OXFORD, United Kingdom—With Bluetooth chipset manufacturers forecasting shipments of more than 90 million devices this year, the technology looks, eventually, like it is coming of age. The announcement last week by Apple to support the short-range wireless technology brings fresh impetus to Bluetooth after...
LONDON—Although global computer chip sales are down sharply form a year ago, year-on-year comparisons are improving, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, commenting on numbers recently released by the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA) and the European Electronic component Manufacturers' Association (EECA).For example, although...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Mobile phones should be equipped with satellite tracking and theft alarms, according to the U.K.-based Design Council. The organization claimed that if cell-phone manufacturers adopt these two examples, the number of thefts of mobile devices would decline rapidly.According to Clive Grinyer, director...
BEIJING—China Unicom's CDMA network registered 448,000 subscribers at the end of February. Only a paltry 9,000 users signed up in February. The vast majority of CDMA users were transferred from an existing network that Unicom took over from Great Wall Telecom, and brand new...
HAMAMATSU CITY, Shizuoka—Yamaha Corp. announced it will provide a 16-note polyphonic cellular ring tone download service to German carrier E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG—coinciding with E-Plus's launch of i-mode wireless Internet service in Germany.The service, Yamaha Super-Ringtone!, will be distributed to NEC's i-mode-capable...
AUSTIN, Texas, United States—Motorola said it sold its GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) handset chip technology to Benq of Taiwan, one of Asia's leading original design manufacturers of mobile phones."The scalable, highly integrated i.250 platform combines an advanced chipset with an unparalleled development, field-proven...
TOKYO—Motorola Inc. said it plans to shut its chip plants in Texas and Japan, involving 4,000 layoffs. This will be part of the 9,400 workers the company plans to cut as it pursues profitability.The company also plans to move much of its chip activities...
WASHINGTON-A Bush administration report due out shortly could hurt Nextel Communications Inc.'s campaign to win government approval of a controversial spectrum realignment plan designed to resolve commercial wireless interference to public safety and business radio systems, a proposal major U.S. industry sectors blasted last...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. announced it will launch gpsOne-enabled handsets and their associated position location service plans from KDDI Corp. in Japan this month.Qualcomm's gpsOne technology is integrated on its MSM3300 chip, which is included in the handset. The chip then provides all location technology,...
SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. announced it will launch gpsOne-enabled handsets and their associated position location service plans from KDDI Corp. in Japan this month.Qualcomm's gpsOne technology is integrated on its MSM3300 chip, which is included in the handset. The chip then provides all location technology,...
TOKYO—Toshiba Corp. announced it is selling its Virginia-based chip manufacturing plant to Micron Technology, thus exiting the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip manufacturing business.Toshiba expects the sale of Dominion Semiconductor to be completed by the end of January.
BURNABY, British Columbia—PMC-Sierra has released its PM2360-KIT Gandalf reference design kit, a reference platform for third-generation wireless base station designs.PMC-Sierra said the new design kit allows developers to design efficient and low-cost digital multi-carrier base station designs. It integrates PMC-Sierra's PM7815 PALADIN-15 chip, to...
KISTA, Sweden—Spirea AB unveiled its BlueTrac RF transceiver chip and BlueAmp power amplifier designed to extend the range of Bluetooth radios.The company said the BlueTrac chip does not require any external passive components, allowing it to run with a low rate of power consumption,...
BEIJING—Philips Semiconductor and China's Huawei Technologies have agreed to jointly develop application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for 3G products.Philips Semiconductor will mainly provide technical support and manufacturing services. The company will provide Huawei with 0.18 micron ASICs.Both companies are also considering cooperating in the...
While 802.11b, otherwise known as Wi-Fi, has made huge inroads as the wireless local area network technology of choice, many companies providing equipment and support for the technology acknowledge higher-speed alternatives will eventually displace Wi-Fi as the WLAN standard. Those alternatives include 802.11a, which...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Hitachi Semiconductor Inc. said it has unveiled a new Flash memory product, called Mobile Media Chips, which saves space and enhances storage for multimedia functions in handheld PCs, personal digital assistants, mobile phones and pagers."The benefits make the Mobile Media Chip ideal...
CHICAGO—Motorola Inc. said it has created a new subsidiary called Thoughtbeam Inc. to commercialize its chip technology, which combines low-cost silicon with speed-of-light.The company's corporate vice president Padmasree Warrior will head the subsidiary as general manager.
HELSINKI, Finland-Scandinavia has long been the most fertile and concentrated spawning ground for technology innovation in Europe. The torchbearers for this culture have been led by global names such as Nokia, Ericsson, Benefon and Europolitan.In 1985, Nokia's main claim to fame was as one...
BEIJING-The U.S. subsidiary of China's largest electric meter producer, the Holley Group based in the eastern province of Zhejiang, has acquired the design operations for CDMA mobile phones from Philips Semiconductors, a division of Holland's Philips Electronics.Holley Communications USA plans to provide chip design...
ARMONK, N.Y.-International Business Machines says it has developed a low-power chip that can prolong battery life of cell phones, pocket computers and other wireless devices.The product, the PowerPC 405LP, pares down power consumption by 90 percent by shutting off areas that are not needed...
TOKYO—Japanese chip maker Toshiba Corp. says it will roll out a mobile Internet phone in Europe next year.The phone is expected to be GPRS-enabled, according to the company.
HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia announced plans for a wide-ranging test of mobile commerce products and services, moves that include making secure credit card payments using a mobile phone wallet application.Nokia is teaming with IBM, Visa International, local banking and technology companies and Finnish mobile operator Radiolinja...
SALT LAKE CITY—Valence Semiconductor announced its VS7001 integrated circuit for GPS applications is now available. "The VS7001 represents a milestone in GPS design engineering and innovation moving toward the world's first single chip GPS," said Antony Beswick, vice president of strategic marketing for Valence....
SHERMAN, Texas-Texas Instruments Inc. said it has developed the fastest family chip that can enhance the overall speed of all networking systems including broadband, data storage and video imaging applications.The products, the 3.3-V DSP-Sync First-In, First-Out, ensures efficiency by preventing digital signal processors from...
