Next generation wireless-multimedia devices — who is up for the challenge?

Yesterday's cell phones have rapidly evolved into versatile multi-media computers heavily loaded with a wide spectrum of technologies to support many functions and use modes. Designing and verifying such complex devices becomes increasingly challenging due to the need to: incorporate larger number of functions and diverse use modes, increased bandwidth, provide support for multimedia devices with high resolution, offer new methods for user interactions, and all of this at a fixed power budget and with high reliability, hi addition, teams need to keep up with the convergence of wireless radio algorithms and be able to support more functionality moving into the software layer. So, who is up for the challenge? The panelists will discuss issues such as, are we seeing a convergence of hardware and low-level software "platforms" with the differentiator being in software applications, or will hardware and design remain the core of the competitive edge? If platforms are the future, will we see an emergence of horizontal businesses divided over hardware, middleware, to applications? Will verification remain a "mixed bag" of methods and tools, or will a more holistic approach be required to be successful? And how in the world do you run a super-computer on a 3W budget?