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Note: For Chipsets news after 10/01/06, please go to Photonics & Chips

Chipsets News (Before 10/01/06)

Acquicor acquires Jazz Semiconductor for $260M
Jazz Semiconductor is dropping its IPO plans, instead opting for a $260 million cash buyout from Acquicor Technology Inc.
The deal is expected to close in Q1, after which the wafer maker will be merged into an Acquicor subisdary. The purchase price is subject to adjustment and for possible future contingent payments.
The purchase will be funded with cash from a trust account and about $65 million from Wachovia Capital Finance.
The deal will bring $100 million into the books of Newport Beach's Conexant Systems Inc., which co-founded Jazz in 2002 along with the Carlyle Group.
Shu Li will continue as CEO of Jazz.
Newport Beach's Acquicor is a startup acquisition company founded by former Apple executives Gil Amelio, Ellen Hancock.

Tundra appoints Daniel Hoste as CEO
Ottawa-based Tundra Semiconductor Corporation, the world leader in System Interconnect, announced that Daniel Hoste has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Company effective immediately. Mr. Hoste has also been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors. Since joining Tundra as Vice President of Products in 2005, Mr. Hoste has been a key member of the Tundra executive team, contributing to the Company's strategic direction and continued growth as the senior executive responsible for product marketing and operations.
Mr. Hoste succeeds Jim Roche, who co-founded the company in 1995 and led Tundra to become the leading provider of standards-based System Interconnect products. Mr. Hoste's appointment is the culmination of the Company's leadership succession planning process. Mr. Roche has stepped down from his role as President and CEO and will be available in an advisory role to the executive management team during a short-term transition phase.
Mr. Hoste's successful track record as a global executive spans more than 30 years, including 16 years with Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (formerly the Semiconductor Products Sector division of Motorola, Inc.), one of the world's largest semiconductor companies. At Freescale, Mr. Hoste held management positions in all three business groups of the company, both in Europe and in the United States, including the assignment of Vice President and General Manager of Freescale's 8-16bit Microcontroller division - a billion-dollar global business - where revenues and profits significantly increased during his tenure.

ip.access picks picoChip for 3G femtocell
ip.access Ltd, a leading developer of in-building wireless picocell solutions, is using a custom version of picoChip’s multi-core DSP hardware and modem software in their femto3G Access Points for residential fixed-mobile convergence (FMC).
ip.access’ recently announced femto3G Access Points are W-CDMA femtocells that use residential broadband connections to provide high-quality FMC services and extend 3G macro-network coverage into the home. ip.access’ pure cellular approach means that, unlike VoWLAN-based FMC solutions, the 3G Access Point solution is compatible with all 3G handsets.
For the ip.access femto3G Access Point solution, picoChip has developed a custom version of its PC202 picoArray(TM)-based multi-core platform that integrates high-performance DSP functionality to support the requirements of WCDMA and HSDPA modem implementation, and an ARM processor to run the sophisticated control code and the network-integration software developed by ip.access.

Commit picks Avago’s power amplifier for TD-SCDMA/GSM handsets
San Jose-based Avago Technologies, the world’s largest privately held semiconductor company, announced the availability of its ACPM-7886 TD-SCDMA-based power amplifier modules for the Chinese market. The energy efficient and slim design of the ACPM-7886 enables handset OEMs to cost effectively build ultra-thin, 3G cell phones with long battery life. Commit, a leading TD-SCDMA terminal chipset solution provider, has selected the ACPM-7886 for its next-generation TD-SCDMA/GSM handset reference designs. TD-SCDMA cell phones based on Commit’s designs are expected to ship in 2006.
TD-SCDMA is one of three 3G wireless standards that are being pursued by the Chinese government. Selection of the 3G license is expected to take place in late 2006/early 2007. TD-SCDMA combines CDMA and TDMA technologies and is compatible with current GSM networks. Unlike WCDMA, CDMA2000 and GSM networks, this new standard transmits and receives on the same frequency, which greatly increases spectrum efficiency. Because TD-SCDMA effectively handles symmetrical and asymmetrical traffic, it is ideal for data-intensive applications, such as video and photo images.
Related Channels: Wireless, China

TI intros 26W power over Ethernet controller
Texas Instruments Incorporated Friday introduced a 26-watt Power over Ethernet (PoE) controller that allows Ethernet-powered devices, such as IP surveillance cameras, WiMAX access points and conference IP phones, to use twice as much power from a standard Ethernet cable -- without the need of an AC line. TI will demonstrate the new power management integrated circuit (IC) in a high- power PoE reference design at the ASIS International security conference in San Diego, September 25-28.
TI's 8-pin, TPS2376-H controller contains all of the features needed to develop an IEEE 802.3af-compliant powered device with innovative safety features including a programmable, 600-mA current limit with thermal shutdown, auto-retry and fault protection. The high-power device also allows a designer to implement a non-standard powered device that draws up to 26 watts of power from power source equipment (PSE) with a minimum of 52 volts of input and over 100 meters of CAT-5 Ethernet cable. The TPS2376-H supports voltage transients up to 100 V at 600-mA.

Intel and UCSB develop World's first hybrid silicon laser
Researchers from Intel Corporation and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have built the world's first electrically powered Hybrid Silicon Laser using standard silicon manufacturing processes. This breakthrough addresses one of the last major barriers to producing low-cost, high-bandwidth silicon photonics devices for use inside and around future computers and data centers.
The researchers were able to combine the light-emitting properties of Indium Phosphide with the light-routing capabilities of silicon into a single hybrid chip. When voltage is applied, light generated in the Indium Phosphide enters the silicon waveguide to create a continuous laser beam that can be used to drive other silicon photonic devices. A laser based on silicon could drive wider use of photonics in computers because the cost can be greatly reduced by using high-volume silicon manufacturing techniques.
"This could bring low-cost, terabit-level optical 'data pipes' inside future computers and help make possible a new era of high-performance computing applications," said Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab. "While still far from becoming a commercial product, we believe dozens, maybe even hundreds of hybrid silicon lasers could be integrated with other silicon photonic components onto a single silicon chip."

Intel installs wireless "WiMax" Internet in Brazil
Intel Corp. Chairman Craig Barrett traveled to an isolated Amazon River island city on Wednesday to launch wireless Internet access with the chip giant's WiMAX technology, using a satellite link to beam bandwidth to a place where even electricity is hard to come by.
Intel's World Ahead Program, which promotes the use of computers in public areas in developing countries, bankrolled the installation of a WiMAX tower and five spots in the city of Parintins where students, teachers and doctors will now have fast Internet connections for the first time.
Parintins, about 2,550 kilometers (1,600 miles) north of Brazil's industrial and financial hub of Sao Paulo, is home to more 114,000 people but has no roads linking it to other cities, so the only way to get there is by boat or airplane.
Like many places around Latin America's largest country, Internet connections are limited to spotty and expensive dial-up links often worse than what most Americans had in the mid-1990s when the Internet started to take off in the United States.
One of the biggest challenges in Parintins for the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker was a lack of electrical power at the schools, a hurdle Intel overcame by working with the local government.
"I think we're trying to show if you can do it in a remote city like Parintins then you can do it just about anywhere," Barrett said in a telephone interview before heading to Brazil.
WiMAX delivers wireless access over long distances and is suited for remote places that don't have an established infrastructure of power lines or telephone poles.
Intel is also eying spots in the Middle East and Africa to set up WiMAX infrastructure, Barrett said.
"You can bring this capability to anywhere on the face of the earth," he said.
Intel officials declined to specify the investment for getting WiMAX up and running in Parintins, but a team of 50 people spent two months planning and setting up the network and training people to use it.
The 100-meter (330-feet) high tower, flown and shipped to Parintins, can supply Internet access in a 50-kilometer (31-miles) range. Brazilian telecommunications company Embratel, or Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicacoes SA, provided the satellite link. Also helping out were the San Jose, California-based Cisco Systems Inc. and Terabeam Inc.'s Proxim Wireless division.
Overall, Intel will spend US$1 billion over the next five years with its World Ahead Program to help close the digital divide between developed and developing nations. Though Intel previously tested WiMAX in developing countries, the Parintins linkup is the first full-fledged installation under the program since it was announced in May.
Though the project doesn't provide free Internet throughout the city, Intel said local or state officials could do that relatively easily if they can come up with the money because the tower was the biggest technological hurdle.
For now, two public schools, a hospital, a community center and the city's university have easy Internet access via antennas fed by the tower.
Sixty computers were provided to the schools and the university, and the Parintins doctors were given cameras and other equipment that will allow them to use "telemedicine" to consult about difficult medical conditions with specialists in faraway cities like Sao Paulo.
Parintins Mayor Frank Bi Garcia said the project "will prepare this generation for the future" by helping to reduce the city's isolation from the rest of the world.
Related Channels: Wireless

Freescale to be acquired for $40 a share by a consortium
Freescale Semiconductor has agreed to be acquired for $40 a share by a consortium led by Blackstone Group and including Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and Texas Pacific Group. The company said the value of the deal is $17.6 billion, which makes it the largest buyout ever of a technology company, topping the $11.3 billion buyout of SunGard Data Systems. The Blackstone offer beat a competing bid from a group that included Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital, Apax Partners and Silver Lake Partners.
The Freescale board has unanimously approved the deal, which is not subject to financing.
Freescale, which makes chips used in mobile phones, networking equipment and other products, was spun off from Motorola in 2004. Motorola remains Freescale’s biggest customer, accounting for 27% of Freescale’s revenues in 2005.

6WIND supports Cavium's OCTEON processors for security and triple play OEMs
6WIND, leader in advanced embedded networking software, announced, expanded 6WINDGate™ support for the OCTEON MIPS64 Multicore processor family to include its single and dual core OCTEON CN30xx and CN31xx. OEM vendors are now able to use the same 6WINDGate™ software to produce a larger range of feature-rich access and triple-play gateways, and from lower-end CPEs to 10Gbps multi-services network security equipment.
OEMs looking to build a complete range of scalable high-performing appliances for networking across-the-board, can take advantage of the OCTEON-compatible 6WINDGate™ software which matches in price and performance, reducing significant risks and costs. 6WINDGate™ provides OEMs using OCTEON with a comprehensive management and control application, which has been optimized to include tight interfaces with the OCTEON SDK (software development kit), enabling seamless integration. Any customization done on the 6WINDGate™ software, for example a UNIX application add-on, is automatically applicable on other OCTEON processors if required.
“Tight integration of the 6WIND software with Cavium's OCTEON SDK will tremendously help our mutual customers in achieving faster time to market and optimized performance. 6WIND's breadth of software solutions on the full range of OCTEON processors highlights the performance, scalability and software compatibility of the Cavium product line, which is a critical requirement for next generation networking systems,” said Rajiv Khemani, Vice President of Marketing, Cavium Networks.

Intel and Siemens collaborate on VoIP
Intel and Siemens will collaborate on developing new technology for Internet telephony. The two companies plan to expand the scope of Internet telephony, popularised by Skype, to build communications systems for corporate customers such as providers of telecoms and financial services and digital healthcare.
"Siemens has a strong commitment to this joint development effort and to ongoing collaboration with Intel," Thomas Zimmermann, president of Siemens' Enterprise Systems division said.
To start with, the two companies will co-fund research and work together in the fields of secure wireless networks and real-time communications based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
The technology to be developed will be based on Intel's dual-core chips and rack-mounted servers, along with Siemens' HiPath 8000 and OpenScape telecoms technology.
Intel and Siemens will present their first joint findings to selected customers at an Intel laboratory in the United States by the end of 2006.
Related Channels: VoIP

PMC-Sierra intros devices for GPON and EPON FTTH
PMC-Sierra, Inc. announced the availability of four new Analog Front End Devices (AFEs) for GPON and EPON FTTH equipment. These new Physical layer devices will compliment PMC-Sierra's line of networking SoCs for GPON and EPON systems, creating the industry's most complete FTTH product portfolio. Using these new Physical layer devices, system and sub-system OEMs will be able to lower the cost of GPON and EPON access network equipment that delivers carrier-grade triple-play services -- voice, data and IPTV -- to consumers worldwide. According to a recent report from CIR, a leading industry analyst firm, the component and module market for FTTx networks is estimated to grow from approximately $630 million in 2006 to more than $1.5 billion by 2011.
The new GPON devices include the PAS7351 GPON Trans-Impedance Amplifier (TIA) and the PAS7361 GPON Limiting Amplifier (LIA), that together form a Gigabit PON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) burst receiver for use in ITU-T G.984 GPON transceivers. A GPON transceiver based on the PAS7351/PAS7361 can surpass the requirements for GPON low power and high power Class B+ burst-mode applications, enable a 64-user split ratio at low signal-to-noise environments, and increase network design flexibility.
The new EPON devices include the PAS5351 EPON Trans-Impedance Amplifier (TIA) and the PAS5361 EPON Limiting Amplifier (LIA). Together they form a Gigabit Ethernet PON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) burst receiver that exceeds the IEEE802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile EPON transceiver standard.
Related Channels: FTTP

KT, Amicus Wireless partner on mobile WiMAX
KT announced a strategic partnership agreement in Wave-2 Mobile WiMAX with California-based Amicus Wireless Technology, an innovative fabless semiconductor start-up company focused on chipsets optimized for mobile stations. KT is a leader in advanced wireless technology and has launched commercial Mobile WiMAX deployments under the WiBro service offering.
Wave-2 Mobile WiMAX builds upon the strengths of current WiBro services by adding intelligent antenna support such as MIMO and Beamforming. These advanced antenna technologies will significantly improve the already outstanding capabilities of WiBro to make it the world's best performing mobile data service. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, Executive Vice President of KT, said, "We are pleased to be partnering with the outstanding team at Amicus in this next step in the evolution of WiBro. Amicus' strengths in building handset optimized chipsets for Wave-2 Mobile WiMAX will enable KT to bring even higher performance wireless networking to our subscribers."
The Amicus/KT partnership developments will focus on the AWT2000 chipset for Wave-2 Mobile WiMAX mobile devices. Handsets and other mobile terminals enabled with the AWT2000 are expected to deliver the best power/performance characteristics of any carrier-class wireless data service. As a part of this strategic relationship, KT will also be making an investment in Amicus.
Dr. Jin Lee, President and CEO of Amicus, commented, "We are honored and excited to be partnering with KT, the worldwide industry leader in deploying Mobile WiMAX. We look forward to working with manufacturers and carriers around the world to enable the growth of the Wave-2 Mobile WiMAX."
Related Channels: Wireless

Brix, TI team to deliver pervasive IP endpoint service assurance management
Boston-based Brix Networks, the leading provider of converged service assurance solutions, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced a collaboration and development initiative designed to deliver pervasive IP endpoint service assurance management.
The companies’ collaboration will give service providers the ability to collect valuable performance information on an unprecedented scale, and provide crucial, last-mile visibility into the quality of experience of providers’ revenue-generating offerings, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), IP television (IPTV), and advanced data services.
“TI has shipped more than 350 million ports across IP phones, residential modems and gateways, set top boxes, and carrier-class equipment,” said Debbie Greenstreet, director of service provider strategy, Texas Instruments.
TI technology provides functional elements that form the foundation of the company’s PIQUA (TM) real-time, IP quality management system. Based on TI’s digital signal processor (DSP) technology and embedded software solutions, TI’s PIQUA system utilizes sophisticated, real-time calculations to instantly assess quality parameters related to the user’s experience.
In addition to a comprehensive set of active tests and live service monitoring, Brix Networks’ BrixWorx (TM) central-site correlation and reporting engine collects key performance indicator (KPI) information - such as availability, bandwidth, packet loss, latency, jitter, and call quality - using various standards-based communication protocols, including RTCP-XR and TR-069, via the new BrixWorx Connector for TI’s PIQUA software. This information can be gathered from a wide range of endpoint devices, including residential gateways, IP set top boxes, IP phones, digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable gateways, and others.
Related Channels: VoIP, Video

Cavium intros Nitrox PX Security Processor family for IPsec, SSL, and Wireless security applications
California-based Cavium Networks, a world leader in security, network services and embedded processor solutions, announced the NITROX PX Security Processor family with 8 new products targeted at next-generation IP Security (IPsec), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Wireless security applications. The NITROX PX Family addresses requirements for new and essential security algorithms and product interfaces by including hardware acceleration for SHA-2, AES-GCM and KASUMI algorithms, and PCI-Express interface in a single chip. The NITROX PX security processors feature the GigaCipher v2 cores with increased code store and enhanced hardware queuing, which enables richer protocol processing and multi-protocol performance. All products are fully software compatible with Cavium Networks market-leading NITROX family of security processors and are offered with either a PCI-X 64/133 interface that is NITROX family pin-compatible or PCI-Express x4 interface. The NITROX PX Family delivers the industry's most scalable symmetric encryption performance, ranging from 500 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps, and asymmetric performance from 4000 to 17,000 RSA operations per second. Existing customers of Cavium Networks' NITROX Lite products can seamlessly upgrade to the NITROX PX PCI-X version and get the benefits of new algorithms, higher performance and new features. The PCI Express version enables customers to upgrade to new generation motherboards with PCI-Express interfaces. The NITROX PX Security Processors are being adopted by Tier-1 vendors for security and networking appliances, routing, L3+ switching, storage and wireless products. Cavium Networks will present details on the NITROX PX security processor family on Sept 21st at the Linley Group's Embedded Network Security Design Seminar, being held in San Jose, California.
NITROX PX Offload Supports the Latest IPsec and SSL Security Algorithms
Existing secure networking equipment is being upgraded to incorporate new security algorithms that will be deployed in the market by 2008. These new algorithms include SHA-2 and AES-GCM. SHA-2, which consists of the SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 algorithms, offers increased and robust security protection over the currently deployed SHA-1 algorithm for hashing and digital signature applications. Rapid adoption of SHA-2 is being encouraged by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). AES-GCM is expected to replace the existing 3DES and AES-CTR encryption algorithms used for IPsec VPN applications as it provides an efficient implementation for confidentiality and data origin authenticity. The NITROX PX family offers unmatched hardware acceleration capability for these two algorithms. Additionally, NITROX PX integrates RSA acceleration required for secure session setups with up to 4096-bit key length support.
The NITROX PX Family of Security Processors provides customers with unique features that include:
- Full IPsec, SSL, and WLAN protocol processing offload
- Patented macro processing for SSL handshake acceleration
- Simultaneous protocol processing with dynamic adaptability and bandwidth allocation
NITROX PX Includes the Fastest Security Acceleration for Next Gen Mobile Networks
Next-generation CDMA and GSM mobile networking equipment require the KASUMI algorithm and its variants for confidentiality, integrity and encryption, as mandated by the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT-2000). Additionally, performance requirements are increasing rapidly to support the wireless transmission of voice and data at high data rates of 384 kbps -- 2 Mbps per user. The NITROX PX security processors support up to 2.5Gbps of KASUMI performance.
Related Channels: Wireless

Top Story: China to speed up chip development -- NDRC's new policies to come out by the end of this year
At a meeting on technological innovation of China's information industry held on August 29, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) pointed out that China would put more efforts in boosting semiconductor industry, especially the IC industry.
IC industry is a fundamental field that supports the development of the information industry.
Although Chinese government has carried out a series of policies to boost this industry, these policies still have many defects in both themselves and the extent of execution, said Wang Xudong, the minister of China's Ministry of Information Industry.
Therefore, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is planning to figure out new and complete policies to boost this industry. The new policies are expected to come out by the end of this year.
Besides, the Chinese government is likely to set up a special fund for supporting the semiconductor industry.
In order to accelerate the development of domestic semiconductor industry, the government has also begun to discuss the sensitive topic of allowing Chinese investors to directly take shares in foreign-funded semiconductor enterprises.
Related Channels: China

Agere to sell 3 patents at Live Intellectual Property Auction in NYC
Chicago-based Ocean Tomo Auctions, LLC announced that Agere Systems, Inc. has consigned three US Patents to be sold at The Ocean Tomo Fall 2006 Live Intellectual Property Auction to be held on October 26, 2006 in New York City.
The US Patents are: 6,039,833, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Component Pickup"; 6,123,800, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Handling Element on Adhesive Film"; and 6,290,805, entitled "System and Method for Using a Pick and Place Apparatus."
The technology disclosed by these patents would be of interest to companies seeking cost and efficiency benefits through automated manufacture of delicate components such as semiconductor or electronic devices. These patents disclose practical and economical methods for the picking and placing of fragile parts. Included are means for: handling fragile parts in the production process without the standard industry use of a needle, thereby significantly reducing the frequency of damage and cracking to fragile parts; enabling the tactful removal of components from a film carrier; and the handling of pieces of various sizes.

Cortina buys assets of Intel's optical network components business for $115M and secures $132M new funding
California-based Cortina Systems has acquired the assets of Intel's optical network components business for $115 million, which consists of a minority investment position and an undisclosed amount of cash. Cortina also announced the completion of a new $132 million funding round led by new investor Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) as well as existing investors Canaan Partners and Morgenthaler Ventures. Additional investors providing funding include new investors Alloy Ventures, Bridgescale Partners, Doll Capital Management, and Sofinnova Ventures, and along with all of Cortina's existing venture investors. The transaction closed on September 8, 2006.
"Cortina has all the attributes we look for in a semiconductor investment: it's an expansion-stage private company with an industry-leading technical team and strong customer relationships with the leading systems vendors," said Norm Fogelsong, general partner at IVP. "We are happy to have led this funding round, which will create the next major semiconductor supplier in the networking space."
The acquisition is a major step forward in Cortina's strategy of becoming the new leader in components for the infrastructure routing, transport, and enterprise markets, making it the top provider of Ethernet Framers, Ethernet PHYs, Optical Transport FEC framers, Ethernet over SONET service framers, and T1/E1 Line Interface Units. As part of the acquisition, Cortina will add key Intel employees in engineering, product testing/validation, operations, marketing and application engineering as well as new facilities in Folsom, California, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Asia.
"As the market for 10 gigabit communications becomes mainstream, makers of switches, routers, and other infrastructure gear need better and more cost-effective ways to deliver a higher level of throughput," says Drew Lanza, general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, one of Cortina's founding investors in 2001. "At the time we invested, we predicted the need to marry high-speed network interfaces, low-layer processing and high speed interfaces on a single chip. Cortina's success in achieving this has made it one of the stars of our portfolio."

IBM ships chips to power Nintendo's upcoming Wii video game console
IBM Corp. said it has shipped the first microprocessors that will be used to power Nintendo Co.'s upcoming Wii video game console.
IBM earlier this year signed a multiyear agreement to supply Japan-based Nintendo with the video game chips.
Wii will be competing against Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, set to go on sale in November, and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which went on sale last year. Nintendo is hoping to sell 6 million Wii consoles during the fiscal year ending March 2007.
Nintendo's Wii is promised for the final quarter of the calendar year, but the release date and price haven't been announced.
IBM is also supplying microprocessors for Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Related Channels: Video

Intel's Sean Maloney pushes WiMax
Intel Corp.'s Sean Maloney is betting he can reverse a drop in sales at the world's biggest chipmaker with a wireless Internet technology he spent four years and more than $1 billion promoting.
Maloney, Intel's chief sales and marketing officer, got Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. mobile-phone service provider, to commit $3 billion last month to the standard, known as WiMax. Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to supply equipment to Sprint for its WiMax-based network.
``This has basically fired the starting gun for the race,'' Maloney, 50, said in an interview. ``There's not a single service provider in the world that hasn't looked at it and paid attention.''
Like wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, WiMax creates an area in which electronic devices can wirelessly connect to the Internet. While Wi-Fi hot spots usually cover a coffee shop or home, WiMax networks can encompass entire cities. The peak range is 30 miles (48 kilometers), meaning one tower would be able to cover downtown San Francisco.
Maloney says WiMax may be more successful than the Wi-Fi standard used in Intel's Centrino chips, which helped the Santa Clara, California-based company boost sales an average of 13 percent a year from 2003 to 2005.
Intel's sales and profit dropped in the two most recent quarters, though. Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini in April said revenue will fall this year for the first time since 2001 as Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc. gains market share in computer microprocessors.
Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini is looking to WiMax to revive Intel's sales over time. Otellini also is looking to Maloney for help. In July, he picked the London-born executive, who's been with Intel for 24 years, to direct all of the company's sales and marketing.
Maloney, who had headed Intel's laptop and phone-chip business, has promoted WiMax as the logical successor to Wi-Fi. His efforts paid off when Nokia Oyj and Motorola, the world's biggest handset manufacturers, endorsed WiMax and said they would build it into future products.
Motorola CEO Ed Zander loves Intel
``I love Intel,'' Ed Zander, CEO of Schaumburg, Illinois- based Motorola, said in an interview. He stood on stage with Maloney and Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee at a New York event last month to announce the Sprint deal. ``I just want to own the next big thing.''
The similarities between Wi-Fi and WiMax technologies, as well as Intel's deep involvement, will help sell WiMax to more carriers and, eventually, consumers, said Tero Ojanpera, Nokia's chief technology officer.
``Intel has been very active with WiMax and with Wi-Fi,'' Ojanpera said in an interview. The Sprint decision ``will give WiMax a push.''
Intel is trying to win support from wireless companies for WiMax after announcing in June plans to sell its cell-phone chip business.
Intel completed a $600 million investment in Clearwire Corp., run by cell-phone pioneer Craig McCaw, to assist the company in building WiMax networks in cities from Jacksonville, Florida, to Eugene, Oregon.
Those funds and other investments bring Intel's total WiMax investment to about $1 billion, said Amy Martin, a company spokeswoman. Reston, Virginia-based Sprint's agreement last month to spend $1 billion next year and $1.5 billion to $2 billion in 2008 adds to that.
That commitment made it easy for Maloney's wife to release him from a family vacation in northern Vermont to attend Sprint's August event in New York.
``She knows how a big a deal it was,'' Maloney said.
Related Channels: Wireless

D2 Technologies demos VoIP solution on Cavium's processor at VON fall 2006
D2 Technologies, the leader in softDSP-based system solutions for the rapidly growing VoIP market, announced the successful demonstration of the first VoIP solution on Cavium Networks single and dual core OCTEON MIPS64 based processor family. A demo of the joint solution is available for viewing at Fall VON 2006 in D2's hospitality suite 202 , September 11-14 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center .
“D2 Technologies and Cavium Networks have worked together to combine our widely-used vPort ‘softDSP’ VoIP CPE software with the OCTEON line of processors. It is the ideal solution to enable ODMs to add VoIP functionality to devices based on the OCTEON product line without requiring the addition of a DSP chip,” says Doug Makishima, vice president of marketing at D2 Technologies. “Together, we provide a solution for next-generation gateways with integrated data and voice functionality along with critical network security.”
D2 Tech's vPort VoIP software system is designed to provide world-class VoIP sound quality on a single chip without the need for an external DSP. vPort software has been deployed in multiple service provider networks across multiple countries in consumer and small business products, such as wired/wireless Voice-enabled Terminal Adapters, routers and gateways, as well as VoIP phones and handsets.
“The CN31XX and CN30XX OCTEON processors enable highly integrated, cost effective SME, SOHO and CPE networking equipment that can process voice, video and data traffic with unprecedented levels of data and security services,” said Rajiv Khemani, vice president of marketing at Cavium Networks. “We are pleased to be working with D2 Technologies to deliver a complete and optimized VoIP solution for OCTEON processors, which will reduce time-to-market and fuel increased VoIP deployment in next-generation OEM networking systems.”
Related Channels: VoIP

Commit picks Avago‘s power amplifier modules for TD-SCDMA handsets
Avago Technologies announced the availability of its ACPM-7886 TD-SCDMA-based power amplifier modules for the Chinese market. The energy efficient and slim design of the ACPM-7886 enables handset OEMs to cost effectively build ultra-thin, 3G cell phones with long battery life. Commit, a TD-SCDMA terminal chipset solution provider, has selected the ACPM-7886 for its next-generation TD-SCDMA/GSM handset reference designs. TD-SCDMA cell phones based on Commit‘s designs are expected to ship in 2006.
TD-SCDMA is one of three 3G wireless standards that are being pursued by the Chinese government. Selection of the 3G license is expected to take place in late 2006/early 2007. TD-SCDMA combines CDMA and TDMA technologies and is compatible with current GSM networks. Unlike WCDMA, CDMA2000 and GSM networks, this new standard transmits and receives on the same frequency, which greatly increases spectrum efficiency. Because TD-SCDMA effectively handles symmetrical and asymmetrical traffic, it is ideal for data-intensive applications, such as video and photo images.
"Avago has a solid track record in delivering high quality products that enable us to create the handsets that consumers want to use," said Andy Yang, marketing director of Commit. "The ACPM-7886 gives us a design advantage in this highly competitive market." Commit will use Avago‘s modules in its handset reference design that will feature competitive performance and cost with low power consumption, more margin and ease of use.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Intel expected to open next-generation BIOS code in China
Intel will open "foundation code" of its next-generation firmware technology to some companies in China, while the companies to be authorized still need to obtain qualification approval by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
The R&D of the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) technology has been a weak point in China.
Meanwhile, the traditional BIOS, the oldest software technology in PC platforms, is on the way to be replaced by its successor--Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which is supported by the 64-bit OS implementations and platforms.
Intel revealed that three or four companies have submitted application to MII for the EFI project, and it is believed that MII's examination criteria would stay mainly on the company's technical strength.
The application of the next-generation BIOS technology may help lift added value for computer manufacturing.
Related Channels: China

Intel announces plans for restructuring
Intel announced plans for restructuring following an analysis of the company's structure and efficiency
Intel Tuesday announced plans for restructuring following an analysis of the company's structure and efficiency. As a result of the restructuring, the company expects to generate savings in costs and operating expenses of approximately $2 billion in 2007. In 2008 the company expects savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion annually.
The savings are a combination of non-workforce related steps and a significant reduction in Intel's workforce. The company's employee population will decline to approximately 95,000 by the end of this year, resulting from workforce reductions, attrition and previously announced actions. The workforce will decline to approximately 92,000 by the middle of 2007 -- 10,500 fewer than the company's employee population at the end of the second quarter of 2006. In addition to the savings from the workforce reduction, the company expects savings in merchandising expenses, capital and materials.
"These actions, while difficult, are essential to Intel becoming a more agile and efficient company, not just for this year or the next, but for years to come," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief executive officer.

Handset-use Wi-Fi chip market to hit 100 million units in 2007
The Handset-use Wi-Fi chip market will grow to the 100-million unit level in 2007, up from 10-20 million units in 2006, according to Michael Lu, president of Airoha Technology, a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and markets RF and mixed-signal IC solutions.
The penetration of Wi-Fi chips in mobile phones will grow from only 2% in 2006 to 6-10% in 2007.
The overall Wi-Fi chip market will double to 200 million units in 2006 and continue to grow strongly in 2007 amid demand for smart phones, which will account for 10% of the overall handset market this year.
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July global chip sales hit $20.1B, up 11.5% 
The Semiconductor Industry Association (CIA), a San Jose, Calif.-based trade group, said Friday total worldwide semiconductors sales totaled $20.1 billion in July, up 11.5% from $18.02 billion during the same period last year.
The sharp rise in sales was attributed to strong demand coupled with declining average selling prices.
The group also projected that worldwide semiconductor sales are trending upward of $240 billion for the year.
"Growth continues to be strong across a broad range of end markets and geographic regions as well, particularly Asia Pacific which is up over 13 percent year on year, and the U.S. where sales increased almost 18 percent over last year," said SIA president George Scalise, in a prepared statement.
Once highly dependent on the PC market, the semiconductor industry has enjoyed steady, moderate growth as chips make their way into a range of products such as mobile phones, digital music players and TVs.
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Intel expected to announce massive job cuts next week which Intel spokesman calls "speculation"
Intel is expected to announce 10,000 to 20,000 job cuts next week. And CEO Paul Otellini is expected to discuss with employees the results of a 90-day stem-to-stern review of company operations on Tuesday via a Webcast.
An Intel spokesman refused to comment on the report which he called "speculation."
"We are not commenting on specific timing of that report nor are we commenting on the speculation about what the report will say," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.
Analysts estimate job losses will range from 10% to 20% of the chip giant's worldwide work force as Otellini attempts to slash $1 billion in costs this year and refocus efforts on its core chip business.
Intel has added more than 20,000 employees since 2003, said Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Edelstone, who predicts between 15,000 and 20,000 jobs will disappear.
Intel already has taken steps to lower its costs. The company fired 1,000 managers in July, the deepest cuts in four years. The company also sold off two business units, which employ about 2,000 employees.
Otellini told financial analysts in April that he planned to restructure the company to identify weak businesses and reduce manufacturing costs. Analysts also expect sharp reductions in the company's marketing staff.
Intel employs 99,000 people in 199 offices around the world.

US court dismisses Broadcom's antitrust complaint against Qualcomm
QUALCOMM Incorporated announced that the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey has dismissed Broadcom's antitrust complaint against QUALCOMM in its entirety. Originally filed in July of 2005 and later amended, the complaint alleged a variety of purported antitrust violations by QUALCOMM, each of which was rejected by the District Court. In a 47-page opinion, the Court held that QUALCOMM's sales and licensing activities as alleged by Broadcom “do not support an inference that competition in the UMTS chipset market is, or will be injured by QUALCOMM's licensing practices.” As to the complaint's allegations regarding QUALCOMM's purported refusal to grant Broadcom a license for patents essential to the WCDMA 3G cellular standard on so-called FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms, the Court held “that QUALCOMM's alleged conduct does not support claims for monopolization or attempted monopolization.”
“QUALCOMM is pleased by the Court's thoughtful and comprehensive ruling dismissing all of Broadcom's claims,” said Steve Altman, president, QUALCOMM. “Our business model is built upon making our innovations available to the entire wireless industry through the widespread licensing of our intellectual property and the creation and supply of advanced chipsets and software solutions. These activities foster competition among device manufacturers and service providers to the benefit of the industry and consumers. As our more than 135 license agreements with the world's leading telecommunications equipment manufacturers demonstrate, QUALCOMM has scrupulously abided by its commitments to standards development organizations to offer licenses for its essential patents on fair and reasonable terms.”
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Fujitsu Microelectronics America (FMA) promotes Keith Horn to COO
California-based Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. (FMA) has named Keith Horn to be its Chief Operating Officer (COO). Horn, who is currently serving as senior vice president of sales and marketing, will be promoted to COO effective September 1, reporting to Kazuyuki Kawauchi, President and CEO of Fujitsu Microelectronics America.
Under Kawauchi's leadership, Horn will manage the day-to-day operations of FMA. He has already been responsible for FMA's four business groups, as well as marketing communications and engineering. In his new role, the four vice presidents heading operations, IT, human resources, accounting, finance, and legal will also report to him.
"Keith's leadership and service to FMA have been invaluable, and the company will benefit from his experience and sales-driven expertise as he assumes his new role as COO," Kawauchi said. "His major responsibilities will focus on FMA's revenue and profit goals, and he will continue to help formulate current and mid- to long-range plans, objectives and policies."

Huawei-3Com picks Mindspeed's devices for routers
California-based Mindspeed Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for network infrastructure applications, announced that China-based Huawei-3Com has selected Mindspeed's high-level data link control (HDLC), broadband access multiplexer (BAM) and T3/E3 line interface unit (LIU) devices for use in the company's H3C AR series routers. Huawei-3Com is a joint venture between Huawei Investment and Holding Co., Ltd. and 3Com.
"By providing Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions with accompanying software, we are able to offer complete solutions for Huawei-3Coms channelized and unchannelized T3, T1, and OC-3 cards enabling accelerated time-to-market and reduced system costs," said Taqi Mohiuddin, director of product marketing for Mindspeed.
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ZTE teams up with Intel on dual-core for new platform
ZTE Corporation, the leading Chinese manufacturer and provider of communications equipment and solutions, has announced that its latest general computing platforms will use the low voltage dual-core Intel Xeon processor code-named Sossaman, which has been developed specifically for communications industry.
The collaboration heralds the first application of the dual-core processor on general computing platform in the Chinese communications industry. It highlights ZTE's research capability in the area of high performance processors, which will provide stronger support for the entire communications industry.
The communications industry is calling for equipment that has more computing and data processing capability in order to meet the increasing demand for IPTV, 3G and other new applications. ZTE is committed to developing new general computing platforms for its products and solutions to help customers meet the unceasing challenges that accompany the age of network convergence through high performance processing products and technology that are designed with new specialist applications in mind. ZTE has established a long-term strategic partnership with Intel, the leading global manufacturer and provider of chip technology and solutions.
"ZTE has selected Intel's dual-core processor as the core processor for its new generation of computing platforms. This is testament to the fact that the features and power consumption levels of Intel dual-core processor meet the increasing demands for data processing and new services in the communications industry," Jin Guanghui, China Technical VP of Intel (China) Co. Ltd., said.
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Sumitomo Electric Networks picks Ikanos' VDSL2 chipsets
California-based Ikanos Communications, Inc., a leading developer and provider of Fiber Fast(TM) broadband solutions, announced that Sumitomo Electric Networks, Inc. (SEN), one of Japan's leading communications equipment manufacturers, has selected Ikanos' Fx(TM)100100-5 and Fx100100S-5 CO and CPE chipsets for its next generation of broadband equipment. SEN's selection of Ikanos' products will enable Japanese carriers to deliver high-performance, symmetric 100 Mbps bandwidth as well as POTS-compatible "IP-Phone" services.
Ikanos' multi-mode chipsets are the first to offer many new features for optimized IPTV delivery, such as integrated QoS and enhanced impulse noise protection schemes. These features are expected to enable unsurpassed triple play experiences for consumers. Ikanos' fifth generation chipsets are designed to provide the highest throughput and density, with the lowest per port power consumption, thereby enabling OEMs to offer high-density systems that reduce carriers' capital expenditures and operating expenditures.
"We are pleased that Sumitomo Electric Networks, one of the leading DSLAM manufacturers in Japan, has chosen Ikanos to provide VDSL2 chipsets for its next generation of broadband equipment," said Rajesh Vashist, chairman and CEO of Ikanos. "SEN's selection validates our continued leadership in delivering high-performance, IPTV-optimized, multi-mode VDSL2 products."
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More than 565 million HF RFID tag ICs shipped in 2005
More than 565 million high-frequency RFID tag ICs were shipped in 2005, according to ABI Research.
RFID industry analyst Sara Shah says, "In the year from 1Q 2005 to 1Q 2006, shipments of HF ISO14443 tag ICs increased 104%, the highest growth rate of any segment we measured. This growth can be attributed to an increase in contactless payment cards and personal identification documents, such as e-passports. Both are high volume, high growth applications."
This month the United States began issuing e-passports to its citizens, following plans it laid out in the Visa Waiver Program. The 27 nations in this program have either begun issuing e-passports or plan to by October, demonstrating that this is a global application of RFID, and that government initiatives are driving—and will continue to drive—the strong growth in this sector. Many countries have plans in the works for other forms of personal identification documents such as government ID cards and national IDs; these will fuel long-term growth in addition to e-passport replacement and re-issuance cycles.
During the past year, the United States focused on contactless payment and transit ticketing trials. In North America, there is interest in open loop transit ticketing applications; for example, several major cities such as New York have been testing public transport contactless ticketing systems. Meanwhile other regions including Europe and Asia that began embracing contactless technology earlier are now implementing the technology at higher rates with fuller, wider deployments. These two factors have helped this market achieve significant growth.
In addition, notes Shah, "North American credit card companies are becoming more bullish about contactless payment, and are taking steps to introduce the technology to their customers, for example through media campaigns, trials, and new contactless card distribution. This should continue to drive HF ISO14443 tag IC markets."
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Motorola to develop mobile WiMax chipsets
Motorola, Inc. Tuesday announced a strategic initiative to develop mobile WiMAX chipsets for use in Motorola's next-generation WiMAX devices. This investment in chipset design demonstrates Motorola's on-going commitment to WiMAX and expands the company's role as a leader in end-to-end WiMAX solutions beyond infrastructure and handsets to the core implementation of WiMAX in chipsets.
"It should come as no surprise to anyone that Motorola is, and intends to remain, a leader in WiMAX -- including the design of silicon chipsets for mobile devices. For some time now Motorola has been investing in the development and deployment of WiMAX -- from infrastructure to advanced silicon," said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola's Mobile Devices Business. "In our vision of seamless mobility, WiMAX will help transform the mobile communications experience for everyone. Enhanced speed for data, as well as cost efficiencies and network optimization for wireless operators are just some of the benefits that are fueling excitement and accelerated adoption of WiMAX across the industry." Motorola's initial chipset will focus on core 802.16e mobile WiMAX functionality supporting voice, video, and data for low power mobile applications in handsets and modules. These first chipsets are scheduled to support commercial Motorola WiMAX devices in 2008 for carriers in North America, Japan and around the world including Sprint and others. Motorola is working with its silicon vendors on the overall fabrication of the new chipsets.
"Sprint Nextel's ability to offer customers a nationwide mobile data network depends in part on broad availability of mobile WiMAX-enabled chipsets for advanced wireless broadband services," said Atish Gude, senior vice president, Corporate Strategy, Sprint Nextel. "WiMAX innovators like Motorola will help speed the adoption of wireless mobility products and services as we meet the growing access and mobile Internet needs of customers, when and where they want."
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Vestel selects LSI solution for new DVD recorder products
California-based LSI Logic Corporation, the pioneer in media processing technology, announced that Vestel A.S., a leading manufacturer of consumer electronic (CE) products for the European market, has selected the LSI DoMiNo® DMN-8603 DVD recorder system processor for its new line of DVD recorder products. The market-leading feature set and high integration level of the DMN-8603 processor enables Vestel to offer affordable DVD recorders with superior audio and video quality that are optimized for Europe, the largest regional DVD recorder market.
"We are pleased that Vestel, a leading European CE manufacturer, selected the LSI DoMiNo processor for their new line of DVD recorder products," said Tim Vehling, vice president of marketing, Consumer Products Group, LSI Logic. "Vestel's choice of DMN-8603 reinforces LSI leadership in the global DVD recorder market and our ability to deliver the right products at the right time to the fast-growing European market."
LSI offers a range of highly integrated DoMiNo DVD recorder system processors for either high-performance or entry-level devices. Key features include: MPEG-4 encoding and decoding, DivX® certified playback, integrated IEEE-1394 (Direct Digital Dub®) interface, high-speed dubbing from HDD to DVD, and motion compensated noise reduction of analog video inputs for the highest-quality video.
LSI products enable leading technology companies in the Storage and Consumer markets to deliver some of the most advanced and well-known electronic systems in the market today.
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Intel ships Core 2 Duo mobile chips
Intel has begun shipping its Core 2 Duo mobile chips on Monday. Nearly 200 laptop models worldwide will incorporate the new chip, code-named "Merom", into their designs. The processor is a mobile version of the "Conroe" desktop based Core 2 Duo. The Core 2 Duo is socket-compatible with the original Core Duo, meaning manufacturing can simply swap the processors.
"In just one year we have taken extraordinary leaps in mobile and desktop computing with the launch of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor," said David (Dadi) Perlmutter, senior vice president of Intel' Mobility Group.
Many computer makers announced new Core 2 Duo laptops in conjunction with Monday's news from Intel. Samsung, Alienware, Dell, HP and Sotec were among those companies rolling out new models.
Apple is expected to replace the current Core Duo chip in its MacBook Pro portables with the Merom before the end of the year.
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STMicroelectronics and China's Dahua develop cable/IP dual-mode set-top box
STMicroelectronics, the leading supplier of silicon chips for set-top boxes (STBs), and Dahua Technology Ltd, China's largest cable and IPTV dual-mode STB provider, have successfully designed and manufactured a highly integrated digital-cable and IP set-top box, making ST the first silicon supplier to provide single-chip dual-mode digital set-top-box solutions for the China market. The box, which begins deployment in Hangzhou Province in August 2006, will enable consumers to enjoy a new three-in-one digital media experience including digital-cable TV, video-on-demand (VOD), and web browsing for a wider choice of information services and broadcast programs.
At the heart of Dahua's design is a dedicated chip belonging to ST's STi7100 family of Advanced Video Codecs (AVC). This system-on-chip (SoC) solution integrates support for advanced high-definition H.264/MPEG4 AVC and MPEG4 P2 standard definition (SD) in addition to MPEG2 encoded video signals. These innovative single-chip HD/SD devices are the industry's first to enable the next generation of high-quality consumer video systems and broadcast services.
"Leveraging its experience in this sector, ST will continue to offer a wide range of products that provide high flexibility, faster time-to-market, low cost, and high-quality solutions to our partners," said Robert Krysiak, STMicroelectronics' Corporate VP and General Manager for Greater China.
Dahua's Chairman and General Manager Mr. Zhu Giang Ming, said, "ST's cost- optimized single-chip solution, which includes a reference design with software kit coupled to their dedicated engineering support, have given us a unique solution and faster time-to-market."
Dahua is China's major volume Cable and IP dual-mode STB provider for operators that provide VoD service for MPEG4 video and audio content. Operators will provide content through deployment of its dual-mode (Cable and IPTV) STBs enabled by the chip from ST.
So far 360 million households boast TV sets in China, where target audiences exceed 1.1 billion, including 114.7 million cable subscribers. The number of customers is also exploding in both broadband and wireless markets, giving China a huge potential market for IPTV. With further extension of its broadband IP network and continuous improvement in communication technology, China is expected to become the largest IPTV market worldwide over the next few years.
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Microsoft's Zune, iPod Rival, to be made by Toshiba
Microsoft Corp. has picked Toshiba to manufacture its Zune digital music player, a device that will compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s market-dominating iPod. Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. is Japan's largest chipmaker.
Microsoft company plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years in a bid to dent Apple's 77% share of the $4 billion U.S. market for digital music players.
Microsoft's Zune will allow users to share music with other device owners located within range of a wireless hotspot. Customers will also be able to use the wireless connection to send and receive photos, as well as promotional copies of songs, albums and play lists from other users. The device will enable a user to stream music to four other devices at one time so friends can listen together.
Zune marks the first time Microsoft will control the hardware design, software and service for such devices after six years of combining its software with outside music services and machines designed by partners failed to create a product compelling enough to tackle the iPod.
Apple has sold more than 58.9 million players since CEO Steve Jobs introduced the gadget in October 2001, including 8.11 million units in the quarter ended July 1.
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AMCC completes Quake acquisition
Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) has completed the acquisition of Quake Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE) PHY technology. As a pioneer in the 10GE PHY technologies, Quake was the first company to successfully deliver an entire production- worthy product line for a broad range of distances, from short to long reach.
"We are pleased to announce the successful completion of this acquisition. We look forward to integrating our technology and customer assets in order to develop 10G Ethernet solutions for the Enterprise and Service Provider markets," said Kambiz Hooshmand, president and CEO of AMCC. "Our strategy is focused on converged information and storage networks based on IP and Ethernet. As a result of this acquisition, AMCC is now a leader in the 10G Ethernet market."
Under the terms of the agreement, AMCC acquired all outstanding shares of Quake for approximately $69 million in cash (net of Quake's estimated cash and receivables that AMCC assumed in the deal). AMCC plans to consolidate its design groups in Ottawa into a single facility and continue to benefit from the experienced engineering talent of the Ottawa area.

iVivity names Tom Burniece CEO and raises additional $10M
Atlanta-based iVivity, the leading provider of storage network building block technologies, including industry leading iDiSX(R) storage network processors, software and custom board solutions to system OEMs, has named Tom Burniece to the position of CEO.
Burniece brings more than 30 years of storage industry experience to iVivity including positions in executive management and senior engineering management as well as business consulting and Board of Directors appointments across a spectrum of Fortune 500 and startup companies. "As iVivity enters this critical phase of delivering on its design wins and the intensification of research and development, Tom Burniece brings an extraordinary arsenal of management experience and industry contacts to help the company exploit its leadership position and realize its full potential," said Bruce Bergman, Chairman of iVivity's Board of Directors.
"As an early member of iVivity's Board of Advisors, I became a big believer in the company's technology and market potential a long time ago," said Tom Burniece. "I am extremely pleased to come on board in a hands-on capacity to lead the company in this exciting next phase of growth."
iVivity also announced an additional $10 million investment with all current investors participating. The additional funding will be used to sustain the company's operations as revenue ramps from iVivity's recent design wins, as well as bring to market its next generation products and expand its world class engineering capabilities.

STMicroelectronics picks Allegro compliance test suites
Allegro Networks announced that the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 decoders from set-top-box chip leader STMicroelectronics have successfully passed Allegro compliance test suites including syntax, stress and system tests, for Main and High profile, level 3 and 4.
"Thanks to Allegro test suites we were able to validate the quality and the performance of our MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 decoders," said Thierry Bauchon, R&D Director, Home Entertainment Group, STMicroelectronics. "We believe that compliance with Allegro products is a guarantee of high quality for our customers. Firstly, it ensures that the decoders will perform in worst case conditions and secondly that the products will remain compliant through the evolution of encoders. From our MPEG2 experience, we know that encoders will eventually exercise all the capabilities of the standard. Overall, Allegro test suites allowed us to have an early, robust and stable full-system solution, as demonstrated by the successful launch of ST's STi7100 high-definition TV single-chip decoder."
"We are very pleased to have been chosen by STMicroelectronics. ST is the historical leader in digital video compression and its use of our certification test suites is strong evidence that Allegro products are a perfect fit for the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC market," said Pierre Marty, CEO of Allegro.
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Intel partners with universities on multicore software
Intel is working with universities to create a public suite of applications for multicore processors. The chip giant’s CTO Justin Rattner made the disclosure during his keynote address at the HotChips conference at Stanford University. Such applications could be used as a benchmark for multicore chips.
To help with its own research on multicore, Intel has pieced together a suite of applications that demonstrate the breadth of computing functionality and performance that can be enabled by multicore processors. The so-called RMS suite – recognition, mining and synthesis – encompasses many applications within those functional areas.
The suite was created through some internal development at Intel, but also by using the code of some of Intel’s partners.
To rectify the problem “we’ve gone around informally asking folks about contributing to an RMS suite,” said Rattner. Intel is contributing its body tracking and ray tracking applications. And some universities have already pledged support. The University of Pittsburgh, for example, has contributed a cancer cell detection application.
Intel is working with Princeton University which will serve as a repository for the code contributions from the academic community. Professor Kai Li is spearheading the efforts there.
Rattner appealed to the HotChips audience at Stanford for contributions, too.
“We are here to ask you to contribute some code to this RMS suite,” he said.
The so-called RMS applications are expected to make up much of the computing workloads of the future. Rattner broke them down, providing demonstrations for the crowd packed into Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium.
“The benchmark needs to look at performance and energy,” said Rattner. “with applications that are highly-threaded and
scalable, and they should cover the entire realm from visualization to financial and everything in between. We want applications that push the technology to its limits.”

Luxtera's single-chip CMOS photonics device brings fiber connectivity directly to chip
California-based Luxtera Inc., a leading innovator in CMOS photonics, announced the industry's first single-chip integrated photonics-electronics device implemented in a standard CMOS process. Luxtera's breakthrough technology integrates high-performance optics and mainstream electronics on a single die, bringing fiber connectivity directly to the chip. Fabrication in a standard, high volume 0.13 micron SOI CMOS process makes fiber optics feasible and economical for everyday life. Additional digital logic can be integrated into the same chip with optical devices, further reducing overall solution size, power consumption and cost.
Luxtera is currently sampling prototype devices for preliminary testing by strategic development partners. The technology incorporates two lasers and photodetectors mounted directly on a monolithic CMOS die that also includes all logic equivalent to two complete XFP modules including TransImpedance Amplifiers (TIA), Mach-Zehnder modulators, as well as transmit and receive Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) circuits. This complete single chip solution is one-quarter the size of existing XFP module solutions.
The company will launch a commercial transceiver product line based on this underlying technology early in 2007. Initial product offerings will consist of multi-port transceivers for communications, storage, and computing applications. Additionally, Luxtera is currently working with customers to develop new applications for CMOS Photonics.
The first commercial application is expected to be high speed, high bandwidth enterprise data communications. Driven by the high bandwidth capabilities of new multi-core, high performance processors, the need for low cost, low latency and low power 10G, and faster interconnects is here. CMOS Photonics technology will enable the widespread adoption of 10G interconnects, which today are very expensive to deploy, by driving the cost of 10G optical ports to well below $100.

Ikanos picks MIPS processor cores
California-based MIPS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, networking, personal entertainment, communications and business applications, announced that Ikanos Communications has selected the MIPS32® 24KEc(TM) processor core to power advanced solutions for next-generation, fiber-fast broadband access. Targeted applications will include Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), home networking, SOHO and enterprise networking -- all explosive sectors within the burgeoning broadband arena.
Industry analyst firm Infonetics Research predicts that annual broadband CPE revenue will reach $8.6 billion by 2009, as service providers continue to bundle voice, data, video, and wireless services in triple and quadruple play offerings to attract new customers and reduce churn among existing customers.

IQE completes acquisition of Emcore's EMD
EMCORE Corporation, a leading provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite, and solar power markets, has completed the sale of the Company's Electronic Materials & Device division (EMD) to a wholly owned subsidiary of IQE, plc (IQE) as previously announced on July 19, 2006.
IQE, headquartered in Cardiff, Wales with United States operations in Bethlehem, Pa., purchased certain of the assets including inventory, fixed assets, and intellectual property of EMD for a total transaction value of $16 million.
IQE was formed in May 1999 by the merger of two epitaxial wafer companies supplying electronic and optoelectronic materials produced using MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) and MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) equipment platforms. EMD utilizes MOCVD technology developed by EMCORE to produce both GaAs and GaN based transistor wafers for use in power amplifiers and switches in GSM, CDMA multiband wireless handsets, Wi-MAX, Wi-Fi, cellular handsets, and in wireless LAN applications.
IQE will continue to operate EMD in the Somerset, NJ facility. All 56 employees of EMD have been transferred to IQE.
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Zarlink appoints Warner Andrews as Strategic Marketing VP
Ottawa-based Zarlink Semiconductor announced the appointment of Warner Andrews as Vice President, Strategic Marketing and Business Development.
Mr. Andrews brings to Zarlink over 20 years of technical marketing, product management and sales expertise in the telecommunications and optical electronics industries. Most recently, Mr. Andrews owned and operated 290 Ventures, a consulting firm that advised clients, including Zarlink’s optical products group, on business formation, strategy, product management and marketing.
Mr. Andrews began his professional career as an ASIC design engineer with Wyle Laboratories, and has held a series of progressively senior engineering, sales, marketing and executive positions. Of note, from 2001 to 2004 Mr. Andrews was Vice President of Marketing with Colorado-based Picolight, a private company specializing in optical components and transceivers. In this position, he guided the company’s product management, marketing and strategic initiatives, and played a key role in the rapid growth of the company.
Before joining Picolight, Mr. Andrews spent eight years in sales, product line management and marketing positions with Conexant Systems, a semiconductor company.
“Warner is highly regarded in the industry for his product and marketing knowledge and ability to understand customer requirements,” said Kirk Mandy, President and CEO, Zarlink Semiconductor. “In this new role Warner will be identifying and pursuing high-value market opportunities for Zarlink’s products and technologies, and we are confident in his ability to help grow our business.”

NetXen's 10-GigE NIC chip in volume production
California-based NetXen Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced that NetXen's 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) Intelligent NIC(TM) chip is now in volume production.
"The enterprise datacenter is on a verge of a major shift to 10GbE," said Govind Kizhepat, NetXen's founder and CEO. "Our relationship with TSMC enables NetXen to answer the growing demand for 10GbE NIC technology in the Agile Datacenter(TM). As the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, TSMC has the process technology and manufacturing capability to address this demand."
The NetXen Intelligent NIC products are the industry's first dual-port 10GbE solutions with native PCI Express (PCIe) functionality. The products are software- and firmware-upgradeable, unlike existing hardwired solutions. This enables server systems equipped with Intelligent NIC technology to readily evolve with changing market needs and adapt to different datacenter workloads. The products provide IT managers flexibility and investment protection in an ever-changing technology environment. Top-tier system suppliers, such as HP and IBM, plan to incorporate NetXen's Intelligent NIC technology in products currently under development.

IPTV drives DSL IC chipset market
While data and VoIP continue to drive the DSL IC chipset market, and will account for the bulk of port shipments through 2010, the delivery of IPTV capability is the wave of the future, reports In-Stat. Carriers worldwide are using ADSL2+ and VDSL2 as they upgrade their networks to deliver television and video service, the high-tech market research firm says.
“With applications like video phone service, uploading of photos and video in addition to music, on-line applications from Google and others, the demand for upstream traffic is likely to increase over the next few years,” says Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst. “This means the technology able to deliver upstream bandwidth will have the advantage going forward.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
- In 2005, there were 153.1 million total ports of DSL shipped worldwide, including CO and CPE for ADSL, VDSL, and SHDSL.
- The number of ports shipped is expected to grow to 185.5 million in 2010.
- Revenues through 2010 will decline, however, as there is increasing pressure on price from DSLAM vendors.
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Broadcom gets delisting notice
Broadcom Corp. received a notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market that its stock is subject to delisting because it has not yet filed its quarterly report for the second quarter ended June 30.
The company has not yet filed its quarterly report due to the pending, voluntary review of its stock option grant practices. Broadcom said it will file the quarterly report after its audit committee and independent registerd public accounting firm have completed their reviews, appropriate accounting adjustments and restated financial statements have been finalized for the first quarter of 2006 and prior periods, and amended reports have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the periods ended Dec. 31, 2005 and March 31, 2006.
Broadcom said it will appeal the notice it received Monday and request a hearing before the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel, which will allow the stock to continue trading pending the panel's review.

NEC develops high-power gallium nitride transistor amplifier for 3G base stations
Tokyo-based NEC Corporation announced the successful development of a compact gallium nitride (GaN) power transistor amplifier, which boasts the world's highest output power level of 400W while featuring low-distortion characteristics, for third generation (3G) base stations. This amplifier is composed of a single transistor package, which achieves the world's greatest power output amplification under a W-CDMA scheme, without using any power-combining circuits. This research has been carried out under the "High-Power, High-Frequency Gallium Nitride Device Project" (Project leader: Professor Yasushi Nanishi of Ritsumeikan University) of the Research and Development Association for Future Electron Devices (FED) that is supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
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Advantage Century Telecommunication picks PMC-Sierra chips for VoIP CPE
PMC-Sierra announced that Advantage Century Telecommunication Corp. (ACT) has selected the MSP4120 and MSP4200 Multi-Service Processor(R) (MSP) devices for its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) solutions.
ACT's VoIP solutions provide the full range of features that Service Providers demand for value-added and cost-effective IP telephony services. ACT's VoIP family includes Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA), VoIP Routers and Wi-Fi VoIP Ethernet Gateways. PMC-Sierra's MSP4120 and MSP4200 are at the heart of these ACT solutions, providing both voice and routing functions.
The MSP4120 and MSP4200 VoIP router-on-a-chip products have a highly integrated architecture that combines a DSP for processing up to four voice channels together with a MIPS32 4Kec core for high-performance routing and control functions. The MSP4200 offers the additional benefit of a PCI interface to enable the inclusion of 802.11 Wi-Fi subsystems to create Wi-Fi access points.
Related Channels: VoIP, Wireless

Continuous Computing promotes Ron Pyles to President
San Diego-based Continuous Computing Corporation, global provider of Network Service-Ready Platforms(TM) that enable telecom equipment manufacturers to rapidly deploy converged communications, announced the promotion of Ron Pyles to company president. Through expert consultation, keen market insight, and strong customer relationships, Mr. Pyles will help the company continue to mature, grow, and evolve as a leader in telecommunications hardware, software, and professional services.
After joining the company in 2003 through the Trillium acquisition, Mr. Pyles started as vice president of worldwide sales and progressed to become executive vice president of sales and marketing. Under his leadership, Continuous Computing's revenues nearly tripled in three years, from $25 million in 2003 to over $70 million in 2005. In his new role, Mr. Pyles is responsible for driving the company's market strategy and delivering successful results for customers, employees, and shareholders.
Prior to joining Continuous Computing, Mr. Pyles built more than 20 years of marketing and sales experience at AT&T where, among other responsibilities, he was vice president of business sales for the central United States region. Mr. Pyles also directed the worldwide sales organization for the Trillium product line at Intel Corporation.
"The telecommunications market becomes increasingly competitive on a day-to-day basis," said Mr. Pyles. "As a result, it is my mission to lead the charge to transform Continuous Computing's business to the next level while, at the same time, to provide the best integrated solutions to our customers."
Related Channels: Wireless, VoIP

Lenovo, Novell unveil mobile workstation based on Intel technology
Lenovo and Novell announced the industry's first Linux-based ThinkPad mobile workstations, which will run Novell's recently released SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 operating system. The workstations are based on Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology. This groundbreaking innovation, the result of a two-year research and development effort between Lenovo, Intel and Novell, allows electronic engineers engaged in integrated circuit and board level design the necessary support solution for numeric intensive applications in any mobile environment.
At just an inch thin and 4.7 pounds, the new Linux-supported ThinkPad T60p strikes the balance between productivity and portability, giving electronic design engineers the processor speeds and memory requirements necessary for industrial-strength applications.
"The ThinkPad T60p is a milestone for our collaboration and shared commitment with Novell to develop innovative and powerful workstation solutions," said Marc Godin, vice president of marketing for Lenovo's Worldwide Notebook Business Unit. "Engineers running intensive based applications can now leverage these enhanced features while working remotely in the Linux environment."
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Cavium OCTEON processors power Linux servers
California-based Cavium Networks, a world leader in security, network services and embedded processor solutions, announced the OCTEON Multi-core MIPS64® Processor family has been selected for use in network-centric Linux servers for Enterprise , Storage and Network Applications. The OCTEON based Linux servers are available from Movidis today and on display at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco Aug 15 – 17 in booth #840. OCTEON has been adopted widely by Tier-1 and leading networking OEMs in networking, security, control plane and broadband gateway applications.
“We see a significant opportunity in providing high-performance, low-power networking servers for networked storage, secure Web transactions, databases and network centric applications running in the datacenter or at the edge of the network,” said Ken Goldsholl, CEO of Movidis. “We selected the OCTEON Processor for our next generation products because OCTEON provides integrated network, security and application layer acceleration in hardware with general purpose Linux programmability and dramatically lower power compared to other solutions. This type of processor configuration is not available from any other vendor.”
“We are excited to enable innovative companies like Movidis to bring disruptive technology to the market place”, said Amer Haider, Director of Strategic Marketing, Cavium Networks. “Using the OCTEON Processor technology in networking centric servers running Linux helps IT managers reduce their data center power costs while providing a scalable and compact high performance solution.”

Altera, Sarance, Cortina unveil FPGA-based Interlaken IP core for switches, routers and storage equipment
Altera Corporation, design services provider Sarance Technologies and communications semiconductor specialist Cortina Systems Monday announced the availability of the industry’s first FPGA-based Interlaken intellectual property core to speed design of network systems applying the Interlaken protocol.
The Interlaken protocol IP core, created by Sarance Technologies, lets communication and storage network equipment developers apply the new interconnect specification using Altera® Stratix® II GX FPGAs. Together, the IP and FPGAs enable more cost-effective solutions for 10-, 20-, and 40-Gbps interconnect designs in next-generation network switches, routers and storage equipment.
The Interlaken protocol is a royalty-free specification jointly developed by Cortina Systems and Cisco Systems for makers of high-performance network components and equipment. The specification builds upon the logical structure of SPI-4.2 interface technology, now widely used in networking equipment. It preserves the capabilities of SPI-4.2 with multiple logical channels and back-pressure information, while eliminating its bandwidth ceiling and curtailing associated pin-count cost. Interlaken’s 90 percent chip-to-chip signal trace improvement increases performance and reduces both board and chip design costs.
Interlaken allows greater integration in network system designs by providing a framework for channelized packet interfaces built upon a flexible and highly efficient serialization/de-serialization (SERDES) physical layer. Using the latest 6.375-Gbps SERDES technology enables interface designs that scale from 10 to 100 Gbps and beyond.

Critical Links' “Business Gateway” solution running on Cavium OCTEON processors
Critical Links award-winning edgeBOX 4.0 will support the latest generation of Cavium Networks OCTEON single and dual core MIPS64® -based processor family. The combined solution offers a high-performance, cost-efficient software and hardware solution to OEM & ODM vendors and service providers looking to deliver complete converged voice and data network services for SMEs and Branch Offices. A demo of the edgeBOX software platform running on Cavium's new OCTEON processors will be shown to vendors in August.
“Integrating our edgeBOX solution with Cavium's new OCTEON processor family ensures joint-customers will receive the highest level of performance and fastest time to market in a cost-effective platform,” said João Carreira , Critical Links' CEO. “The edgeBOX is an “all in one” intelligent networking device allowing SMEs and remote branch offices to benefit from the latest converged networking technologies without the need for specialist in-house IT knowledge.”
A high-performance software and hardware solution to vendors and service providers looking to deliver complete converged voice and data network services for SMEs and Branch Offices
edgeBOX enables Telcos and Service Providers to deliver everything an SME or Enterprise Branch Office (EBO) needs in one integrated platform, at a lower cost of ownership, without compromising security, scalability or ease of management. When deployed at the edge of a customer's network, edgeBOX allows a Managed Service Provider to remotely provision, support and maintain voice and data services such as a fully featured IP-PBX and VoIP gateway, security, QoS, collaboration, WiFi, router and file storage.
“The OCTEON CN30XX and CN31XX Processor families are highly scalable with market-leading performance and integration for SOHO , SME and Branch office voice and data applications,” said Rajneesh Gaur, Director of Marketing at Cavium Networks. “We are excited that the combined solution utilizing Critical Links' edgeBOX software optimized for Cavium's OCTEON processors is available to our mutual customers.”
Related Channels: VoIP

Sprint to build $3B WiMax network in 2007 and 2008 supported by Intel, Motorola and Samsung
Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest cellular provider in the U.S., will use WiMax to build a new high-speed wireless network.
The new WiMax network, expected to launch in some markets by late 2007, will provide customers with wireless Internet speeds on par with DSL and cable TV modems and four times faster than speeds available on current wireless networks.
Gary Forsee, Sprint's chief executive, said during a teleconference that Intel Corp. will be supplying equipment to build the network while Motorola Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications America will develop WiMax-compatible phones and mobile devices.
Sprint expects to spend about $1 billion on the initiative in 2007, and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2008. Forsee didn't specify to what extent the other companies might help offset Sprint's costs, saying those details will come later this year when Sprint provides financial guidance for 2007.
The WiMax plan also comes as Sprint is still rolling out its third-generation cellular data network, which just last week the company said it planned to upgrade starting at the end of 2006.
Forsee said he expected WiMax services also would be sold through the company's new partnership with the nation's four largest cable companies, which plan to begin selling Sprint cell service this year.
"They've been very much aware and involved in our 4G plans," he said, using the shorthand for fourth-generation wireless technology.
Other partners may join the venture as well, he said.
WiMax has been touted as a "next big thing" in wireless technology for several years, but actual deployments around the world have mostly been limited to small trials rather than full-blown network launches. Though derived from the same technology as the popular Wi-Fi standard that provides wireless Internet access in such places as airports and coffee shops, a WiMax signal can blanket a much wider coverage area.
Sean Maloney, executive vice president for Intel, said Sprint's involvement could drastically increase the technology's adoption. "Ethernet created business computing," Maloney said. "Wi-Fi has changed all sorts of things. What we believe here is that a single high-speed wireless standard all around the planet is going to change everything again."
The network will take advantage of Sprint's extensive holdings of 2.5-gigahertz bandwidth spectrum covering 85% of the nation's 100 largest cities.
Sprint officials said they chose WiMax after evaluating several other potential technologies, including those developed by Qualcomm Inc. and IPWireless. They said WiMax was superior in terms of speed, cost and compatibility with its spectrum. WiMax also is not tied to any one company, meaning Sprint can negotiate with a wider range of suppliers for equipment and services.
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Atheros completes acquisition of ZyDAS
California-based Atheros Communications, Inc., a leading developer of advanced wireless solutions, has completed the acquisition of ZyDAS Technology Corporation, a Taiwan-based fabless IC design company specializing in high-performance IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN (WLAN) semiconductor and software solutions for PC, mobile and embedded applications. Atheros announced on April 24, 2006, that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire ZyDAS.
With the acquisition of ZyDAS, Atheros has significantly enhanced its world-class engineering team, added to its industry-leading WLAN product portfolio and provided an additional R&D center to support Atheros' ongoing global expansion into new wireless markets. Atheros has established its new Taiwan Research & Development Center in ZyDAS' former headquarters. The facility is located in Hsinchu Science Park, one of the world's most active areas for semiconductor design and manufacturing.
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Zarlink completes interoperability testing with BroadLight
Ottawa-based Zarlink Semiconductor has completed interoperability testing of its CESoP (circuit emulation services-over-packet) technology with BroadLight, a leading vendor of PON (passive optical network) solutions. Using the companies combined technologies, service providers can deploy GPON (gigabit PON) fiber access networks that support “triple play” voice, video and data applications and T1/E1 voice, leased line and frame relay services.
As service providers migrate towards a unified network, GPON has emerged as the lower-cost, higher-bandwidth architecture of choice to deliver premium communication and entertainment applications, including HDTV (high-definition TV), IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), VoIP (voice-over-IP) and more. However, existing TDM voice and data traffic – which continue to represent a significant portion of carrier revenues – must still be cost-effectively transported over the new packet infrastructure. The continued importance of TDM traffic is seen in the recent GPON RFP (request for proposal) issued in North America, which stipulates legacy services must be supported.
Related Channels: Video, VoIP, FTTP, Test

Intel starts road shows in China for its Core 2 Duo processor 
Intel has started road shows for its new product Core 2 Duo processor in Beijing, which enable consumers to have real and direct feelings about the product.
The promotions will also continue to be held in computer malls of other 18 cities across China, including Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Harbin, Shenyang, Jinan, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Kunming, Xi'an and Urumchi.
The Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor, which contains a whopping 291 million transistors, provides 40% better performance and is 40 percent more energy efficient than the previous generation Intel Pentium D processor.
The Core 2 Duo processor is Intel's third generation dual-core processor for personal computers. The first generation was Intel Pentium D processor for desktop PCs and the second generation was the Intel Core Duo processor for mobile PCs.
Conrore was the project codename for the Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor, and Merom was the project codename for the Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Intel teams with top universities for software-related research, curriculum for future multi-core processors
Intel Corporation announced a global effort to prepare university students for a new paradigm of software development as Intel transitions its processors from single-processor engines to ones that will have multiple cores and threads. This evolution will transform software design and require entirely new thinking and innovation in order to leverage this kind of processing power.
As part of its higher education program, Intel is providing 45 of the world's top universities with expertise, funding, development tools, educational materials, on-site training and sustained collaboration with Intel to incorporate multi-core and multi-threading concepts into their computer science curricula.
By the end of this year, Intel expects more than 75% of its mainstream server, desktop and laptop PC processors to ship as dual-core processors; with four-, eight- and many-cores on the horizon.
"To usher in a new generation of computing technology and bring creative new products to market, it's crucial to educate tomorrow's software developers to architect, develop and debug the next generation of software for modern, multi-core platforms," said Renee James, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group. "The full potential of multi-core based systems to deliver great performance and expanded usages is unleashed when software is designed to take advantage of the full capabilities of the machine. Working with the world's best universities, Intel is creating the future for performance computing."
Universities participating in the worldwide effort include Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan and University of Washington, as well as leading academic institutions across China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and several European countries. The first courses will be offered during the fall term this year and Intel expects hundreds more universities to participate in 2007 and beyond.
Included in the endeavor are faculty training sessions delivered by Intel® Software College multi-threading experts from around the world. Intel also provides course materials, laptops powered by dual-core processors for instructor use in the classroom, as well as licenses for Intel® Software Development Products and access to forums and technical support.

TI ships 3 million decoders to Chinese digital video surveillance innovator Hikvision
Helping to expand the video security market in China, Texas Instruments Incorporated Monday announced it has shipped 3 million units of its TVP5150AM1 ultra-low-power video decoder to Hikvision, the leading provider of video surveillance products in China. Hikvision leverages the optimized architecture of the TVP5150AM1 in compression cards, digital video recoders (DVRs), and video server products.
As an innovator in China's digital video industry, Hikvision has significantly elevated the development of China's video surveillance industry and has maintained its number one position in that market for many years. The company has also made impressive progress in the development of the international market overall. By leveraging TI's video decoder technology, as well as the company's complete video security solution, which includes DSP and analog chips, Hikvision has been able to expand its digital video surveillance product lines, winning a reputation for outstanding quality.
"As a benchmark, 3 million units shipped is a testament to the strength of the partnership we have with Texas Instruments," said Mr. Wei-Qi Wu, Chief Operating Office, Hikvision. "We were eager to collaborate with TI because of its leadership in digital video technology and their commitment to continually improving their product line. The TVP5150AM1 has been an outstanding device that has enabled us to develop low-power, high quality compression cards for our cameras, and we look forward to building on this successful relationship in the future."
"We are very pleased that our relationship with Hikvision, a trendsetter in China's video surveillance market, has been such a mutual success, leading to 3 million units shipped and enabling cutting-edge digital video products," said Li Zhang, Asia marketing manager for TI Digital Video. "As Hikvision continues to leverage the low-power TVP5150AM1, we hope to see this partnership grow as we unveil next-generation decoders for our end-to-end digital video portfolio."
Related Channels: Video, China

Cavium's technology enables cost-effective, high-performance SSL VPNs for SOHO, SME environments
California-based Cavium Networks, a world leader in security, network services and embedded processor solutions, Monday announced that NETGEAR, a worldwide provider of technologically advanced, branded networking products, has selected Cavium's NITROX Soho CN22X MIPS32® processor and SSL application toolkit to power the new NETGEAR ProSafe SSL VPN Concentrator for small to medium enterprises (SME). The NETGEAR ProSafe SSL VPN Concentrator provides secure, easy to use, multi- tunnel remote access connectivity for SME users without having to maintain IPsec VPNs or the accompanying client software. Cavium's NITROX Soho MIPS32 Broadband Communication processors have become the products of choice for OEM vendors delivering cost-effective, high-performance SOHO/SME gateways, routers and access points. Along with its OCTEON(TM) MIPS64® processors, Cavium Networks is enabling secure, intelligent functionality in a wide range of broadband and triple-play equipment for FTTX, Ethernet, xDSL, GPON/EPON, 802.11 a/b/g/n, VoIP and video applications.
"We are excited to work with NETGEAR on this new product, which will fuel increased overall SSL VPN usage in small and medium enterprises," said Rajneesh Gaur, Cavium Networks' Director of Marketing. "Cavium's highest performing and scalable NITROX Soho and OCTEON integrated MIPS processors deliver fully compatible, feature-rich platforms ranging from SOHO to Enterprise class environments."
Cavium Networks NITROX Soho CN2XX and OCTEON CN30XX Broadband Communication Processors are available today along with a rich, ODM ready hardware and software development environment. These processors offer highly integrated, cost-effective and low-power solutions ranging in performance from 10Mbps to 1Gbps. They include a high-performance MIPS32/64 processor core, gigabit and fast Ethernet interfaces, PCI/PCI-X, USB2.0, DDR2, TDM/PCM for VoIP, and the most advanced hardware acceleration for security, TCP, QoS and packet processing.

The biggest IPO deal for the week of 8/7/06: Qimonda AG to raise as much as $756M
The biggest IPO deal poised for the week of 8/7/06 is the offering of Qimonda AG, the memory products unit of German chipmaker Infineon Technologies.
A total of 63 million American Depository Receipts (ADRs) are expected to be offered -- 42 million from Qimonda and 21 million from Infineon. The spinoff is expected to raise as much as $756 million for Qimonda.
The ADRs are expected to price between $16 to $18 a share and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "QI."

Teranetics appoints Matt Rhodes as CEO
California-based Teranetics Inc., a privately held company that provides next-generation, standards-based 10-gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) copper channel semiconductor solutions, Monday announced that Matt Rhodes has been appointed CEO. Company founder, Sanjay Kasturia, was named CTO.
Prior to joining Teranetics, Rhodes was president of Conexant Systems, Inc., a publicly traded worldwide leader in semiconductor solutions for broadband communications and the digital home.
"Teranetics is an outstanding company, and I'm excited about being the newest member of a world-class team," Rhodes said. "In a relatively short time, the company has firmly established itself as the pioneer and leader in 10-gigabit Ethernet, an emerging technology that enables a 10x increase in data rates over simple twisted pair copper. The Teranetics team played key roles in the committee that developed the IEEE 10GBASE-T Ethernet standard ratified in June, and is now demonstrating standards-based solutions to key customers worldwide."
"Under Matt's leadership, Teranetics will achieve the next level of success," said Sanjay Kasturia. "With Matt on board, we now have a team that has both the technical knowledge and business experience to take our state of the art technologies to market winning product positions."
Rhodes, 48, became president of Conexant in June 2003. Prior to that, he was president of the company's Broadband Communications business. He also served as senior vice president and general manager of the company's Personal Computing Division. Prior to joining Conexant, he was director of VLSI technology at Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc.
Rhodes received a master's degree in business administration from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University, and a bachelor's degree in physics from Pennsylvania State University.

Tokyo-based Oki touts world's smallest 10G optical modulator driver IC
Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. announced the development of KGL4166, a 10Gbps Mach-Zehnder modulator*1 driver IC for high-speed optical communication. This IC comes in the world’s smallest package for a device equipped with bias-T*2. It also features an output voltage of 9Vpp, which is a 1.5 fold increase from conventional chips, achieving the largest output voltage in the industry.
For 10Gbps optical communication, achieving long distance data transmission and reducing the cost of dispersion compensation are keys. Though new methods such as duo binary module and Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK) that are strong in relation to dispersion are being developed, they require driver ICs with higher output amplitude since the modulator is driven with higher voltage than conventional ones.
The KGL4166 is a 10Gbps optical modulator driver IC that runs on 9Vpp output voltage. By adopting high voltage process elements and optimizing circuit designs, the driver IC achieves output voltage of 9Vpp, putting it in the industry’s highest-class while maintaining the high quality wave characteristics for which Oki driver ICs are noted. In addition, by miniaturizing the chip, Oki achieves the world’s smallest mounting area of 10.9 x 8mm, for a chip equipped with bias-T.
“We believe the KGL4166 will have an impact on the 10Gbps optical communication market, which is expected to grow. This super-small driver IC will enable customers in the optical transceiver business to create smaller, higher quality optical communication devices,” said Masayuki Tsuboi, President of Optical Components Company at Oki Electric. “Oki will launch this product from the fiscal year ending March 2008 and utilizing the advantages of high-speed and high voltage in the device, we will target a 50% share in the Mach-Zehnder modulator driver IC market.”

Private investment consortium to acquire Philips' 80.1% stake in its semiconductor unit for US$8.2B
Royal Philips Electronics has agreed to sell an 80.1% stake in its semiconductor unit to a private investment consortium for 6.4 billion euros (US$8.2 billion).
The consortium, made up of US-based private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Silver Lake Partners along with Dutch-based AlpInvest Partners NV, will buy the stake while Amsterdam-headquartered Philips will retain the remaining 19.9% stake in the business.
"This is a defining moment for both Philips and its semiconductors business," Philips President and CEO Gerard Kleisterlee said. "As a stand-alone company, the semiconductors business will have every opportunity to realize its full potential and we are very pleased to have found strong partners that share our belief."
Kleisterlee said that the sale will allow Philips, best known for its consumer electronics products, to "fully focus" on its health care and lifestyle products.
Philips' semiconductor unit makes chips for mobile phones, MP3 players, televisions and cars. Operating profit at the unit was 307 million euros last year on sales of 4.6 billion euros.
In June, Philips announced that it planned to spin off a majority stake in the unit, a move that is expected to reduce volatility in Philips' earnings that was caused by the highly cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry.
Philips was the world's ninth-largest maker of semiconductors by sales last year.
"With the support of the consortium and Philips as an investor, the company will continue to innovate in order to provide its customers with leading-edge solutions and products that drive growth," said Johannes Huth, a member of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co.
Egon Durban, a managing director of Silver Lake Partners, said the group believes the semiconductor unit is "well positioned to pursue and achieve significant expansion."
Related Channels: Wireless, Video

Toshiba, SanDisk to invest $5.2B in new NAND plant
Toshiba Corp., the world's fourth-largest microchip maker, and California-based SanDisk Corp., the world's top supplier of flash memory data storage cards, will invest a total of about 600 billion yen ($5.2 billion) to build a new flash memory plant in Japan to meet ballooning demand, Toshiba said on Friday.
Demand for NAND flash memory chips is expanding rapidly as their ability to retain data after power is shut off makes them an ideal storage device for a wide range of portable electronics.
"No other microchip seems to be growing as fast as NAND. We have decided to build a new plant to meet this rapid market growth," Toshiba Corporate Vice President Shozo Saito said.
Toshiba and SanDisk will first spend about 300 billion yen on the new plant over two business years through March 2008. The new plant will start production in the October-December quarter of 2007 with a monthly capacity to process 2,500 units of cost-efficient 300-mm wafers. The companies then plan to boost capacity to 67,500 wafers by October-December 2008.
The maximum capacity at the new plant, to be located in western Japan's Mie prefecture, is estimated to come to 150,000 wafers a month, which would be 36% bigger than the full capacity at the existing 300-mm plant built by the two companies.

T-VIPS to demo at IBC 2006
T-VIPS AS, a Norwegian technology company that designs, builds and supplies world-leading solutions for contribution & distribution of broadcast quality video signals over IP networks, announced that IBC 2006 will play host to live demonstration of the T-VIPS TVG430 HD-SDI to IP Video Gateway. In addition, T-VIPS will also launch the TVG415 an SD (Standard Definition) version of the TVG430 and IBC2006 will also see the first public demonstration of the newly launched T-VIPS cProcessor family of products, designed for the efficient adaptation of MPEG-2 transport streams and primarily targeted at the DVB-T market.
The European launch of the TVG430 enables the transmission of HDTV over IP networks using a JPEG2000 codec to enable HDTV signals to be transmitted over Gigabit Ethernet links. T-VIPS is also launching the TVG415, an SD version of the TVG430. The advantages of JPEG2000 compared to other compression standards include; low latency, high video quality and high error resiliency. Both the TVG430 and TVG415 are part of the T-VIPS Video Gateway suite; a line of compact, powerful and cost-effective products designed for real-time contribution & distribution of broadcast quality video over IP networks.
The T-VIPS launch of the TVG430 complements the existing T-VIPS range and makes IP contribution & distribution an economic reality for HD as well as for SD. With this launch, T-VIPS has an IP backhaul solution for all broadcasters’ requirements, from ASI through un-compressed SD to HD, all the while maximising picture quality by deploying cutting-edge technologies such as PRO-MPEG forward error correction and the JPEG2000 compression standard.
“This is an ideal time for the European launch of our JPEG2000 products,” says T-VIPS' CEO Johnny Dolvik.
Related Channels: Video

AMCC to acquire Quake Technologies
Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Quake Technologies, Inc. Quake is a privately-held fabless semiconductor company that is the leading vendor of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE) PHY technology. Enterprise networks, including the Data Center are experiencing a rapid transition from 1GE to 10GE, and Quake’s technology is designed in and shipping to the leading vendors serving this high-performance networking space.
According to the Dell’Oro group, 10GE ports are predicted to grow from approximately 500 thousand ports shipped in 2006 to over 9 million ports shipped in 2010; a 17-fold increase in four years. 10GE is now one of the fastest growing networking technologies.
"Quake is the worldwide leading provider of 10GE PHY silicon. They have captured significant designs with the leading vendors in the Enterprise and Data Center markets," said Kambiz Hooshmand, president and CEO of AMCC. "This acquisition allows AMCC to obtain an early entrance and strong presence into this rapidly expanding, high volume market."
"AMCC’s expertise in packet processing complements Quake’s leading 10GE PHY technology," said Daniel Trépanier, president and CEO of Quake. "Integrating with AMCC will enable us to offer a unique and wide range of differentiated, value-added system-level solutions in the Enterprise market."

Top Story: China to announce its own standard for terrestrial DTV: DMB-T/H
China is poised to issue its own standard for terrestrial DTV soon. The terrestrial DTV standard will cover both fixed and mobile terminals, and will eventually serve more than half of China's TV viewers, especially those in suburban and rural areas.
The standard is being called Digital Multimedia Broadcast-Terrestrial/H