CUPERTINO, Calif.-Founded in 1996, chip startup Tropian Inc. today released its first product, an RF transceiver for mobile phones that combines the transmissions of GSM and EDGE technologies. The company said the product will lead to smaller, more powerful and more efficient phones.
“We’re way ahead of the market,” boasted Tim Unger, Tropian’s president and chief executive officer.
Tropian sits on $80 million in venture capital and counts 45 employees. However, the company only recently got into the chip-making business after a three-year delay. Unger said Tropian initially had planned to go to market with its Polar Impact technology, but delays in the rollout of third-generation wireless networks caused a change in plans.
Tropian’s technology is intended to improve the performance of handsets that have to support multiple network technologies, like GSM, EDGE and W-CDMA. However, such technology wasn’t needed until recently, which forced Tropian to pass the time designing handsets for the likes of Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and others. Tropian’s Unger said the work helped the company gain a better view into the mobile-phone market and gave it a solid position for the evolution to 3G.
“The market has come to us now,” he said.
Tropian’s new chip is the first in a line of products working on the company’s technology. Unger said the company plans to release additional chips that will support technologies including W-CDMA, Wi-Fi and potentially even WiMAX. Tropian will sell the chips to handset makers and baseband chip suppliers like Texas Instruments Inc.
In other chip news:
- Skyworks Solutions Inc. introduced new mixed signal and digital semiconductors for W-CDMA and HSDPA technologies.
- TTP Communications plc said it will use Radvision’s multimedia and video telephony technology in its handset platform.
- TI conducted a live call using its single-chip product for mobile phones.
