NXP unveils world's fastest cellular modem with multi-mode GSM support

3G is so Monday. Today, NXP Semiconductors is getting down with the "world's fastest high-bandwidth cellular soft modem," which will obviously be aimed at smartphones, MIDs and other handhelds thirsting for WWAN. Notably, the PNX6910 supports multi-mode LTE / HSPA / UMTS / EDGE / GPRS / GSM capability, and it's reportedly capable of achieving data transfer rates of 150Mbits down and 50Mbits up. To put things in perspective, NXP suggests that users could download an "entire HD movie in less than 7 minutes," though we're not sure what constitutes an "entire movie." Oh, and before you get too excited in here, you should probably know that the chip won't even be available until Q2 2009 at the earliest.

[AlekZander @ Jun 12th 2008 10:19AM]

Now counting seconds until people claim iPhone "sucks" because it doesn't have this...

[DefPo3t @ Jun 12th 2008 10:39AM]

4...3..2...1,.
All phones suck cause they don't have this

[Jay6464 @ Jun 13th 2008 12:07PM]

And now you can enjoy the fact that there are NXP chips in iPhones, along with almost every other mobile manufacturer, so everyone will get this when the company begins production

[treacherous @ Jun 12th 2008 10:29AM]

Wireless IPTV anyone?

[RandomCake @ Jun 12th 2008 10:46AM]

No thanks, I like my TVs 7" minimum...

[BlowURmindBowel @ Jun 12th 2008 11:46AM]

nothing like ambiguous tech-elitism...

I prefer 32" minimum, but when I am stuck on a train I still think 2" is better than nothing. But you are obviously more committed to quality than I am. HA

[MadMike @ Jun 12th 2008 10:51AM]

1.) It's only Theoretical. The wireless carriers will probably limit the max to 8 bytes/hour.

2.) Last time I checked, an entire HD movie was well over 5GB which would cause the carrier to send you a nasty gram and shut off your service.

3.) Ordering an entire HD movie over the internet if it was legally possible, would cost more than a years worth of service, the laptop you are downloading it on and the air card.

[Eric Frazer @ Jun 12th 2008 11:02AM]

"3.) Ordering an entire HD movie over the internet if it was legally possible, would cost more than a years worth of service, the laptop you are downloading it on and the air card."

xbox 360 allows you to order movies in high definition legally.
but yes at 5 cents a kilobyte like here in canada this would be very expensive.

[neofolklore @ Jun 12th 2008 11:52AM]

if only there was some sort of unlimited data plan

[Nutsy @ Jun 12th 2008 10:53AM]

Nice speeds yet completly pointless as no mobile networks would ever allow such speeds... They dont even want to give you full 3g speeds without making you pay up your life savings.

[Chad @ Jun 12th 2008 11:03AM]

What!?....No WiMax.....Worthless......

[Some Kid @ Jun 12th 2008 11:16AM]

come on engadget, you tell us about this amazing chip and then tell us that we cant get it in anything for another year
WTF dont tell us then, cause i got pretty excited
but anyway about the chip, if it is for Moble Internet Devices, Smartphones/PDAs, and other handheld, why would we need to download an entire HD movie in the first place on one of those machines. PDAs and Smartphones dont have good enough screens to make it worth paying for HD and Mids wont have enough memory. For other handheld, what is it that they are talking about? PSPs, iPods, what? that would be useless on those devises because they would be WiFi based, not Cell data based. I dont see the point of it saying about the HD movie download, but it should be a good chip anyways other than that

[Some Kid @ Jun 12th 2008 11:22AM]

i also noticed this was "Founded by Philips". If that means Phillips electronics, i have no clue how they got to this, because phillips is mostly in the consumer electronics industry, not the chip industry and i have no clue what resources this NXP would have to manufacture a chip like this

[ShreDDR @ Jun 12th 2008 11:40AM]

FYI Philips NXP have powered most of your HDTV's for years . Yeah.. Even Samsung's use NXP.

[JeffM @ Jun 12th 2008 11:46AM]

True- I've never seen _ANY_ Philips semiconductors before. :P

Philips just spun out their semiconductor group in 2006 as many other companies have done in the last 10 years. They didn't want to lose all of the brand equity so they attach their name to NXP.

[Dante @ Jun 12th 2008 11:42AM]

so.. its basically a press release on a chip that does not exist physically, not even designed, ... and states performance figures based on a wireless standard/protocol that still doesnt exist.... the industry has problems with 3G and they're talking about LTE Class 4... mmmmmmmm... white noise to me

[BlowURmindBowel @ Jun 12th 2008 11:46AM]

I will not say "the iPhone sucks" $#!7 I just did...

No, I'm sure the iPhone v3 will have this chip and you will all be able to go replace your 3G iPhone w/ the v3 in mid to late 2009. Tech-taxes for everyone :D

[Some Kid @ Jun 12th 2008 12:12PM]

i acknowledged the fact that they made semiconductors for things like tvs and camcorders, but i didnt know that NXP made cell chips like this