TI's kit for DSP-based cell phones has 'click-wrap licensing' for Symbian OS

TI's kit for DSP-based cell phones has 'click-wrap licensing' for Symbian OS
By Semiconductor Business News
April 19, 2002 (12:12 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020419S0053

DALLAS -- With the battle heating up for new DSP-based 2.5 and 3G cell phones, Texas Instruments Inc. today announced plans to make available in the third quarter a new development kit for its OMAP platform, which offers a "click-wrap licensing agreement' for the Symbian Ltd.'s OS operating system.

The Symbian OS will be one of the first operating systems to be supported by TI's new Innovator Development Kit for the OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) processing engine. Dallas-based TI said the new development kit will speed development of next-generation 2.5 and 3G cellular phones, allowing wireless software developers to easily port high-performance applications to the OMAP digital signal processor-based engines.

The new development kit also will speed the legal path to using Symbian OS on the TI platforms as well. "The new kit is the first development platform with a 'click-wrap licensing agreement,' which will provide the Symb ian developer community with quick and easy access to Symbian OS," said Mark Edwards, executive vice president of sales and marketing of London-based Symbian.

TI said the new kit was designed to support developers creating applications for "all popular operating systems", such as Symbian OS, Linux, Microsoft Windows CE and Palm OS. It will also support major programming environments such as Java, according to TI. Optional expansion modules to the kit will include support for GSM/GPRS, 802.11b and Bluetooth.

The new development kit is scheduled to be available to software developers in the third quarter. Pricing information for was not released today.