offered by EDGE networks are faster than GSM/GPRS networks, but they fall shy of those provided by third-generation UMTS networks.
Hermon is capable of reaching UMTS speeds, but some North American customers such as RIM prefer to tackle the more established EDGE standard before upgrading to UMTS phones, said Sam Arditi, vice president and general manager of Intel's cellular and