* * * * *

                   Cellphone guts for the curious, Part II

Two years ago I published an email I received about the internal workings of
a cellphone [1], and today, I received yet another email, from a fellow cow-
orker about that previous email:

> From: BXXXX XXXXX <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: Cellphone guts for the curious …
> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 12:08:13 -0500
>
> Sean,
>
> In reference to: http://boston.conman.org/2013/01/22.2 [2]
>
> I passed this link along to a friend who is as technically talented as
> XXXX, but who is also as politically astute as he is technically astute.
> Here is his response:
>
> > Last time I checked, they are separate because the FCC (Federal
> > Communications Commision) says they have to be separate.
> >
> > There was huge debate between focus and the phone manufacturers. The
> > phone manufacturers wanted a single processor for both the air processor
> > and the phone/app gui. The FCC said no because of the possibility of
> > changing the radio firmware.
> >
>
> Disclaimer: I am not offering this for contradiction; just FYI (For Your
> Information) and for discussion (if you wish). Both he and XXXX are way
> beyond me in this area, so I offer no opinions or views of my own. In other
> words, I am all ears.
>

While the FCC has jurisdiction over radio transmission [3], I think the
separation of general purpose CPU (Central Processing Unit) and baseband
processor has more do to with recertification than a legal mandate to be
separated [4].

But I don't work for a cellphone manufacturer, so I might be mistaken.

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2013/01/22.2
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2013/01/22.2
[3] http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title47/47tab_02.tpl
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseband_processor#Overview

Email author at [email protected]