Core LTE and WiMAX similarities may see chip makers hedge their bets

The jury is still out on which technology will become the next mobile broadband standard. The contenders for the 4G crown are LTE, which is a kind of successor to HSPA backed largely by the telecoms industry, or WiMAX, the successor to WiFi generally backed by the IT industry.

WiMAX has a better initial foothold, but the feeling is LTE could surpass it at a later date. Meanwhile, design engineers and chip manufacturers - those who design and create the hardware and software to make all this magic work - have still got to put the work in to bring us closer to widespread real world applications for both technologies.

This results in a certain predicament for chip manufacturers and integrated circuit designers. They could end up backing the wrong horse, and ending up with a technology that becomes very quickly obsolete (think Betamax, if you're old enough) - either that, or they invest double in developing both technologies to be sure of staying in the game.

In the case of LTE and WiMAX, though, there are certain core similarities between the two technologies which could help. "From a core technology perspective, WiMAX and LTE are actually quite similar," said David A. Hall, RF and communications product marketing manager at hardware and software designer National Instruments. In theory, chip designers could even make chips that supported both technologies, which would be programmable post-production to enable one other standard.

So far, according to market research and analysis company Maravedis Inc, more than 100 operators have committed to LTE, as compared to nearly 400 operators which have WiMAX technology in deployment or in trials; but as far as the race for 4G goes, it's still early days.