Among numerous TD-SCDMA chip manufacturers, only one is funded by educational service and focuses on the TD-SCDMA commercial chips, i.e. Chongqing Chongyou Information Technology Co. Ltd. (CYIT). In the vital stage of commercializing TD-SCDMA, the eve before the commercialization of TD-SCDMA, the whole industry show great concern in CYIT. Journalist from TD-SCDMA Forum interviewed Professor Nie Neng, Principal of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

When talked about the current stage of TD-SCDMA industry, Nie Neng used a vivid metaphor, he said, compared with the circumstance 2 years before, the situation of TD-SCDMA development is quite clear nowadays. Now it is the time of the final and most important battle to win the war. It is just like the Huaihai battle, which was fought before China’s War of Liberation. If we can succeed, TD-SCDMA industry will step into a new historical era.

Nie believes that currently the key factors impacting the development of the TD-SCDMA industry include: relatively late involvement of TD-SCDMA in the development of 3G. The investment and efforts which has been input in TD-SCDMA research lags far behind that of the other two 3G standards. The pressing time and lack of material input etc. resulted in the gap between the degree of maturity of TD-SCDMA and that of the other two 3G standards. Currently, the most important issue in the commercialization of TD-SCDMA is not only how much support we can get form the state, but the products’ degree of maturity.

In the aspect of accelerating the advancement of the TD-SCDMA industry, Nie said in addition to the ever increasing support from the state, the more important thing is the cooperation between the up-stream and down-stream players. They should seize the time and work together to perfect the product performance continuously. Nie stated that under current situation, all players in the TD-SCDMA industry chain should put the interest of the whole industry above everything else. Moreover, they should work in unity and help one another to shape the win-win situation. Only by doing this can we win the decisive battle in the TD-SCDMA commercialization. The cooperation will also greatly benefit the development of the whole industry in the long-term. If China can not win initial success of TD-SCDMA in our domestic market, we are doomed to lose supports from the international manufacturers and operators.

Chongyou Information Technology Co. Ltd. (CYIT) began to cooperate with Datang Telecom in the research of TD-SCDMA standard and the sampling terminal in 1998. In 2003, CYIT first released TSM sampling mobile phone and began the research and development of LCR chips and protocol stacks. CYIT has accumulated rich experiences in its years of practice. The more important thing is that after these efforts, we realized that the TD-SCDMA chip is not an impassable barrier for the domestic IC designers and chip manufacturers. Its significance is far beyond the R&D itself. It has greatly increased the confidence of our national high-tech industries.

When talked about the advancement of the R&D in TD-SCDMA chips in CYIT, Nie said that the focus of CYIT is still in LCR single-mode chips. This is because that CYIT had positioned itself as a commercial product designer at the very beginning of its R&D. From the technical aspect, due to the good plasticity of chips, it is not difficult to transit from the single-mode chips to the dual-mode chips. Currently, the direction of TD-SCDMA chip development in CYIT is: to focus on the TD-SCDMA single-mode chips and to surmount the technical difficulties. These will pave the way for the final commercialization of the technology. We will strive to do the following two things. The first one is to release TD-SCDMA commercial chips as soon as possible and to perfect the LCR protocol stack continuously for commercialization. The second one is to do our best to support every initiation, effort and task in the TD-SCDMA industry.

Currently, voice and SMS functions has been realized for the TD-SCDMA（LCR）mobile phone made from OMAP chips and operated on the trial network designed to be used for commercial purposes. The working current has been reduced from 600 mA to only about 10 mA. In addition, we have helped the system providers and chip manufactures to do the consistency testing. According to the current momentum of advancement, CYIT will complete the second round design of TD-SCDMA（LCR）chip and will release its commercial baseband chip in the third quarter of this year. In addition, the 60 trial mobile phones originally scheduled to release on March, 2005 will also be released in due time.

Moreover, Nei Neng introduced that CYIT is actively cooperating with domestic and foreign firms in the TD-SCDMA field. So long it has signed the partnership agreements with ARM、LSI、SYNOPSYS. In addition, CYIT has also signed intention of cooperation with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the purpose of which is to break the barrier of commercializing TD-SCDMA baseband chips. Meanwhile, preliminary agreement has been reached by CYIT and Southwest IC Design Company (SWID). The two parties will work together on RF chips. With the advancement of commercializing TD-SCDMA, CYIT will constantly strengthen and deepen the interactivity with relevant firms both at home and abroad. Currently, we have already established good partnership relationships with Datang Telecom, Siemens, ZTE and Spreadtrum Communications, etc.

When talked about the TD-SCDMA networking which is most concerned by the industry, Nie stated firmly that China can only vitalize this industry by constructing the TD-SCDMA network independently.

Currently, no international groups have invested in CYIT. However, Nie Neng showed his confidence in the future development of CYIT. He said affirmatively, “CYIT do not need to worry about sharing his profits with other parties, therefore, in the process of commercializing TD-SCDMA, CYIT will show more and more advantages.”

Editorial Note: “Bookishness” Should Not Be Neglected or Looked down upon
Nowadays, not everybody is happy to be regarded somewhat as bookish. If an enterprise is said to be academic, it hints at least to some extent that the company is not so realistic and can hardly achieve anything.
Standard formulation is closely related to the social value. In today’s commercial world, people always regard an enterprise as ‘bookish’ if it is not market or profit oriented. If this enterprise happens to have something to do with academy, it will naturally be classified as ‘the academic’.
In fact, the human society is divided in different divisions. People’s roles are also different. Statesmen, businessmen and the intellectual have their own personalities. The intellectual are vital to the society. They always have better sense of responsibility than any other social classes. Compared with their broad and deep achievements in the academic field, they deserve more praise for their personality and sense of the historical mission. They have their independent thinking about the society and their lives. In stead of seeking of the material benefits, they always have the whole nation in their mind and put the interest of the whole nation above everything else.
Do not laugh at bookish, especially ‘the academic’ who firmly devote themselves to the national industries. On the contrary, we should express our hearted respect to the bookish who were not influenced by the profit and loss of their own, the worldly things or the common views and keep themselves just the same as before. Only by respecting their spirit can we build a healthy society, a strong country and a prosperous nation.