Infineon Brings Camera Functionality to Mid-Range Mobile Phones

Munich, Germany / Cannes, France – February 23, 2004 – Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today, at the 3GSM World Congress 2004 show in Cannes, announced availability of its new camera multimedia platform that brings camera functionality, polyphonic-ring tones, color displays and Java capability to mid-range mobile phones. Featuring all hardware and software components required for camera-capable phones, the new P2002+ platform offers numerous benefits for mobile phone manufacturers with respect to time-to-market, functionality and adaptability.

The P2002+ platform, which was selected by Panasonic for one of its new mobile terminal devices, meets the requirements of mobile phone manufacturers worldwide for an easy-to-integrate and cost-effective solution by offering more flexibility for their future phone designs. The P2002+ platform was selected by Panasonic for one of its new mobile terminal devices. Camera-capable mobile phones equipped with platform P2002+ are already commercially available.

Significant reduction of development times by up to 50 percent

After design-in, the P2002+ platform has the potential to reduce the development time of mobile phones and their derivatives by 25 percent to 50 percent, which is typically an average of three to six months. This is because the P2002+ platform features an APOXI (Application Programming Object-Oriented Extendable Interface) framework together with an APOXI reference MMI (man-machine interface) and pre-integrated applications. These enable the user interface, such as keyboard, language, display, to be independent from the hardware. Whereas in the past, manufacturers of mobile phones had to develop the software, in addition to the hardware platform, for every new phone, today the existing software can be used for different phone variants and easily be adapted to future needs. This allows the development teams of mobile phone manufacturers to simultaneously develop more design variants. The Java capability of the P2002+ platform enables mobile phone manufacturers and network operators to offer entertainment and gaming features that are either pre-installed or can be downloaded from the Internet after sales.

Worldwide about 55 percent of all cellular phones will feature camera functions

According to research on the worldwide market for cellular terminals, base stations and components published in January 2004 by IMS Research, in the year 2008 about 55 percent of the 670 million mobile phones sold globally will be camera-enabled. “For cellular operators, the availability of low cost phones with camera functionality is key to unlocking data ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) in the consumer market,” said Stuart Carlaw, report analyst. “Complete platforms, such as the one from Infineon, will significantly help to support the forecast growth of camera phones.”

"With the P2002+ platform, Infineon demonstrates the ability to offer its customers system solutions which help to significantly reduce time-to-market by at least 25 percent,” said Dr. Erk Thorsten Heyen, CEO of the Secure Mobile Solutions business group at Infineon Technologies. “The platform’s functionality range and adaptability to extensive requirements enable manufacturers of mobile phones to simultaneously develop various product derivatives for the different markets they serve.”

Technical Information on the P2002+ platform

The P2002+ platform, which integrates Infineon’s chips E-GOLD+ V3, SMARTi® DC and E-Power ICs, is provided as a single, integrated board. To bring the P2002+ platform to market, Infineon partnered with leading suppliers of software and firmware. The Infineon subsidiaries Danish Wireless Design and Comneon developed the platform, including reference design, system firmware, GPRS protocol stack and APOXI applications framework. Other value net partners of Infineon include Teleca (WAP, MMS), Esmertec (Java) and Extended Systems (IrDa) who are already offering their solutions fully integrated with the APOXI framework and the P2002+ platform.

The E-GOLD+ V3 is a highly integrated GSM/GPRS mixed-signal baseband chip including all analog and digital functions required for mobile communications. It integrates the digital and mixed-signal portions of the baseband with a 2-Mbit on-chip SRAM and operates with a 1.8V power supply. The SMARTi DC is a fully integrated RF transceiver for voice and data transmission. The direct conversion architecture is specially designed to reduce components count and meet the needs of the GSM/ GPRS market. The all-in-one power management system IC, named E-Power, consists of battery charger, a high-efficiency DC/DC converter and regulators supplying baseband, RF and all peripheral circuits for a complete mobile terminal.

Infineon presents the versatility and quality of its semiconductor system solutions for the next-generation of mobile phones with application demos at 3GSM show 2004 in Cannes, France (February 23-26, 2004) in Hall 1, Booth #A19.

Further information on Infineon’s mobile solutions platforms is available at www.infineon.com/wireless