Sasken Powers Affordable Multimedia Phones on Texas Instruments ''LoCosto'' Platform

Sasken Communication Technologies Limited, a pioneer in communications R & D outsourcing and leading player in wireless software solutions, announced that Sasken's application framework ARIA has been successfully integrated on to Texas Instruments Incorporated's (TI's) "LoCosto" single-chip value platform. The fact that this integration has been achieved in a record period of two months is evidence of ARIA's architecture that enables easy portability and integration by leveraging the modular design of ARIA and the strengths of the "LoCosto" platform.

Sasken's Application Framework ARIA together with TI's "LoCosto" single chip will allow phone manufacturers to produce phones with affordable multimedia and compelling user experience while lowering the cost of integration and accelerating the time to market. Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Edwin Moses, VP Sales & Marketing, Sasken, said, "Sasken and TI have worked closely together in the area of Mobile Applications.  This close relationship has enabled us to deliver to our customers an integrated and scalable feature phone solution with the Application Framework ARIA on TI's "LoCosto" platform. We believe that we are poised to replicate the successful relationship we've had with TI's OMAP™ platform with TI's "LoCosto" and OMAP-Vox™ solutions."

ARIA is an Application Frameworks solution that is aimed at the Feature Phone market and for the first time enables customers to be able to create differentiated mobile phones without having to give up on software reuse and portability across phone designs and platforms. ARIA's innovative smart design and extensive tool suite simplifies the customers' ability to add and remove features in accordance with the segment of the market that they wish to address with their phones. It enables OEM's and ODM's to change the look and feel of the phones without disturbing the underlying software logic. The solution leverages Sasken's proven strengths in multimedia, enabling rich media experience on feature phones without the need for additional co-processors, and there-by reducing the manufacturers' BOM cost.

Mr. Remi El-Ouazzane, General Manager of 2.5G Business, Wireless Terminals Business Unit, Texas Instruments, said, "Sasken's ARIA is an important addition to the portfolio of application suite partners on the "LoCosto" platform since it is a flexible architecture enabling fast customer differentiation and delivery.  This flexibility coupled with Sasken's global support infrastructure makes Sasken an ideal application suite partner for "LoCosto" solutions."

Sasken's relationship with TI in the mobile phone space is many years old and spans across segments from multimedia feature phones to smartphones. Sasken's multimedia subsystems integrated on to TI OMAP platforms have been shipping for the last five years in demanding markets like Japan and Europe. As a certified OMAP Technology Center, Sasken has significantly enhanced its knowledge and expertise on OMAP processor-based solutions. ARIA is now ported on TI's "LoCosto" platform will also be available shortly on TI's OMAP-Vox processors with plans to scale into 3G solutions.

Sasken ARIA on the "LoCosto" platform is showcased at the TI Developer Conference on Nov 30 th and Dec 1st at NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore, India.

About SASKEN

Sasken Communication Technologies established in 1989 is a 3000+strong communication technology company with development centers in India, Finland, Mexico, China. Sasken's Product Division licenses embedded software IP for use with wireless mobile devices covering all communication and application sub-systems.
The Product portfolio comprises of – ARIA the Sasken Application Framework Solution, Multimedia Subsystems and Wireless Protocol Stack Solutions. The width and depth of the portfolio enables Sasken to provide both point solutions and pre-integrated full phone software bundles on many leading silicon platforms.
Sasken Wireless IP ships on 30+ models and over 50 million phones across networks in Australia, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan.
For more information visit: www.sasken.com