Spotlighting its push into next-generation wireless phone technologies, Intel (Quote, Chart) has previewed a prototype of a "converged" PDA which combines handheld computing features with a new, advanced mobile processor.

The PDA, code-named Carbando, was spotlighted by Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief operating officer, during a speech at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France.

As a harbinger of the next wave of personal-video-capable PDAs, Carbando boasts a multimedia accelerator chip to deliver what Intel called "near-DVD" performance.

Carbando is also billed as a "reference design," which OEMs will use as the basis for their production models. OEM products are expected to hit the market in the second half of this year, Intel spokesman Bill Calder told internetnews.com.

The Carbando preview served as warm-up for Otellini's introduction of a broad new family of wireless chips from Intel. The first of those ICs is Bulverde, a next-generation version of Intel's current XScale embedded processor, which powered the PDA.

Bulverde is only one member of a broader family of wireless processors Intel has dubbed Hermon.

The other Hermon ICs, which comprise all the technologies needed to pull together complete mobile devices, handle baseband and receiver functions. Baseband refers to the voice and data functions required by a mobile phone; a radio-frequency chipset must be added to a design to handle actual transmissions.

Europe was seen as an appropriate first venue for the Intel launch, since the new silicon is positioned as a technology enabler for phones which conform to the GSM (define) mobile standard widely used in Europe. Although the GSM standard is beginning to be deployed by major wireless carriers in the United States, the competing CDMA (define) standard still dominates in the U.S.

Intel plans to push the technology to market by linking up with major mobile operator Orange SA, which runs networks in France and England. "We are going to work with Orange on a next-generation phone," Calder said. However, he noted that the companies haven't yet begun detailed work on the design.