Qualcomm owns up to faulty chips
Published: 05 Apr 2002 11:31 BST
Qualcomm said on Thursday it found problems in a "small portion" of the chips it created for higher speed mobile phones.
The company confirmed the problems alluded to earlier Thursday by phone maker Audiovox. Chief executive Philip Christopher said some of its new phones required software modifications to correct a problem created by the Qualcomm chips inside.
"Qualcomm acknowledges that a potential error could occur in a small portion of the early shipment of its CDMA2000 1X chipsets," Qualcomm said in a statement. CDMA2000 1X cell phones are capable of downloading information at speeds similar to a dial-up Internet connection.
A company representative said the error was corrected and that Qualcomm has begun shipping large volumes of the chips again. Qualcomm did not release details about what was wrong with the earlier chips.
Christopher made the disclosure during a conference call with analysts on Thursday. He was asked when the company's 9155 GPX handset, which has a global position service built into it, would be ready for the market. He said carriers hadn't approved the phone yet because of a problem with Qualcomm chips inside.
Christopher said that one million Audiovox phones had the chips inside, but he did not know what percentage might be faulty. He added that other phone manufacturers were having trouble with the chips as well, but declined to name them.
The chips are part of Qualcomm's "next generation" offerings for wireless devices that use the cell phone standard code division multiple access, or CDMA. The two chips are the MSM5100 and the MSM5105.
Audiovox, which is making future phones such as the Thera, told analysts during a conference call on Thursday that it had experienced a sharp drop in sales.
One of the reasons was that wireless carriers weren't approving as quickly as expected the new cell phones with Qualcomm's chips inside, according to an Audiovox representative.
For further coverage of upcoming UK and international events go to ZDNet UK's Events channel.
Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the Chips Central Forum.
Let the Chips Central editor know what you think by email. And sign up for the weekly Chips Central newsletter.
Did you find this article useful?
48 out of 123 people found this useful
- Share this article:
