Intel to Sell High-Speed Mobile-Phone Chip

Semiconductor maker Intel Corp. will start selling a new chip to power high-speed mobile phones next year in an effort to win handset customers from Texas Instruments Inc.

The chip will be targeted at both “top-end” and “volume” phones. Intel will introduce the product in the second half of 2004, and it will feature in phones next year.

The chip, dubbed Hermon, will be used in mobile phones that use so-called wideband code-division multiple access, or WCDMA, technology and allows videoconferencing.

Shares of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel were up 42 cents to $29.62 on Nasdaq.