New Marvell Solutions Pave Way in FM Integration for Smaller and Power-Efficient Multi-radio Devices

Flexible, programmable and low-power FM transmitter and receiver are designed for upcoming handset and portable device markets.

Mobile World Congress - Barcelona . — Marvell, (NASDAQ: MRVL), a leader in storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions today announced that its FM transmitter and receiver technologies are optimized to drive the integration of FM radios in smaller and power-efficient multi-radio devices. The FM technology provides new intellectual property (IP) capabilities to extend Marvell’s leadership in offering some of the best wireless connectivity components for upcoming devices such as cellular handheld devices, digital media players, portable gaming devices, satellite receivers, and GPS/navigation devices. With full RDS/RBDS support, Marvell’s FM receiver and transmitter is designed to provide a feature rich solution for portable applications, offering the ability to both receive FM broadcasts over the air and create a wireless audio link from the device to any FM receiver.

“Marvell’s FM solutions offer best-in-class FM radio transmittal and receiving capabilities for emerging multi-radio devices,” said Dr. Partho Mishra Vice President and General Manager, Embedded and Emerging Business Unit, Communications and Consumer Business Group at Marvell. “By offering this innovative solution to manufacturers, excellent FM radio performance and superior ease of programmability with a cost effective design, we anticipate this technology will enable the manufacturing of advanced solutions consumers demand.”

Marvell’s FM technology features a flexible, easy-to-program design while offering low power usage for the overall solution. The technology requires only two external components and is optimized for small antennas to help drive the growth in efficient, compact and smaller consumer solutions.
About Marvell FM Receiver Technology

The Marvell FM receiver features an efficient scan search algorithm: 25ms average response time per channel and superior mono and stereo sound quality aided with stereo blending and auto mute. Featuring best-in-class sensitivity level of -111dBm, interference blocking capabilities and a low power design, the FM receiver delivers full audio performance from a 32 kHz sleep clock. Other crystal clock frequencies that range up to 52 MHz also support the same level of audio specifications. To support the handset market, the FM receiver is designed to operate over the worldwide FM frequency band with a small internal antenna embedded in the application device.
About Marvell FM Transmitter Technology

With a proprietary algorithm designed to determine the best transmit channel and an all digital FM modulator to reduce power dissipation, the Marvell FM transmitter features a low power design and can operate from both digital and analog stereo audio inputs. The Marvell FM transmitter features a programmable pre-emphasis and a programmable output power. It has the capability to deliver up to 125dBuV to the PCB loop which can easily fit into a small handheld device.
Availability and Pricing

Marvell’s FM Receiver will be on display at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. Customers and press can come by the booth for a demonstration of the technology: Booth Number: CY18. The Marvell FM receiver and transmitter will sample to early access customers in multi-radio devices from Marvell in the first half of 2009. Pricing is available to customers upon request.