LONDON — Wavecom and Emblaze Semiconductor have joined forces to develop two multimedia platforms targeted at handset manufacturers.

Packaged as two different versions of Wavecom's Feature Phones Development Lab, the first design, dubbed the Feature 700, will be available in the first quarter of 2004 and is based on Wavecom's WISMO Pac P5186 GSM/GPRS module and Emblaze Semiconductor's ER4521 multimedia processor.

The platform will support camera for still picture (VGA) and video record (QCIF 15fps),a display of up to 176x220,and up to 262k colors, MP3, MPEG-4 AAC, MPEG-4, video streaming, MMC/SD, NAND Flash memory and polyphonic ring tones of up to 64 chords.

The Pac P5186 provides quad band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) capability, support for WAP2.0, MMS, Java, E-mail, SyncML, and USB as well as storage card connectivity.

The second platform, Feature 705, will be available in the second half of 2004 and is based on the Pac P5186 and Emblaze ER4525 processor.

The upgraded multimedia features include MPEG-4 video capture and playback at CIF resolution (15 fps), JVT video decoding, 1.3 Mpixel still image capture and enhanced graphics engine with VGA-size LCD support.

A complete suite of software, hardware, development tools and services, the Wavecom Feature Phones Development Lab includes a host of features for multimedia phones The Development Lab also includes an extensive service offering, including support for design and development, certification, production set-up and manufacturing.

"The incorporation of the ER4521 and ER4525 providesfor rich multimedia applications along with reduced power consumption and smaller footprint," said Dror Jerushalmi, VP Marketing, Emblaze Semiconductor. "The complete solution enables OEMs and ODMs who are developing the latest handsets to achieve a faster time to market with reduced production costs."