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JULY 13th, 2005
Alpha Imaging Technology Company (AIT), a fabless chip company based
in Taiwan has selected audio synthesizer technology from Sonic Network, Inc. for use in its camera phone multimedia chips.
Sonic’s EAS for embedded Audio Synthesis has been planned for Alpha Imaging’s next generation of chips intended
for mobile ringtone and game audio functions.
One of the reasons for the selection was that Sonic’s solution
required the least amount of memory and the best sound quality. According to Andy Tsai, Director of Product Planning of Alpha
Imaging, "Sonic Network's mature and complete solution is a natural complement to our multimedia IC's. Most important to us
was the quality and compactness of the solution. Based on our tests, Sonic Network provided the best sound quality and the
smallest memory and processor requirements, important features for competing in the increasingly aggressive cellular market."
Noting that the solution offered cost savings where it counts, to
wireless ODMs, was Jennifer Hruska, Sonic’s President, "Wireless ODMs are continuing to push multi-media IC manufactures
for greater functionality and larger feature sets. Since both AIT and Sonic offer the widest range of format support, our
technology is a natural complement that can offer tremendous value to a handset manufacturer. This is most important to ODMs
competing in the feature phone market, as the low memory requirements of our EAS allows substantial cost reductions over using
other software solutions as well as even greater savings over utilizing a dedicated hardware solution such as a melody chip."
AIT is well known in the cellular phone market. Its chip solutions
have been used by BenQ, Motorola, NEC, Philips, Siemens, and Panasonic.
JULY 8th, 2005
Soon, one may just put a pair of eyeglass- like devices on when
the cell phone rings. One will then be all set to play a lively video game with a far away friend or have a serious video
teleconference with a business partner. With Kopin’s nanotechnology based microdisplays, Orange’s video service,
MicroOptical’s Kopin-enabled eyewear and Samsung’s cell phone one may have all that one needs to both work and
play in the modern world.
In this scenario, of the not to distant future, one will be delivered
movies, TV, photos, web sites or perhaps games through Orange SA mobile video service, then see the results with virtual big-screen
eyewear provided by MicroOptical Corporation. The infrastructure is just about there. The recent order from MicroOptical for
Kopin’s CyberDisplay 230 K microdisplays will provide the necessary hardware component to get the production lines moving.
Orange SA, a unit of French Telecom, which already has 52 million
customers in 16 countries, will bundle together the complete package. That package will include MicroOptical binocular video
eyewear and Samsung’s SGH-D600 cell phone as the “Orange World” wireless multimedia service. The complete
system has already been demonstrated at the European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris and will be available to
Orange’s customers in October of 2005.
Will the product be a hit? One plus is the dual eye display, consisting
of quarter-inch diagonals provides a 12 inch big screen virtual image. Another plus is that the eyewear itself only weighs
2.5 ounces. Finally, the device does accept composite video input (NTSC or PAL), so the eyewear can be plugged into devices
such as DVD players, and even perhaps screenless portable laptops.
Future applications
may include special eyeglasses to adjust for even the most severe vision problems. MicroOptical also has a strategic alliance
with Essilor International, a company with over 25,000 employees, for ophthalmic eyewear devices. Essilor manufactured over
180 million lenses in 2004.
JULY 8th, 2005
FemOne, Inc. (OTC:FEMO) (BULLETIN BOARD: FEMO) closed financing
of $1.5 million through the issue of 8% Callable Secured Convertible Notes. Ray W. Grimm, Jr., the CEO of FemOne, Inc., a
company that produces cell phone radiation protection chips and offers a clip-on chip to improve automotive fuel economy,
indicated that the funds will be used for the expansion of the BIOPRO Technology division, the division responsible for those
products. "The raising of equity financing gives us additional capital to focus on the continued growth of our business and
the global expansion of our BIOPRO Technology Division. There is a strong global interest in our products and we are dedicated
to taking advantage of these international opportunities in a focused and efficient manner. This is a very exciting time for
our company,"
The BioPro Technology division offers BIOPRO Econo Fuel Chips
and the BIOPRO Cell Chip. The Econo Fuel Chips have been shown to offer a 15 percent savings in automobile fuel consumption
and decrease the overall pollution of automobiles. The BIOPRO Cell Chip has been shown to eliminate potential health hazards
of cell phones. The company illustrates via a CAT scan that the use of regular cell phones result in a rise of temperature
of the human brain. The company's BIOPRO Cell Chip helps eliminate that problem for cell phone users.
JULY 7th, 2005
Dialog Semiconductor Plc (NASDAQ:DLGS) reports that one of O2’s
approved handsets, incorporates its cellular music machine chip technology. The chip combines audio and power management functions,
and works in conjunction with Intel’s cellular processor. The two chips working together enable the phone with music
and video features and are fundamental to the over four hours of talk time the phone offers. According to Roland Pudelko,
CEO of Dialog Semiconductor, "The new phone features the ability to download music direct to a music player, run several different
applications at the same time, provide video and audio playback, and provide up to 200 hours standby and four hours talk time.
This is exactly the kind of consumer device that our technology addresses. The DA9011 is helping to manage this significant
demand on the battery using our specialist mixed signal design expertise, and it utilizes our advanced knowledge of integrating
in the same device high performance audio DACs for CD-quality music and audio playback."
Dialog’s chip,
developed with Intel Corp. to work with Intel’s PXA800F cellular processor, is called the DA9011 GSM/GPRS audio and
power controller. The DA9011 is based on Dialog’s Smart Mirror Technology, which minimizes quiescent current and optimizes
power supply rejection (PSRR).
JULY 7th, 2005
Beatnik, Inc., noted for its design win with Texas Instruments,
plans to further its efforts to address the needs of the semiconductor market. In that regard, the Beatnik Audio Engine
for will be central to attracting more wireless chipset companies. The chip-compatible embedded software from Beatnik
supports a number of advanced audio, multimedia messaging and other needed musical cell phone functions.
The technology is also said to lower the bill of materials cost
for the production of cell phones. Jeremy Copp, Chief Sales Officer at Beatnik highlighted the integration of its technology
into TI’s wireless chips in emphasizing the merits of Beatnik’s cost savings approach, "The technical, economic
and commercial benefits to handset manufacturers in using our audio technology as a proven component of a chipset reference
design are clear and well defined. Establishing the embedded trend with Texas Instruments has shown us that manufacturers
stand to gain from significant improvement in time to market as well as cost savings in the production of devices with the
now mandatory in-built audio capabilities, without having to compromise on quality. Instead of having to go to a variety of
different suppliers, they need only go to a single source for the best technology, integrated into a specially designed product."
Texas Instruments is considered one of the largest suppliers of
wireless chipsets in the world.
JULY 6th, 2005
Vortis Technologies Ltd. indicated that as a result of an investment
incentive that allows the company to develop a stronger long-term equity position, it has refocused its operations away from
the Silicon Valley and into Scotland. According to James R. Johnson, co-founder of Vortis Technologies Inc, , a wireless antenna
technology company, "We are extremely excited to partner with Scottish Enterprise and to participate in the Global Entrepreneurs
Programme. The Silicon Valley financing model did not meet our needs. We have a strong intellectual property and technology
which will allow us to raise most of our capital from immediate sales and strategic customers. Traditional U.S. venture capital
financing would have diluted our company by forcing us to raise more money than we need. Instead, we were able to find U.K.
financiers who were willing to make a limited initial investment and create a stronger equity position for us long-term."
The agreement, which brought in $500,000 in financing, has resulted
in the formation of Scotland-based Vortis Technologies Limited, which is now the parent company to Myers Johnson
Inc. based in San Francisco. The seed round was led by Scottish Enterprise. Others that participated included the Bank of
Scotland and unnamed individual investors.
The Global Entrepreneurs Programme (GEP) is a new initiative
by the United Kingdom’s Trade & Investment. Andy McNab of the High-Growth Unit at Scottish Enterprise offered more
details about the Vortis deal, "This is a fantastic example of where the High-Growth Unit at Scottish Enterprise can add value
to a business and have an impact on the Scottish economy through our relationships with the Bank of Scotland and U.K. Trade
& Investment, in particular the Global Entrepreneurs Programme. The Vortis deal demonstrates the quality of deal flow
these organizations are able to provide. Scotland is well positioned for seed funding, has a fantastic talent base and great
facilities. We are delighted that Jim is relocating his business here and are proud of the role we have played in securing
him financial support, helping him with the IP transfer and recruiting an acting Chief Operating Officer for the company."
The Vortis MicroInterferometric Array Antenna is an attachable cell
phone antenna that is used to improve the signal strength and increase battery talk time of cellular phones. Of particular
interest to those with hearing aids, is that the antenna is designed to reduce cellular phone interference and signal loss,
which hearing aids are a source of.
JULY 5th, 2005
STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) has entered into an agreement with
McubeWorks, Inc. to license the company’s H.264 mobile decoder software for use in its Nomadik mobile multimedia application
processors. The combination of the processor and software is planned to enable cellular phones with a range of new applications
such as video-on- demand, digital multimedia broadcasting and video media. According to Patrice Meilland, Director of Marketing
for Application Processor and Portable Platforms Division at STMicroelectronics, "McubeWorks was one of the first mobile H.264
video decoders on the market and remains among the best. With video capability fast becoming the new feature of choice for
cell phones, ST's broad technology portfolio now gives product designers the best possible hardware and software combination
to rapidly move into the mobile video, camcorder, and videoconferencing markets."
JUNE 30th, 2005
Xceive Receives $13.5 Million for Mobile TV Generation
Xceive Corporation, a company that offers multi-standard RF-to-baseband transceiver chips for deployment in
televisions, mobile phones, set top boxes and personal computers, has closed its Series C funding round. Investors in the
$13.5 million round included lead investor Sequoia Capital as well as Alliance Ventures, BA Venture Partners and Ignite Group.
The funds are planned for increased R&D, expanded production and to add staff at strategically picked locations.
JUNE 28th, 2005
ParkerVision Goes Fabless – High Volume Accounts
from Wireless Market Noted
ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ NMS: PRKR) has announced plans to drop its retail business and change
its business model to that of a pure fabless semiconductor company. The company’s digital power amplifier chips are
considered a way to reduce power consumption in wireless devices such as cellular phones – a critical concern as power
hungry multimedia cellular phones enter the market.
Jeffrey L. Parker, CEO at ParkerVision, indicated that the company’s
semiconductor technology has been well received in the wireless markets, "Our new digital ultra-efficient power amplifiers,
which we call Direct-to-RF-Power (D2P), have been extremely well received by the OEM community. The interest from our OEM
prospects has reached a level where we believe it is clear that the greatest shareholder value can be achieved in the least
amount of time by exclusively pursuing OEM opportunities as aggressively as possible and becoming a significant component
supplier to OEMs that build high volume wireless products. Our initial D2P IC designs are applicable to battery powered, portable
wireless devices such as cellular phones, wireless networking devices, cordless phones and Bluetooth devices. The preliminary
success of our D2P initiative has also resulted in a renewal of interest by OEM prospects in our original D2D based ICs. We
believe our product development efforts for the retail market will ultimately be leveraged through our product offerings to
OEMs.”
JUNE 28th, 2005
Datang Microelectronics Technologies Co Ltd (DMT) has selected Comsys'
GSM/GPRS software baseband IP (Intellectual Property) platform for incorporation into its COMIP chipset. That chipset is for
multi-standard cellular phone designs that support the TD-SCDMA, GSM and GPRS standards.
Yang Yanhui, the Vice President and CTO at DMT, gave some reasons
why Comsys’ intellectual property was chosen, "We chose Comsys and their IP for the completeness of the solution, as
well as the extensive breadth of experience and knowledge of their engineers. Comsys' team is very supportive of our project
and we anticipate an extremely productive working relationship."
DMT is most noted for its smartcard chips, which according to the
company, reached annual unit sales levels of 60 million units in 2003. The fabless semiconductor company has more recently
focused its efforts on cellular chipsets. DMT indicates that the GSM based network is the most popular in China, with a subscriber
base of over 300 million.
JUNE 27th, 2005
HelloSoft, noted as a supplier of VoIP technology to the integrated
circuit market, has closed an oversubscribed round of funding. The Series B round brought in $16 million from investors that
included TD Capital Ventures, which led the round, as well as Mitsui & Company Venture Partners, Entrepia Ventures, Venrock
Associates, Sofinnova Ventures and Jump Startup.
Krishna Yarlagadda, CEO of HelloSoft indicated that the funding
would be used to further the company’s entrance into the multi-mode handset market, "This latest round of funding demonstrates
investors' confidence in our management team, strategy and roadmap. The new investment will help HelloSoft accelerate its
development of CelluLAN for the burgeoning mobile multi-mode handset market. With its experienced team and an innovative technology
portfolio, HelloSoft will continue focusing on the world's most advanced low-cost and low-power solutions."
Noting HelloSoft’s wireless convergence strategy was Jim Goldinger,
Director and Investment Partner of TD Capital Ventures, “The convergence of Cellular, VoIP, and Wi-Fi technologies is
inevitable and happening at a rate faster than expected. HelloSoft's deep domain experience and expertise in each of these
technologies makes the company uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. HelloSoft's visionary solutions
will enable cost-efficient mass deployment of multi-mode mobile communications devices for the converged marketplace."
HelloSoft, which counts semiconductor tier one companies in
its client base, has a staff of over 100 digital signal processing (DSP) engineers in Hyderabad, India.
JUNE 24th, 2005
Photron Technologies Implements Ultra Spectral Modulation
Design on FPGA
Photron Technologies Ltd. has demonstrated a new technology, known as Ultra Spectral Modulation
(USM) with an FPGA designed with AccelChip's FPGA design platform. The FPGA-based design, a digital filter, is part of a solution
that permits wireless transmission rates of 100 bps per Hertz. The high per Hertz rate technology permits a 5 Mbps data transmission
rate through a 50 KHz channel, which is reported as 25 times more than current technologies permit.
Larry Garcia, Senior Technical and Operational Advisor for aeroTelesis,
the company that exclusively licenses USM had this to say about the chip design milestone, "The transition from MATLAB simulations
to FPGA devices is a monumental milestone and unequivocally brings us ever closer to the launch of a breakthrough technology
that will become a new standard for wireless communications." USM is expected to substantially reduce the cost and increase
the transmission speed of wireless communications.
JUNE 24th, 2005
WindSpring to Reduce Cellular
Memory Requirements with Kyocera
In an effort to reduce cellular phone memory requirements, WindSpring has aligned with
Kyocera Wireless Corporation to further access the potential of WindSpring's Gazelle software. That code, based on the company's
patented Data Miniaturization Technology (DMT), transforms large files into the Micro Data Format, a format that requires
much less memory. The lossless memory format is said to enable faster file transmit, edit, seek and search times for a number
of applications, such as mobile GPS navigation.
One of the critical reasons the technology attracts the interest
of cellular manufacturers is that the technology provides an upgrade path without a hardware redesign of the cell phone. According
to Franz Elizondo, Director of Business Development for Kyocera Wireless Corp., "The increased use of data applications on
wireless phones requires us to improve functionality and data storage capacity on our devices without significantly increasing
costs per unit. We are excited about the potential for MDF to be the underlying capability that gives us a competitive edge
in achieving both of these goals as we bring new phones to market."
JUNE 17th, 2005
Sensor Platforms, Inc. with the introduction of its SSP1492 Sensor
Signal Processing Chip at the Sensor Expo show, has positioned the company as a major player in a number of high volume markets.
The device to date has been designed to work with sensors for applications that range from acceleration to temperature, making
it a potential candidate for both established markets, such as cellular phones, to new and emerging markets, such as wireless
enabled instruments for on-the-job and household applications.
Inside
the chip is a pipelined 8051 microcontroller core, three math engines (two hardware and one floating point software), a
serial data communication interface (SPI/I2C) , voltage regulator, EEPROM memory and on-chip RC oscillator. The device also
offers 15 sensor input channels, which allows the design to work with a wide variety of different sensors as well as the latest
MEMs devices.
In order to effectively address the diversity of the sensor market,
Sensor Platforms has dedicated itself to just sensor application development. According to George Hsu, President and Chief
Executive Officer "We're the only semiconductor company with the sole mission of enabling the development and commercialization
of sensor applications. Our unique technology has successfully worked with numerous sensors in areas as diverse as pressure,
temperature, acceleration, magnetism, tilt, gas, light, force, strain, position, and so forth. Our initial customers have
found our unique technology tremendously useful, especially in contemplating new applications. They no longer need to engage
in the costly and time consuming process of custom designing and producing an IC for a specific sensor or application."
Mr. Hsu also summarized the market potential for the chip, "I believe
that the sensor industry is at a crossroads in its development as the world goes increasingly digital and mobile. The opportunities
at this juncture are enormous. There were over 650 cell phones sold worldwide last year, not to mention countless laptops,
PDA's, GPS's and general consumer products. No one can predict where the next killer sensor application will surface. We can
only be prepared and ready when the next window appears."
The design is considered a low-cost alternative to ASIC based sensor
interface solutions. Mr. Hsu elaborated, "As sensor manufacturers and system integrators plan their application development
to address their customers' ever-changing requirements, the SSP1492 is a huge piece of the puzzle, providing an instant IC
solution meeting their cost, size, power consumption, and performance specifications. In offering the SSP1492, Sensor Platforms
has ensured that sensor manufacturers and system integrators are prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow by having a unique
and powerful sensor signal processor chip available to them today. The bottom line is that we can provide the customer with
the best of both worlds ... ASIC performance at standard part prices and with immediate availability. More specifically, the
adoption of the SSP1492 solution can reduce application development time by up to 90%, eliminate costly non-recurring engineering,
and improve sensor performance with up to 24-bit resolution."
SSP1492, available now in either a 4.3mm x 4.3mm square bare die,
or in an 80-pin ball grid array (BGA), or 80 pin quad-flat package (QFP), is priced between $3.65 and $4.15 in quantities
of 10,000.
JUNE 14th, 2005
Samsung Digital TV Mobile Phones Based on Texas Instruments
OMAP Processor
Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) has reported that Samsung selected its OMPA-DM
multimedia processor for several of its digital TV mobile phone models. The phones have been designed to receive their signals
from either satellites or terrestrial transmitters. The report indicated that Samsung plans to market the phones in Korea,
where digital TV mobile phones have received a warm reception. Presently, Samsung has the new TI based phones on the market
in Korea.
The design of the Digital TV mobile phone may very well represent
a breakthrough in power consumption and display technology. Most viewers want to watch their cell phone TVs for several hours
between a recharge, which requires a processor that has very low power consumption or a powerful cell phone battery. HunBae
Kim, Vice President of Samsung's Research and Development team however emphasized the display quality, "Samsung is committed
to digital innovation, including delivering mobile digital TV to consumers. By adopting TI's high-performance multimedia processor
technology, Samsung can also ensure it brings crystal clear television to the mobile phone for the best viewing experience
possible in the palm of your hand."
JUNE 14th, 2005
Spectra Licensing Group LLC, the worldwide licensing agent for France
Telecom's Turbo Code Licensing Program, has licensed France Telecom's Turbo Code patents to Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL)
for use in Freescale's 3G wireless communications products.
With the license agreement, announced in late May of 2005, Erik
Johnson, Director of Sales and Marketing at Spectra Licensing Group mentioned Spectra's ability to work with ASIC and DSP
companies, "We are pleased to license a leader in wireless communications such as Freescale," said "This agreement represents
a significant step in the evolution of the Turbo Code Licensing Program and our ability to work with manufacturers developing
Turbo Codes in DSP and ASIC solutions for the 3G market.."
Turbo Codes, a type of forward error correction code, are considered
a relatively new way to increase the data rate of CDMA based networks.
JUNE 10th, 2005
Magnolia and Curitel Agree to Develop Dual Band Cell Phone
Pantech & Curitel, considered Korea’s third largest cellular
manufacturer, has aligned with Magnolia Broadband, Inc., a United States based fabless semiconductor company, to penetrate
the American market. The two companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop a cell phone based on Magnolia's DiversityPlus
chipset. According to Magnolia, Pantech & Curitel's CDMA2000 EV-DO phone will be delivered to United States based carriers
for testing in the third quarter of 2005.
The two antenna technology enables, according to Magnolia, increases
network capacity, and significantly improves area coverage and data rates. The two antenna design has the capability to eliminate
dead zones that are often characteristic of cellular phones based on just one antenna.
JUNE 9th, 2005
Nethra Imaging
Offers Digital Camera Chips - Primes Cellular Phones for Photo Printer Applications
Nethra Imaging has made available its image processing engine chips for digital still cell
phone applications. The family of chips is named the NI-2070, NI-2080 and NI-2090. Inside the chips, packaged in an 8 mm X
8 mm chip scale package are 32KB of SRAM, 64KB of Flash, SDRAM and an ARM core. The System on Chip (SOC) designs also includes
pulse width modulators, IO functions and peripheral interfaces. Both the 2080 and 2090 include integrated SDRAM memory.
The company noted that the chips feature low power consumption and
can be used to produce photo images that are suitable for high quality print applications. The series of chip is currently
available for evaluation and software development. Production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2005.
Nethra Imaging, incorporated in 2003, is located in Cupertino California.
JUNE 6th, 2005
Motorola Purchases Interest in Sonaptic
Motorola has purchased a minority interest in Sonaptic Limited. Sonaptic is noted for its chip
technology, which gives high quality 3D surround with just 20 Kbytes of memory requirement. The technology is considered an
ideal way to reduce the size of the new multimedia cellular phones that seek to compete with the current wave of popular MP3
players. Among those that have adopted Sonaptic's technology, which comes in either chip or software formats, are cellular
phone companies and chip companies. Motorola has major operations in the cellular handset market and is intricately linked
to its spin-off, Freescale Semiconductor, which presently supplies large quantities of chips to Motorola.
JUNE 2, 2005
Paratek Microwave, Inc., a company that has several patents and
RF wireless products based on nano-cyrstalline thin films, has raised $14 million in a Series C financing round. Investors
included Polaris Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Investor Growth, and ABS Ventures
The company, which earlier this year won a $1.125 million contract
from the University of California at Riverside, for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, foresees its next generation technology
resulting in products with real-time adaptive impedance matching, which will in turn result in lower power consumption. That
technology combines the company's tunable RF and microwave dielectric materials with its miniaturized 3D circuit and module
designs, Indications are that the company's technology can be applied to a broad range of RF circuits and frequency bands.
James DiLorenzo, Paratek's CEO commented on the acceptance of the
company's products, "Our electronically tunable products have been well received in the marketplace and, working in partnership
with several major industry players, we will release a new generation of even more capable products later this year."
MAY 31st, 2005
CSI Wireless Reports $5 Million
in Purchase Orders
CSI Wireless , Inc. (TSX:CSY), a company that in addition to wireless
and GPS electronic system products, licenses cellular technology to chipset manufacturers, reported that it has received $5.1
million in new orders for its desktop cellular phones. The company, with the announcement, so far to date this year, reports
total orders of $22.1 million for its GSM and TDMA cellular phones, up 55 percent when compared to the $14.3 million of orders
in the same period last year. In the first quarter of this year, the company shipped $11.5 million of the $22.1 million orders
it received.
MAY 24th, 2005
Cellular IC Design Tool Developed to Address Cell Phone
Chip Market
One way to address power consumption in cellular phones is to build an EDA design tool
specifically for that task - veering from the traditional EDA product development strategy of one size fits all. Azuro, which looks
to be on that course, is addressing the power problem in cell phones, a market estimated at about 600 million units
a year, with its first product, PowerCentric.
The company believes that the way to win in the market is to offer
the lowest power solution, which translates to the longest continuous talk time. Paul Cunningham, CEO at Azuro explained,
"The wireless device market is evolving extremely fast, driven by short product lifecycles and rapidly increasing functionality.
The consumer's insatiable appetite for more talk time, more play time, and increased functionality, in ever smaller packages,
has elevated power to the key issue for many digital chip design teams. Azuro is committed to helping these design teams significantly
reduce the power consumption of their chips."
Paul went on to talk about the specific features of the design tool,
"PowerCentric delivers a truly unified clock gating and clock tree balancing engine that seamlessly replaces clock tree synthesis
in existing industry design flows." Steev Wilcox, Chief Architect at Azuro noted the benefits of the vectorless active reporting
engine in the design tool, "Our SASim vectorless power estimation technology enables PowerCentric to implement the best trade-offs
and save the most power during optimization. You cannot optimize what you cannot accurately measure. "
Azuro has already won over Broadcom, one of the largest fabless
semiconductors in the world. Steve Barlow, Senior Director of Engineering at Broadcom's Mobile Multimedia Products group,
confirmed Mr Cunningham's assessment, "Power dissipation has become increasingly important to the semiconductor industry as
consumers demand ever more talk time, play time, and functionality in their next-generation mobile phones and portable devices.
Meeting power requirements is one of the biggest challenges facing chip design teams today."
MAY 16th, 2005
The Wireless Semiconductor Division at Agilent's Semiconductor Products
Group has reported that its new CDMA power amplifier modules, based on its CoolPAM technology, have extended the cell phone
talk time up to 30 minutes. Bryan Ingram, Vice President and General
Manager at the wireless chip division discussed the motivation of the development and plans to further increase the talk time.
"These 3 mm x 3 mm power amplifiers were developed based on requests from our handset customers for both smaller footprints
and the efficiency and performance of Agilent's CoolPAM technology. We expect to further extend mobile handset talk-time capabilities
by integrating CoolPAM into next-generation front-end modules that incorporate low-loss FBAR duplexers."
Agilent's FBAR duplexers enable simultaneous two transmission of
voice signals. The FBAR, based on RF MEMS technology, and the CoolPAM technology were the focal point of a development program
with Agilent's Korea R&D center which was formerly Wavics. Wavics , the original developer of the CoolPAM technology,
was acquired by Agilent in 2005.
MAY 11th, 2005
TTP Communications plc (LSE:TTC), a semiconductor IP core company
with a focus on the cellular phone market, reported revenues for the its fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 reached 62 million
English Pounds, up from 49.6 million English pounds over last years revenues. With the report, TTP also stated that the number
of handsets that incorporate its technology reached about 40 million this year compared to about 23 million last year.
TTP also broke out its Silicon Business Unit (SBU) revenue for the
year. For the year, SBU had sales of 15.8 million English Pounds, up 66 percent over 9.5 million English Pounds brought in
the year before. TTP also gave an idea about the monetary value associated with its silicon licenses - SBU licenses numbered
12 this year, compared to 5 for the year before. The company notes that chipsets based on its silicon cores are pervasive
in the marketplace. The Silicon Business Unit at the end of the year employed 121.
Royalty revenues also grew significantly. For the year, royalty
revenue reached 18 million English Pounds, compared to 16.2 million English Pounds in 2003 - up 11 percent. Chipset royalties
revenue growth was more pronounced - an increase of 34% year over year. The increase was attributed to newer chipsets and
its chipset partners, specifically Analog Devices. TTP's products support the GSM and 3GPP cellular standards.
TTP also stated that it had increased the number of employees in
the Asia Pacific, which includes China - to about 100. The company, however, noted that competition in the Chinese market
, a market where it obtained 33 percent of its revenue, had increased. Although the company reports that its booked orders
are up 33 percent, the company indicates that it does not expect to see any fundamental improvement in the Chinese market
- specifically at the low-end of the handset market, where Chinese manufacturers have seen a decline in total handset shipments.
APRIL 28th, 2005
Intel Reports Quarterly Revenue Increases
- Cellular Processors Double
Intel, the world's leading microprocessor manufacturer, reported quarterly sales of $9,434
million for its latest quarter ended April 2, 2005. This was up from $8,091 million reported for the same quarter a year ago.
Intel also indicated that year-over-year its microprocessor revenue was $6,895 million, up from $6,150 million a year ago,
but down from $6,993 million reported for its last quarter. Flash revenue for the latest quarter was also down sequentially
to $578 million from $643 million. However flash revenue was up on a year-over-year basis from $417 million. Chipset and board
revenue was essentially flat on a sequential basis at $1,961 million, but up from $1,524 million from the same quarter a year
ago.
Intel also indicated that in the quarter it logged record shipments
of application processors for cellular phones. Intel says that unit sales almost doubled over first quarter of last year.
This was attributed to a ramp in volume needed to supply cell phone customers like Motorola, Palm and Samsung. Other
major events in the quarter included Toshiba’s selection of Intel's 854 chipset for use in a high definition DVD player,
Fujitsu's selection of the Itanium processor for its line of enterprise servers, the introduction of Intel's first 90 nanometer
based flash chips and working microprocessor samples of a 65 nanometer based microprocessors - production scheduled for four
300 mm factories in 2006. Intel also introduced its WiMAX chip and announced plans to further develop WiMAX solutions with
ZTE, one of China's largest telecom equipment companies. Additionally, Intel plans to conduct WiMAX field trials with Alcatel.
APRIL 28th, 2005
Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) with revenues
of $2972 million for its first quarter of 2005, down six percent sequentially, has indicated that the wireless semiconductor
revenue outlook has changed. According to Rich Templeton, CEO at Texas Instruments. "While the overall environment for
cell phones will likely support a lower growth rate than last year, we continue to have high expectations for our wireless
operations in 2005. In the first quarter, TI's wireless revenue grew 15 percent from a year ago and declined 14 percent sequentially
following a strong fourth quarter. Recent market reports have confirmed that TI is the world's top provider of semiconductors
used in the wireless market, and we expect to gain additional share this year in the fast-growing market for 3G UMTS modems
based on the strength of our digital signal processors." Mr. Templeton added, "The market environment is improving.
We believe the inventory correction in TI's standard semiconductor products at distributors that began in the third quarter
of 2004 is complete, as demonstrated by sequential growth in revenue and orders for these products. We expect that the inventory
correction associated with our DLP(TM) products used in high-definition televisions and projectors will continue into the
second quarter, although the rate of reductions should subside."
APRIL 27th, 2005
Oki’s PCM Sound Generator ICs Targeted at Global Cellular
Market
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) now offers three new
sound generation chips for the international cellular phone market. The chips, which are Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) sound
generator LSIs, include the ML2863, ML2873 and ML2865. These products offer cellular phone manufacturers different sound quality
and polyphonic tones, enabling the handset companies to address different ring tone requirements for different countries and
for different end-product price points. According to Akira Kamo, President of Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric, "Because
our family products are pin and software compatible, handset makers can easily replace the chip to any of our family products
to offer different sound quality and number of polyphonic tones, as such preference differ depending on the regions. In addition,
based on the Wafer Level Chip Size Packaging technology, we were able to develop the world's smallest sound generator package,
contributing to the trend of compact mobile handsets."
Oki operates through three major business units. These include its
info-telecom systems business, semiconductor business and printer business. Oki Electric has also recently announced that
it will place more emphasis on its printer business, which focuses on high-speed multi function peripherals, printers, and
copiers. OkiData has been a customer of Peerless Systems, which licenses image processing document intellectual property.
APRIL 26th, 2005
California Micro Devices (NASDAQ: CAMD) has introduced its PhotonIC
series of high integration LED drivers that, according to the company, can achieve a 50 percent space savings and a 40 percent
cost savings for the design of handset and display modules - compared to alternative solutions, which can require up to two
or three chips. Applications for the CM4600 include main displays, sub-displays, keypads, RGB and camera flash LED based multimedia
handsets.
Olivier Brecheteau, Director of Marketing for Mobile Products at
CMD noted the companies plan to expand the offering, "The PhotonIC(TM) CM4600 is the first member of the PhotonIC(TM) product
family of highly integrated solutions for handset LED lighting applications, offering designers of the latest multimedia handsets
a compelling value proposition. We will be expanding the PhotonIC(TM) portfolio of products with additional product announcements
in coming quarters."
The PhotonIC CM4600 is priced $2.20 each in 1,000 units. and comes
in a 4mm x 4mm TQFN 24 lead package. Sample parts, available now, can be ordered with a reference design kit. Production has
been scheduled for Q3 2005.
APRIL 20th, 2005
Oki's New 10 Watt GaAs MESFETS Targets Low Power Wireless
Base Station Market
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:6703) has introduced the
KGF1934, a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET) for high power 10 Watt wireless communication
applications such as wireless base stations. The chip, which is scheduled for an initial production level in June of 10,000
units per month has been scheduled to sample in April 2005. The transistors are expected to be used in transmitter power amplifiers
for wireless base stations.
Masayuki Tsuboi, President of Optical Components Company at Oki
Electric discussed the merits of the manufacturing process and the resultant power efficient optimized transistor, "We succeeded
in developing a GaAs MESFET that enables high output, high efficiency and high breakdown voltage, which has been difficult
in the past. By achieving this breakthrough, we believe the KGF1934 will contribute in enabling smaller wireless base stations
for business-use wireless communications and 3G mobile phones. Because it can reduce 40% of the power consumption, our GaAs
MESFET can offer the world's highest drain efficiency to our customers."
APRIL 14th, 2005
Cellular3G Announces W-CDMA Baseband Chip
Cellular3G Inc., a company that bills itself as the wireless chipset
company, announced a UMTS product for HSDPA applications. Alex Lax, CTO discussed the products merits, "The design meets the
requirements of the 3GPP FDD standard Releases 3 and 4, and work is well advanced on meeting the further requirements of Releases
5 and 6 with a working FPGA. Release 5 will be available in mid-2005. At 384Kbits/sec, TopHat(TM) would consume no more than
75mwatts when implemented using a 0.13 micron process and requires no more than 22mm2. "
Menachem Kenan, CEO of Cellular3G indicated the company was open
to possible custom versions of the chip and licensing, "We invite cellular telephone manufacturers and chip makers to join
our satisfied clientele. Come meet and discuss licensing or your custom built requirements."
Cellular3G was founded in 1999 by Alex Lax and Menachem Kenan. Since
its inception it has obtained over $20 million in funding. It lists its investors as The Carphone Warehouse.
APRIL 12th, 2005
EPOS Technologies Ltd., a company that plans to bring location technology
to the mass consumer market, has obtained $5 million in funding from JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners). EPOS has developed
a chip and software solution that permits accurate 2D / 3D positioning capability for a variety of consumer products at low
cost. EPOS' products are expected to be included in several high volume markets, which include mobile phones, personal computers,
video and television games and others. One application of the company's technology is a digital pen, which doubles as a wireless
mouse. That device gives users the ability to take handwritten notes scribed on paper and display them on a cellular phone
or PC, and transform a cell phone screen to a full featured touch-tone screen. Another interesting application the company
reports on is a toy light gun compatible with games played on non-CRT televisions.
Glen Schwaber, General Partner, JVP and EPOS Board Member indicated
his confidence in EPOS, "We believe that EPOS has solved elegantly some of the crucial problems in human-machine interaction
and therefore has a superb business potential. EPOS has shown an extraordinary ability to reach commercial products with extensive
market traction and limited funds."
Oded Eliashiv, CEO and co-founder of EPOS mapped out the plans for
the funding, "The funds raised are expected to allow EPOS to substantially strengthen the human capital and give EPOS the
ability to fulfill the projects that are currently in final negotiations. The market is looking for a positioning solution
and we hope to deliver that by the end of this year at a very affordable price." EPOS presently has 11 employees in Israel
and has been in negotiations with several PC, handset and console games OEMs from around the world.
EPOS was founded in 2002 by Oded Eliashiv, Nathan Altman and Ran
Raif. The company offers several chips on its web site. These include a basestation chip and a wireless terminal chip. The
basestation chip, along with sensors, is used to locate the exact position of the wireless terminal chip.
Before this round, EPOS raised over $1 million from private investors
and Tel-Ad Electronics.
APRIL 11th, 2005
WiSpry has entered into a investment and development agreement
with In-Q-Tel to bring WiSpry’s RF micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMs) products to market quicker. According
to Jeff Hilbert, president, CEO and co-founder of WiSpry, "We are pleased to announce this new investment by In-Q-Tel which
further validates the disruptive nature of our technology in a variety of RF-related fields. Our MEMS-based products reduce
space, power consumption and cost while simultaneously attaining outstanding RF performance, adaptability and agility.
This new investment will enable us to get these innovative products to market quicker, benefiting high volume, high performance
applications that focus on wireless and broadband communications, including consumer-based wireless products such as cellular
phones, wireless base stations, local and wide area wireless networking equipment and cable modems, as well as a
growing number of industrial and commercial applications."
Gilman Louie, President and CEO of In-Q-Tel also commented on his
company’s investment, "WiSpry's technology offers unique tunable RF technology. In-Q-Tel is excited about its partnership
with WiSpry and their promise of significant developments in the production and sales of its ground-breaking RF micro-electro-mechanical
systems (RF-MEMS) tunable filter and RF switch products, that will be beneficial to the government and commercial markets."
Other current investors that WiSpry lists include Blueprint Ventures,
American River Ventures, Sid R. Bass Associates, Shepherd Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels.
MARCH 30th, 2005
At the heart of Samsung's SCH-M309 Camera Phone, which was launched
in China, is Atsana Corporation's J2211 multimedia processor chip. The chip gives the phone advanced multimedia capability
without comprimising battery life. According to Alex Leupp, President and CEO at Atsana, "By offloading demanding media processing
tasks from the baseband processor, the SCH-M309 is optimized for battery life and performance. Samsung wants flexible solutions
that are affordable and reduce time to market. The J2211 not only meets this requirement for Samsung, but raises the bar for
multimedia quality and performance in camera phones at large."
Samsung Electronics is one of the market leaders in the handset
market. Estimates, according to Atsana, are that Samsung sold 86 million handsets in 2004.
MARCH 30th, 2005
According to reports from Comtek News Network, Huawei has introduced
its GSM network-based GT 800 mobile phone. The technology includes an interphone function, which has a range of 1 kilometer.
The phone is also reported to save 30 percent in operating costs for customers per year. Huawei, which has internal ASIC design
capabilities, bases its products on independently designed ASIC chips.
MARCH
24th, 2005
Maxim
Introduces Two Chip SiGe Solution for China's TD-SCDMA Cellular Market
Maxim
Integrated Products (NASDAQ:MXIM) has introduced the MAX2392 and MAX2507(a) reference design solution for the design of TD-SCDMA
(Time Division, Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) based cellular hand set and data card applications. The reference
design was developed to reduce the time required to bring TD-SCDMA systems to market. Designers can use a PC or baseband emulator,
the included chip development software, as well as an antenna, which also comes with the reference design kit to construct
and test a complete working TD-SCDMA system prototype. .
The
solution includes the MAX2392 receiver and the MAX2507 transmitter chips, which have been manufactured with the company’s
SiGe BICMOS process technology. The MAX2392 receiver includes RF, direct conversion mixers, baseband filters and AGC amplifiers.
The MAX2507 transmitter includes an integrated power amplifier and all the necessary circuits to implement a CDMA based system.
The chip’s upconverters convert baseband input signals with on-chip frequency translators, VCOs and synthesizers.
Maxim
joins LSI Logic Corporation in the TD-SCDMA market. LSI Logic announced in February 2005 that Chongqing
Chongyou Information Technology Co., Ltd. (CYIT), a handset and chip company based in China, selected its ZSP500 DSP core. CYIT chose LSI Logic's IP core for the development
of chips for the Chinese domestic 3G standard, TD-SCMA. Other IP core vendors that CYIT has selected for its 3G chip development
effort include ARM. ARM licensed its ARM926EJ IP core to CYIT.
MARCH 23rd, 2005
TelASIC Communications, a producer of analog and mixed signal chips
for the 3G market reported that its has raised $26 million in a Series D round. This is in addition to $35 million it secured
in Series C funding in October of 2003 and the initial $22.5 million it obtained in its first funding round. In the Series
D round, Mission Ventures, The IPO Group, Agilent Technologies and Redpoint Ventures, all existing investors, made contributions.
Investors in the Series C round included Raytheon Company. IBM made an investment in the initial Series A round.
TelASIC was originally spun out from Raytheon in 2001 and since
that time has focused on analog to digital and digital to analog converters.
MARCH 22nd, 2005
Atheros Aims for China's Cellular Phone Market With Single
Chip PAS Solution
Atheros Communications has introduced its AR1900. The chip, Atheros'
first cellular solution chip and a definite move away from its focus on WiFi chips, includes a 1.9 GHz transceiver, baseband
application processor and silicon functions for audio, ring generation, power management, keypad, display and USB interfaces.
The chip is offered as the world's first single chip solution for PHS (Personal Handyphone System), which is used primarily
in China, Japan and Taiwan. These phones, known as Personal Access System (PAS) in China, offer significantly lower operational
costs because of lower voice tariff fees in China. This has resulted in wide spread acceptance of the phones in China - one
of the largest cellular phone markets in the world.
According to Craig Barratt, President and Chief Executive Officer
of Atheros Communications, "We have expanded our core competencies to include audio, voice and power management. We can now
deliver solutions for broader handheld and voice markets, with PHS as the first target. These capabilities, combined with
our world-class digital CMOS Radio-on-a-Chip (RoC) expertise, enable us to bring to market the most highly integrated, low
power, and cost-effective wireless solutions -- within the shortest design cycle." Atheros also reports that the chip reduces
the cost of PHS handsets by 30 percent compared to multiple chip solutions.
MARCH 15th, 2005
Varatouch’s
Physical Analog Interface Technology Ported to Texas Instruments Cellular Platform - Potential to Change Complete Cellular
Interface
With Varatouch’s analog
input device technology now ported to Texas Instruments Incorporated’s OMAP platform, its next generation cellular phone
chip solution, Varatouch’s differentiating technology will most likely
soon be apart of most cell phone users life. Varatouch, which promotes its technology as a human interface component, has
a number of patents related to its resistive rubber technology, which is based on silicone and carbon and apparently has an
electrical conductivity proportional to the applied pressure. Because of this property Varatouch’s technology has been
used to produce miniature joysticks.
For cellular phones, one
can dream up a number of applications for the device. Cellular handset manufacturers that choose to design with Texas Instruments
OMAP Processor platform could possible incorporate Varatouch’s technology as a joystick for advanced games. Or one could
use the technology for 911 calling. Panic 911 phone calls could be made by pressing
down hard on the conductive rubber device. Other applications that Varatouch
mentions include phone address book scrolling and MP3 audio rewinding. Specifically,
cell phone applications for Varatouch’s technology include gaming, GPS and menu navigation.
MARCH 15th, 2005
ParkerVision Obtains Proceeds of $21.6 Million –
Names IBM as SiGe Foundry
ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ
NMS: PRKR), which has developed an alternative to the analog RF power amplifier chip, that is a digital RF power amplifier
chip, has reported that it has completed a private placement of its common stock. Gross
proceeds of the placement were $21.6 million. The placement included 2.88 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase
an additional 720,000 shares. The common stock was priced at $7.50 per share.
The company also announced
that it has selected IBM Microelectronics to manufacture its ultra-efficient, low-cost digital RF power amplifiers. IBM will manufacture those chips, among others, with its 180 nanometer SiGe CMOS semiconductor process. Dr. Teddy O'Connell, Manager Worldwide Business Development at IBM Systems and Technology
Group indicated that IBM’s SiGe technology was selected because of its costs and integration benefits.
MARCH 10th, 2005
Agere Systems Acquires Modem-Art Ltd. for $145.1 Million
Agere Systems Inc.
in an apparent bid to strengthen its position in the cellular market has agreed to acquire Modem-Art Ltd. for $145.1 million.
The company offers programmable modem engines, which currently includes the MA1050 processor. The MA1050 processor is a highly
integrated baseband 3G-WCDMA processor chip for UMTS and GPR / GPRS / EDGE handset terminals.
Luc Seraphin, Vice
President of Agere's Mobility Division indicated that Modem-Art's UMTS physical layer technology will
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