Later this year QUALCOMM will be releasing their 6000 series ASICs. These have two great/new features. First, as the second generation 3G chips they have worked on reducing chip count through the ZIF architicture. While a blow to SAWTEK, this will eliminate the need for IF chips on the phones. Next, they have made the chip compatible with NAND flash rather than all prior chips which just work with NOR flash. Why is this important? Well, the cost of handsets is driven (like MP3 players) in no small part by memory costs. Color screens, WAP browsers and other ancillary equipment need more memory than other handset functions. NAND flash will make gobs more available cheap....now...for a primer on NAND vs. NOR flash...read on...

NAND vs NOR memory for mobile phones...

Intel's future dominance in the mobile wireless market could be threatened by its decision to focus on producing only one type of flash memory architecture, known as NOR.

"There are two dramatically different types of flash; there's the NOR technology, and there's NAND technology," said Steve Cullen, an analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group, in Phoenix. "NOR technology is traditionally used in PCs for the BIOS and most cell phones. NAND is the stuff going in flash cards that are used for data storage, like on digital cameras, and digital music players."

Morales said that while all cell phones currently use NOR-type chips that Intel manufactures, he expects NAND, which is most often used to store large amounts of data, will likely be used in future mobile phones and emerging wireless handheld devices.

"NOR has been the dominant technology in the mobile wireless space and will be for the next couple of years," Morales said. "But NAND has a cost advantage on a per-bit basis, and most flash suppliers are planning to do some sort of NAND implementation. Intel's sort of following their own route, but I definitely see the market going toward some sort of NAND implementation."

A spokesman for Intel's flash memory division rejected that assertion.

"NAND is for large, slow, bulk data storage, similar to a hard drive," said Dan Francisco, a spokesman for the flash division, in Folsom, Calif. "NOR makes perfect sense for cell phones; it has, and it will continue."

But another analyst, Alan Niebel, of Web-Feet, said NAND will likely gain a hold in future mobile wireless devices.

"There is place for it, and a variety of companies are building NAND/ SRAM [static RAM] combo solutions to address it, including Toshiba [America Inc.], Samsung [Electronics Co. Ltd.], Fujitsu and AMD," Niebel said. "Intel does have some weakness in terms of competing costwise vs. NAND for high-density, low-cost flash solutions."