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"The level of integration, low power consumption and flexible architecture of the ArcticLink platform make it a compelling companion solution for Marvell® PXA application and communications processor platforms. Today’s announcement of the ArcticLink platform demonstrates the value of QuickLogic’s companion solution strategy in portable electronics. QuickLogic is a key member of the Marvell partner program and we work closely to deliver complete system solutions to our customers.”

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Introduction

The smartphone segment is witnessing the fastest growth in the mobile device market. smartphone designers need to balance the complexity of creating new and differentiated products by adding new features that consumers demand while simultaneously addressing the market needs of rapid development time, lowest Bill of Materials (BOM) cost, and long battery life.

The consumer market’s desire for more multimedia-rich content, coinciding with wireless carriers’ desire for broadening their revenue stream has driven the trend for feature integration and technology convergence. At an architecture level, this trend results in more and more peripherals to be connected to the application processors that run the operating system (OS) and application software. Unfortunately, application processors have a predefined set of interfaces and typically cannot be modified as fast as these market requirements change.

To solve this dilemma, QuickLogic has developed a broad variety of host controllers around storage, networking, video and other high speed peripherals such as USB 2.0 OTG with PHY, SD/SDIO/MMC, IDE, CE-ATA, NAND/Managed NAND, High Speed UARTs, and PCI.

Block Diagram


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smartphone Architecture with QuickLogic CSSP

Trend

  • Hi-Speed USB and Bluetooth will be found in nearly every handset
  • Broadband data access with HSDPA/HSUPA, Wi-Fi and WiMAX/LTE/UMB
  • Mobile TV is gaining momentum with varying local standards – DVB-H, T-DMB, ISDB-T and MediaFLO
  • Emerging new technologies for high capacity storage – High capacity SIM cards, Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) cards and Managed NAND

Challenges

  • Demand for multiple high speed wireless interfaces for data synchronization, HSDPA, WiFi, WiMAX, Mobile TV impacting performance and battery life
  • Demand for On-The-Go functionality as handset/PDAs become more powerful and device-to-device connection becomes more prevalent.
  • Additional storage requirements within handset, driven by multimedia applications and office automation tools.
  • Poor image quality and requirement for increasing backlight reduces battery life

Solution

  • QuickLogic provides both Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and SDIO for high speed data interface for wired and wireless connectivity
  • QuickLogic’s USB solutions support On-The-Go and can be used as a device or a host depending how it is connected
  • QuickLogic supports a broad spectrum of storage choices including high capacity SIM cards SD/SDHC/MMC cards and Managed NAND with booting capability
  • Image enhancement to improve picture quality and save battery life by lowering backlight requirements when watching video and Mobile TV

Use Cases


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smartphone with Car Kit, Bluetooth 2.0, Managed NAND (including boot capacity), and Wi-Fi


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smartphone with USB 2.0, SD Card, Bluetooth 2.0, and Mobile TV

Customer Success Story

Improved smartphone Architecture with QuickLogic CSSP

Overview

The two figures above outline both the original and modified architecture for a smartphone using the Marvell PXA310 application processor, a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 On-The-Go (OTG) port and a high speed SD controller port.

Challenge

A carkit is required by most smartphones to allow hand-free operations for customers while driving. It connects the phone directly to the installed car stereo system with a speaker and a microphone. USB OTG is the simplest and most cost-effective way to add the carkit function to a phone. It utilizes the existing USB connection by multiplexing the digital data and analog audio. However the lack of OTG support on many application processors forces designers to look for an external solution.

Another trend in the smartphone market is the ever increasing need for embedded storage. Compared with other options such as micro hard drives and raw NAND flash, Managed NAND provides the most appealing solution for smartphones with high capacity, high reliability and ease of use/management. The downside is that most application processors cannot directly boot from Managed NAND. And therefore they would require an additional NOR flash to boot, which results in higher BOM cost and more board space.

QuickLogic Solution

QuickLogic’s CSSP approach enabled this smartphone manufacturer to utilize the USB OTG based carkit interface and differentiate their product from their competitors. Furthermore, QuickLogic’s lowest power customizable building blocks allowed QuickLogic to augment the standard SD/MMC memory controller with booting capability.

Results

As a result of using the QuickLogic CSSP, this smartphone manufacturer met the market requirement for an advanced USB OTG-based carkit. By eliminating the boot NOR flash and having a single flash storage device for boot, programs and data, they were able to lower their system BOM cost and reduce the PCB board space.