Manufacturing method for wireless communications devices employing potentially different versions of integrated circuits

Abstract

During production, a wireless communications device manufacturer determines the version of specific integrated circuits being used by interpreting the response signals generated by the integrated circuits in response to an electronic query. The device manufacturer preferably establishes a cross reference list of response signals and computer chip versions for the affected computer chip type. Each integrated circuit chip manufacturer then designs and manufactures their respective integrated circuit chips to generate their corresponding response signal when a particular predetermined query is received by the chip. During subsequent device production, a factory system is connected to the device and sends the query signal. The computer chip detects this query and, in response, the integrated circuit generates the pre-defined response signal. The factory system compares this generated response signal to the cross-reference list of assigned response signals to determine the integrated circuit version being used. The factory system then selects the appropriate factory settings based on the integrated circuit version identified and loads those factory settings into the wireless communications device. In addition, the factory system may optionally send an activation code to the integrated circuit chip based on the version of integrated circuit chip identified to enable the additional function available on that version of integrated circuit chip.