Semiconductor

LEXINGTON, Mass.-Cellular3G Inc. announced a full-rate High Speed Downlink Packet Access solution, which the company said is a natural migration from its commercial UMTS Rel.4 UE baseband processor called TopHat. Alex Lax, the company’s chief technology officer, said the new …

SAN RAMON, Calif.-The ZigBee Alliance announced four ZigBee-compliant platforms from Chipcon, CompXs, Ember and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. The alliance conducted testing of the platforms to ensure interoperability via its official test houses, National Technical Systems Inc. and TUV Rheinland. It …

Freescale Semiconductor launched a single-source ZigBee-compliant platform, which the company said is the first of its kind in the world. The product was confirmed as IEEE 802.15.4- and ZigBee-compliant by TUV Rheinland of North America. The solution enables wireless products …

SpectraSite Inc. filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 250,000 shares of its common stock to adjust to a market price obligation. This will fulfill a stock buyback agreement with Goldman, Sachs & Co., and the …

Following is a list of wireless companies that received ratings changes by financial and analyst firms this week. Merrill Lynch upgraded its ratings on several semiconductor companies. Among its upgrades were Intersil from sell to neutral and its rating on …

BRISTOL, United Kingdom-Wireless semiconductor company Icera said it completed a $10 million extension to its July 2004 series B funding round, which now totals $32.5 million. Icera said the round was fully subscribed by existing investors Accell Partners, Atlas Venture …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Semiconductor supplier Advanced Analogic Technologies Inc. filed for a $172.5 million initial public offering. The company filed for the ticker symbol AATI. Advanced Analogic Technologies supplies application-specific power management technologies for electronic devices. The company offers more than 400 …

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.-The memory business did not fail chip companies last year, according to an annual semiconductor ranking from iSuppli Corp. The ranking showed that memory chip companies outperformed companies that concentrated on other products, said iSuppli. The sales revenue …

ATLANTA-As predicted by close industry watchers, the IEEE meeting here did not come up with a definitive tally for the 802.11n standard, but it was able to determine a preliminary winner-the TGN Sync. It garnered 56 percent of the vote …

As predicted by close industry watchers, the IEEE meeting here did not come up with a definitive tally for the 802.11n standard, but it was able to determine a preliminary winner-the TGN Sync consortium. TGN Sync garnered 56 percent of …

DALLAS-The World Wide Spectrum Efficiency (WWiSE) consortium, one of two competing groups offering a proposal to IEEE for 802.11n technology, gained another heavy hitter Friday as Nokia Corp. switched its support to the group. Motorola Inc. joined the WWiSE group …

Two chipmakers are either selling or mulling selling part of their wireless businesses, while another company is selling its shares in a semiconductor firm. RF Micro Devices Inc. said it is doing away with its wireless local area network chip …

Motorola Inc. has thrown its weight behind one of two main standard proposals being developed for 802.11n technology. The World Wide Spectrum Efficiency consortium said it has harmonized its technical proposals with Motorola, which had developed a separate one. This …

Following is a roundup of ratings changes for companies in the wireless market during the week of Feb. 28. JP Morgan upgraded its rating on Texas Instruments from Underweight to Neutral on expectations of a mild upturn in the semiconductor …

TOKYO-Renesas Technology Corp. announced it formed a new design company, Renesas Design France S.A.S in Rennes, France, which the company said will develop and design baseband LSIs for phones. Renesas has been supplying system LSIs for mobile phones since the …

Two chipmakers are either selling or mulling selling part of their wireless businesses, while another company is selling its shares in a semiconductor firm. RF Micro Devices Inc. said it is doing away with its wireless local area network chip …

Motorola Inc. has thrown its weight behind one of two main standard proposals being developed for 802.11n technology. The World Wide Spectrum Efficiency consortium said it has harmonized its technical proposals with Motorola, which had developed a separate one. This …

AUSTIN, Texas-Samsung Electronics and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. demonstrated a prototype mobile phone that includes ultra-wideband technology. “Working with a world leader such as Samsung on this exciting product concept showcases the tremendous possibilities for UWB in cellular products,” said Franz …

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom-Digital wireless company TTPCom this week made available technology enabling TV reception on next-generation mobile phones. TTPCom unveiled a DVB-H (digital video broadcast for handhelds) demodulator/decoder technology designed to allow semiconductor vendors to deploy high-performance video broadcast services …

OTTAWA, Ontario-SiGe Semiconductor Inc. launched a Global Positioning System receiver system for cellular phones. The SE8901 GPS receiver works with GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS phones. The receiver integrated circuit integrates a GPS radio, GPS processing accelerator, on-chip LNA and …

SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said Seiko Epson Corp. has integrated its LCD controller chip with Qualcomm’s integrated mobile display digital interface technology. The MDDI solution connects LCD panels and camera modules to the mobile station modem. “The MDDI solution complements our …

AUSTIN, Texas-Freescale Semiconductors Inc. announced fourth-quarter profits as Scott Anderson, its president and chief operating officer, left the company stating it was time to move on. The company reported a full-year net income of $211 million, or 62 cents per …

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.-Fixed-line operators should be concerned about competition from High-Speed Downlink Packet Access technology, according to a report from ABI Research titled, “HSDPA-Mobile Broadband.” Trial systems using the technology-which will bump typical transmission speeds up from 300 kilobits per …

Pantech&Curitel, a South Korean manufacturing company comprising the mobile-phone operations of Curitel Communications Inc. and Pantech Group, announced ambitious plans to sell 10 million Pantech-branded mobile phones in the United States in 2005. However, industry watchers believe the company faces …

Will ZigBee wireless technology have an effect on Bluetooth? Once envisioned as the solution to all personal-area wireless connectivity, the reality of rapidly growing multimedia file sizes, connectivity needs and reliability have proven to be challenges for Bluetooth as it …