Samsung develops 4G chips inhouse

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by Jan Harris

As part of its efforts to keep down the price of handsets, Samsung is developing new Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX chips.

Developing the chips inhouse means the company won’t have to pay patent royalties on chips it buys from other manufacturers.

The new developments, which will also include media accelerators, will be sold to other handset manufacturers, giving Samsung a useful revenue stream.

Taking silicon development inhouse will also allow Samsung to push new innovations, and it hopes to be one of the first manufacturers to release LTE handsets, although these might use chipsets from an external manufacturer such as Qualcomm.

Its main rival in the LTE handset race is LG Electronics, which recently announced its first LTE handset modem chip.