Reports are suggesting that Intel is looking to buy German-based Infineon's wireless chip unit that is used in both the iPhone and the iPad.
Both U.S. and European based news-papers have been hinting heavily towards a deal between the two company's. The big question about the deal is in regard to current iPad and iPhone units, what will happen to this hardware?
When the products were pulled apart, we could see that Infineon is important for both the iPhone and iPad. Not only this, but UMB TechInsights shows the use of two chips: An Infineon A GSM/W-CDMA transceiver and a baseband processor.
The baseband processor is considered to be an important piece for the iPhone, as it is responsible for the 3G connection in the Apple products.
"This processor has HSDPA/HSUPA capabilities of 7.2Mbps/2.9Mbps and the ability to connect to cameras with up to 5 MPixels like the one found on the iPhone 4G (the X-GOLD 618 version)," TechInsight says. HSDPA stands for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access. HSUPA is the acronym for High-Speed Uplink Packet Access.
These processing chips were once included within a brand of Intel communication chips, until they sold them to Marvell. That old technology has advanced in recent times, and is today powering some of the most popular gadgets - including the likes of Apples A4 and Texas Instruments OMAP, used in the Droid series of phones.
These chips may put Intel inside products other than just iPhone and iPad. Nokia and Samsung use these style of chips as well. This deal between Intel and Infineon, if true, will be a huge lift for Intel in the mobile market.
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