(IDG) -- NEC, Hitachi Semiconductor, and Siemens Microelectronics offered technical details Thursday of new microprocessor architectures that should allow manufacturers to boost the power in portable, Internet-enabled consumer electronics devices.

The designs have a common theme in that they combine on one chip functions traditionally handled separately by a microprocessor and a digital signal processor (DSP). Architectural details of the new designs were offered Thursday at the Embedded Processor Forum, in San Jose, Calif.

Chip makers increasingly have been cramming more functions on their chips in an effort to lower cost, power consumption, and size. But until recently, combining the DSP and microprocessor functions in a single design was almost unheard of, said Jim Turley, a senior analyst at MicroDesign Resources, in Sebastopol, Calif.

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"The combination seemed like heresy, like mixing oil and water," Turley said.

But newer manufacturing technologies, combined with a demand for low-cost chips to serve the high-volume consumer electronics market, have spurred chip makers to seek new ways to design their products.

Telecommunications companies want buying a cellular telephone to be a "one-spouse decision," Turley said. "Cheap enough that you don't feel like you have to consult your spouse before you buy one."

The new hybrid designs are expected to find their way into product form by mid-1999, Turley said.

Traditional RISC processors can handle digital signal processing tasks, but the additional work sucks up valuable processing power that could be used elsewhere, said David Pelavin, product marketing manager for Hitachi's SuperH product family.

"Using a hybrid design will allow new applications for consumer devices that previously were unavailable, because it would have required a much higher-performance RISC processor," Pelavin said.

The hybrid products also should lead to cost savings for manufacturers by simplifying the process of designing and debugging products, Pelavin added.

But although the new architectures may lower the cost of smart handheld devices, new types of Web content will likely be necessary before users will want to surf the Web while walking down the street, Turley commented.

New online content aimed specifically at cellular customers will likely be less graphic-intensive and contain useful day-to-day information, such as telephone directories and information about restaurants, entertainment, and the location of gas stations, for example, Turley said.

Each of the three devices described Thursday takes a slightly different approach to solving a similar problem, Turley said.

Hitachi's SH3-DSP integrated RISC architecture is optimized to allow smart phones and other handheld devices to access information from the Internet. The product can also be used in IP telephony devices and cable modems, the company said.

The first product based on the design, the SH7729, was also unveiled Thursday and will support Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, Hitachi said.

Siemens' TriCore microcontroller/DSP architecture has been designed for use in applications including computer peripherals, cellular communications products, and automotive control systems, a company representative said. The company said last month it had developed the first working samples of chips based on the design.

Meanwhile NEC was due to outline details of a superscalar microprocessor architecture with advanced DSP capabilities, Turley said. A representative at the company in Tokyo was not immediately able to comment on Thursday's announcement.

Hitachi Semiconductor Inc., in Tokyo, can be reached at 81 (33) 258 2055 or www.hitachi.co.jp. NEC Corp., also in Tokyo, can be reached at 81 (33) 798 1111 or www.nec.com. Siemens Microelectronics Inc., in Cupertino, Calif., can be contacted at (408) 895-5044. Information about Siemens' TriCore architecture can be found at www.tri-core.com.

James Niccolai is a San Francisco correspondent for the IDG News Service.