SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said it reached an agreement with the world’s largest chip maker, Intel Corp., to continue licensing Code Division Multiple Access technology to DSP Communications Inc., which Intel agreed to purchase in October.
Qualcomm granted DSPC a cross license for CDMA technology in 1995, allowing DSP to make and sell CDMA application specific integrated circuits to Qualcomm’s subscriber terminal licensees and giving Qualcomm a cross license for CDMA ASICs under DSPC’s patents. Under the new agreement, DSPC would continue to hold the royalty-bearing license as a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, and Qualcomm will have access to certain of Intel’s patents.
In addition, Qualcomm and Intel have agreed to explore opportunities to expand the market for CDMA technology through the promotion and adoption of CDMA wireless connectivity for data and multimedia services.
DSPC is the only merchant CDMA chip licensee that is shipping product and actively competing with Qualcomm’s own ASICs business.
Qualcomm still is in the midst of renegotiating a license with Royal Philips Electronics NV after it purchased VLSI Technology Inc., another CDMA merchant licensee, in June. Qualcomm has said a new deal with Philips is imminent.
