Chip companies to support Symbian OS

Symbian, which makes operating systems for wireless phones, on Wednesday announced that six new semiconductor companies will support its OS. Agilent Technologies, Epson, Parthus, Philips Semiconductors, Samsung and STMicroelectronics will join ARM, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments in integrating the Symbian OS with their chips that use an ARM core, a technology that boosts chip performance. The move, announced at a conference in Cannes, France, is expected to reduce the time it takes to develop mobile phones and get them to market. Symbian's news follows similar announcements from Microsoft on Tuesday. Symbian is an independent company owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Matsushita, Motorola, Psion and Sony Ericsson. Ericsson, Nokia and Psion are already shipping devices using the Symbian OS. --Richard Shim, Special to ZDNet News