Communications

TTPCom has licensed its cellular baseband chipset design, called CBEmacro 3G, to an unnamed firm. A spokesman said the firm is already a TTPCom customer and has previously licensed its 2G designs, which are not yet available on the market. “This is really a follow on project. It is a major deal, in seven figures,” said the spokesman. Products containing ...

Forget WiFi. That’s the opinion of the former top engineer for the Federal Communications Commission, who said that WiFi has reached maturity and that the next phase of home or office networks will be dominated by WiMedia. Edmond Thomas said at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show that ultra-wideband technology ultimately will reach more than a gigabit per ...

At the Consumer electronics Show in Las Vegas, chip developer Broadcom has unveiled an audio/video decoder chip supporting both standards for high definition video storage. The BCM7411D HD A/V chip decodes both H.264, the MPEG4 advanced video codec, and VC-1, the SMPTE standard, and can thus handle data from both Blu-ray or HD DVD discs. The device is also backward ...

Cambridge Consultants has won a contract to work with PicoChip to develop software-defined radio reference designs for the mobile WiMAX (802.16e) market. The development work will be based on PicoChip’s DSP device and will aim to provide the air interfaces required for basestation and mobile station equipment in WiMAX 802.16e wireless networks, but in forms which are inherently software-upgradeable, said ...

Digital video imaging (DVI) is fast replacing the traditional analogue VGA standard, and is becoming the de facto standard interface for the high-speed transfer of high volumes of digital image data. DVI uses a technique called transmission minimised differential signalling (TMDS) which allows for faster communication with less likelihood of image degradation. As a result, DVI is starting to be ...

STMicroelectronics has joined the Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC), a coalition of Wi-Fi industry leaders formed in October. The group, which includes such powerhouses as Intel, Broadcom and Atheros, aims to accelerate and promote development of the IEEE 802.11n. ST is no stranger to 802.11n, a next-generation Wi-Fi standard based on Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology that is expected to be capable ...

Spirent said it plans to focus on its communications group and use the money raised from the sale to buy back £50m of shares. A further £70.4m will be used to repay outstanding loan notes and £47m will go the firm’s pension scheme. This will leave Spirent £82.1m to invest in the remaining business. The firm said the sale will ...

One of the two groups pushing for IEEE standardisation of ultra wideband radio technology has turned instead to a European organisation after over two years of delay and debate. The IEEE’s working party has been deadlocked for so long that selecting either the multiband version backed by the WiMedia Alliance, or the direct sequence technology preferred by Freescale among others, ...

Taiwan-based system-on-chip start-up Mobilic has released silicon aimed at enabling diverse video applications on a range of handheld devices. Its MP830 chip family is based around a 200MHz ARM926EJ-S core and supports full camera functions for devices up to 5Mpixel resolution. The firm, founded two years ago by ex-employees from CMOS image sensor developer IC Media, spent nine months completing ...

The troubled voices of the traditional telecoms industry players are watching as unregulated players take value from the networks by creating a structure that spells opportunity for those prepared to invest in it For the first time since the telecoms industry was de-regulated in the 1980s, the industry’s structure is coming under radical attack. “Anyone who can write a piece ...