A week after announcing its first Linux-based mobile phone stack, Azingo (formerly Celunite) has announced its first hardware partner. The LiMo-compliant Azingo Mobile stack will be ported to NXP's Nexperia Cellular Solution 7210 reference design, which uses a… single-core architecture and targets low-cost 3G handsets.

Azingo launched Azingo Mobile just last week. The stack is positioned as a comprehensive software/services offering for mid-tier feature-phones compliant with LiMo (Linux Mobile Foundation) requirements.

Azingo says that when deployed on NXP's Nexperia 7210 design, its mobile stack will address the mid-tier market for 3G and 3.5G Linux-based mobile phones that run dual-mode EDGE/UMTS and EDGE/HSPA multimedia platforms. The company hopes to announce additional hardware partners in the days and weeks ahead, it said.

The “Purple Magic” also uses NXP's 7210 design (Click for details)

Azingo Mobile is not the first Linux stack announced as supporting the NXP 7210 phone hardware reference design. Only last week Philips spin-off NXP announced it was collaborating with French mobile Linux phone stack firm Purple Labs on a hardware/software reference design aimed at sub-$100 3G phones for emerging markets.

The Nexperia Cellular System Solution 7210 reference design was unveiled a year ago at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona conference. The design is built around the PNX5221, a highly integrated SoC (system-on-chip) for GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS mobile handsets. Powered by a single ARM926EJ processor and a pair of 16-bit DSPs that handle image and signal processing, the SoC supports Dual Transfer Mode (DTM), supporting both 2.5 or 3G networks.

NXP was able to use a single core instead of more expensive dual processors thanks to the 7210's use of the VirtualLogix VLX-MH virtualization stack for handsets. VLX-MH enables the 7210's single ARM9 core to simultaneously run Linux along with a real-time OS (RTOS) that controls the modem and voice signal processing.

Nexperia 7210 block diagram
(Click to enlarge)

Stated Mahesh Veerina, Azingo CEO, “There's a growing demand from large operators to deliver even higher performing 3G phones in the mid-tier price range. The Azingo/NXP joint solution is an attractive platform for this market, given its price/performance ratio. Leveraging LiMo's ecosystem is an added benefit.”

Availability

At presstime, Azingo did not have information on the availability of the upcoming Nexperia-based phone. Nor will it have a prototype to show at the GSM Mobile World show next week in Barcelona, a spokesperson said.

 
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