MIPI Alliance Delivers Seven Vital Mobile Device Interface Specifications in 2008

Member Company Collaboration Drives Important Industry Milestones

PISCATAWAY, N.J., Feb 09, 2009 -- The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI(R)) Alliance, the industry initiative established five years ago to define and promote open standards for hardware and software interfaces in mobile terminals, today announced that it has introduced seven key standards throughout 2008. Collectively these new specifications will help the industry to provide optimized and efficient mobile terminals.

As these standards are implemented in mobile device technology the industry will see benefits such as better interconnection among devices and components such as cellular telephones, handheld computers, digital cameras, and multimedia devices; higher data exchange rates among devices; prioritization of traffic; better adaptation and interoperability of devices from different vendors; and more cost and power efficient mobile terminals, among others.

The new MIPI Alliance Specifications introduced in 2008 include:

• Unified Protocol (UniPro(SM)) v1.00.00
• Display Serial Interface (DSI) v1.01.00
• Processor Interface Emulation (PIE) v0.90.00
• Dual Mode 2.5G/3G Baseband/RFIC Interface v3.09.04 (DigRF(SM))
• Device Descriptor Block (DDB) v0.82.01
• Serial Low-power Inter-chip Media Bus (SLIMbus(SM)) v1.01.00
• System Power Management Interface (SPMI) v1.00.00

Motivated by the fragmentation brought by incompatible proprietary interfaces and redundant, outdated standards, the MIPI Alliance brings together 165 leading companies from around the world in pursuit of open standards to converge interfaces inside mobile terminals. MIPI standards drive consistency in interfaces, promoting reuse and compatibility in mobile terminals while accelerating the delivery of these devices to users. These new specifications are designed to help achieve these goals.

"With the growing trend to advanced LTE technology and increased integration of new applications into mobile devices, MIPI's importance in the wireless world is becoming obvious," said Will Strauss, President and Principal Analyst of Forward Concepts. "The need for interoperability among several vendors is highlighted as wireless operators continue to seek the best available products at competitive prices. MIPI Alliance specifications provide certainty in interfacing between vendors."

About The MIPI Alliance

The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance is an open membership organization that includes leading companies in the mobile industry that share the objective of defining and promoting open specifications for interfaces in mobile terminals. MIPI Specifications establish standards for hardware and software interfaces typically found in mobile terminal systems. By defining such standards and encouraging their adoption throughout the industry value chain, the MIPI Alliance intends to reduce fragmentation and improve interoperability among system components, benefiting the entire mobile industry.

About MIPI Specifications

MIPI Specifications are currently available only to MIPI Alliance member companies. Interested companies are welcome to join the MIPI Alliance. Membership includes limited royalty-free intellectual property rights and obligations. For more information on membership in the MIPI Alliance, visit www.mipi.org.

About MIPI Members

More than 165 member companies participate in the MIPI Alliance, including nearly every leading supplier of mobile phones, applications processors, baseband modems, display panels, camera sensors, and audio and power peripherals. A complete list of member companies can be found at www.mipi.org.

More Information about this release

Member testimonials, including quotes from Agilent Technologies, Analog Devices, Arasan Chip Systems, ASSET InterTech, Inc., austriamicrosystems, Cosmic Circuits, Infineon Technologies, LnK, MIPS Technologies, Inc., Mixel, NEC Electronics, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung Electronics, ST-NXP Wireless, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and VLSI Plus Ltd are available at: http://www.mipi.org/docs/mipi-testimonials-milestones.pdf.

MIPI Frequently Asked Questions are available at: http://www.mipi.org/afaq.shtml

Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies recognizes the MIPI Alliance's strategic role in continuously improving and innovating the mobile communications world. As part of that innovation, Agilent's Digital Test and RF Test Divisions helped to create the market's first end-to-end MIPI and Digital RF test solutions. "We have enabled the trend to more digital content in mobile-phone designs," says Agilent Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Test Division Sigi Gross, "and we continue to see a lot of potential in supporting innovation through digital components and technologies." Guy Sene, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Signal Analysis Division, adds, "Because today's RF-communications developer works with analog and digital signals, we've worked hard to make the type of test point irrelevant. With our latest tools, developers can make the same measurements and receive consistent results, independent of whether they're connected to a MIPI interface or a coaxial connector."

Analog Devices

"MIPI mobile terminal interfaces are enabling continual system-level architectural innovation in wireless handsets. By creating industry-wide interface standards, manufacturers can focus on rapid evolution of attractive features and user interfaces that will increase the value of handsets and portable devices to consumers. Analog Devices is happy to be an active participant in the MIPI Alliance, supporting the application of SLIMbus interfaces in leading audio and sensor systems, and applying our extensive knowledge of consumer and professional display interfaces as chair of the Display Working Group." -- Peter Henry, VP Power Management Products, Analog Devices, Inc.

Arasan Chip Systems

"As a long time contributing member of the MIPI Alliance and the leading provider of mobile IP, we see a great deal of activity around MIPI and see it as the key technology to next generation mobile devices, addressing the need for higher performance, lower power and seamless interoperability," said Kevin K. Yee, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Arasan. "We are committed to driving our strategic mobile initiative by expanding our MIPI IP portfolio including DSI, CSI, UniPro, SLIMbus, HSI, D-PHY IP cores, MIPI software stacks, and hardware platforms, enabling a complete end-to-end and comprehensive MIPI solution."

ASSET InterTech, Inc.

"Our initial exposure to MIPI came by way of the IEEE P1149.7 activity that originated within the MIPI Test & Debug Working Group," said Adam Ley, chief technologist-boundary scan for ASSET InterTech, Inc. "Our interest to join MIPI was sparked by a shared commitment to standards demonstrated by MIPI members involved in that activity. We look forward to ongoing support of MIPI in this regard."

austriamicrosystems

"SLIMbus provides a modular, future proof concept allowing to control distributed audio functions and devices in mobile phone platforms. The standardized messaging and the SLIMbus Device Classes offer plug-and-play functionality, and hence, a high degree of flexibility to system designers. austriamicrosystems is strongly committed to support SLIMbus components and is looking forward to supplying SLIMbus controlled ICs very soon." (Mario Manninger, Director Engineering, austriamicrosystems AG)

Cosmic Circuits

"We see a lot of interest in the market for the low-power MIPI hi-speed interfaces. We have successfully implemented the MIPI high-speed interface standard in our mixed-signal silicon IP. Our support for the MIPI alliance standard continues, while we help more system-on-chip designers adopt MIPI interfaces through our IP-core offerings. Cosmic Circuits is a member of the MIPI alliance and that helps us stay up to date with the evolving standards." - Krishnan Ramabadran, VP of Marketing, Cosmic Circuits, www.cosmiccircuits.com

Infineon Technologies

"Infineon Technologies with its strong commitment to open standards has developed products adopting MIPI Alliance specifications for Camera (CSI), Display (DSI) and DigRF. Our ongoing contributions in RF Front-End Control (RFFE), System Power Management (SPM), Test & Debug, UniPro (Unified Protocol), Serial Low-power Inter-chip Media Bus (SLIMbus) working groups and our strong engagement particularly in Physical Layer (M-PHY) and DigRF working groups will drive interoperability even further." Weng-Kuan Tan, Division President, Wireless Solutions

LnK

"The commitment of LnK in supporting SLIMbus exponentially grew over the last 2 years. As more and more companies are implementing SLIMbus in their products, it is more important than ever to provide the industry with state of the art SLIMbus testing equipment and expertise. Now that SLIMbus specification 1.01 has been issued, we can expect a fast growing adoption."

MIPS Technologies, Inc.

"MIPS Technologies is proud to be a contributing member of the MIPI Alliance. It is extremely important to enable the next generation of consumer devices through development of advanced standards. Since we joined the Alliance in 2006 as Chipidea, we have been working to help define standard specifications for the interfaces between applications processors in mobile terminals and peripherals such as displays, camera sensors and RF chips. Through MIPI, we are able to work with other players to preempt market needs. The work that we are doing also helps ensure the best possible solutions for our customers--solutions that comply with top industry standards." - Cesar Martin-Perez, Vice President and General Manager, Analog Business Group, MIPS Technologies, Inc.

"In the last couple of years Mixel has introduced silicon-proven D-PHY IP cores, which are being used by multiple customers to rapidly get to market with MIPI based products," said Ashraf Takla, President and CEO of Mixel, Inc. "As a contributing member of the MIPI Alliance, Mixel is committed to developing silicon-proven IP cores for the physical layers of current and future MIPI Standards, and thus help establish a robust, and collaborative MIPI ecosystem," he added.

"NEC Electronics has started the implementation of the revised MIPI Display Serial Interface specifications in both display driver ICs and application processors," stated Toshiya Matsui, General Manager, Mobile LSI Division, NEC Electronics Corporation, Japan, and continues: "Also UniPro has reached a status allowing for planning enhanced devices, which should streamline the architecture of our customer's products in the mobile industry."

Nokia

"Nokia congratulates MIPI on having had a very productive year. The wide variety of specifications adopted during 2008 will greatly help in the original mission of MIPI in enabling the mobile industry to introduce more sophisticated devices to consumers at an accelerated rate. Nokia stays committed to the MIPI specification development and implementation to further simplify interfacing of the building blocks in the mobile terminals." Seppo Lamberg, SVP Nokia Common Technologies

NXP Semiconductors

"As an early adopter of MIPI UniPro, DSI, CSI and SLIMbus specifications, NXP is confident in the potential of MIPI interfaces for our current products," comments Jens Hinrichsen, General Manager Interface Products, NXP Semiconductors. "We believe that SLIMbus offers a cost-effective and elegant 2-wire standardized bus connection on mobile devices that is optimized for multiple peripheral components including audio applications and applications requiring low-speed communication of data and control information. We support full SLIMbus enabled architectures in mobile phones which increases flexibility and reduces cost and time to market."

NXP actively supports interoperability workshops and sessions for the UniPro Specification. NXP SLIMbus solutions allow a Plug-and-Play (PnP) extension of architectures to upgrade mobile phones with higher functionalities. In 2010, NXP will introduce a number of audio amplifiers for sound reproduction incorporating the SLIMbus interface.

Rohde & Schwarz

"Mobile terminals for next generation cellular and wireless technologies rely on a powerful internal architecture in order to support future broadband multimedia services. Digital interface specifications such as MIPI DigRF make a significant contribution to this objective and improve interoperability. Rohde & Schwarz will continue to use the specifications developed by MIPI to provide compliant test and measurement solutions for mobile terminals and wireless devices," says Wolfgang Kernchen, Director of the Signal Generators, Audio Analyzers and Power Meters Subdivision at Rohde & Schwarz.

Samsung Electronics

"Samsung continues to strongly support the MIPI initiative. The new MIPI standards released in 2008 have been built upon earlier achievements and extended the reach of the open standards to power management, audio and other applications," said Yun-tae Lee, Senior Vice President, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics Co. "It is the hope of Samsung that these developments will eventually lead to a widely adopted UniPro standard that shall be used as the common standard across a wide range of devices."

ST-NXP Wireless

"We, at ST-NXP Wireless a founding member of MIPI and a leading mobile technology provider, have been actively contributing and supporting the development of MIPI specifications to benefit the worldwide mobile industry," said Tommi Uhari Executive Vice President. "Since its inception in July 2003, the MIPI alliance, a non-profit corporation supported by the mobile industry, has successfully released several specifications (7 specifications in 2008). ST-NXP Wireless believes in open standards to drive the mobile market growth and we are fully committed to support and implement MIPI specifications in our Nomadik(R) multicore processors open platform and mobile products."

Texas Instruments

"TI believes that open standards, like MIPI Specifications, are a critical component in fostering the growth and success of the mobile services market. We would like to congratulate the MIPI Alliance for the successful adoption of these seven new mobile specifications that we believe are important for industry compatibility and growth," said Marcelo Vieira, general manager, Smart Phone Business Unit, Texas Instruments. "As a founding member, TI has long supported MIPI Standards in our OMAP(TM) applications processors to address fragmentation, streamline device interfaces and improve interoperability among system components which together reduce cost and time-to-market for our customers."

Toshiba

"Toshiba welcomes the release of the specifications for UniPro, DSI, PIE, DigRF, DDB, SLIMbus and SPMI," said Kenji Ito,Technology Executive of Toshiba's Semiconductor Company. "As a MIPI Contributor Member, we are confident that these specifications will drive forward enhancement of mobile phone performance and contribute significantly to further growth of the mobile phone industry. We will continue to support MIPI and its groundbreaking activities."

VLSI Plus Ltd

"In the past, VLSI Plus, under a consulting contract from Transchip, actively contributed to the definition of MIPI CSI - Camera Serial Interface. At that period we learnt to appreciate the richness and agility of the set of MIPI standards, and decided to offer our customers IP cores, for ASIC and for FPGA, compliant with MIPI standards, starting with CSI and DSI, with underlying D-PHY.

"MIPI IP products now constitute the main business of our company. We see growing interest and acceptance everywhere, even now, amidst the global financial crisis. We are committed to developing more MIPI IP products, to perfect our current line of products, and to support our customers in the adoption of the MIPI standards into their products." Yoav Lavi - CEO