News

Bluetooth Low Energy Find Me and Proximity Profiles finalized
Ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA today announces that the Bluetooth SIG’s recent finalization of its Bluetooth low energy Find Me and Proximity profiles – part of the latest Bluetooth Version 4.0 (v4.0) specification – will make mass-market wireless proximity and security sensing viable for the first time. Read

Worldwide Smartphone Chip Revenue CAGR to Approach 21% 2009–2015, Says In-Stat
There is little question that smartphone shipments are increasing by leaps and bounds every year, and that these devices are being enabled with more processing power to perform complex tasks on multiple technologies. Read

TI introduces OpenLink, open source wireless connectivity solutions for low power applications
Texas Instruments Incorporated today announced delivery of a mobile-grade, battery-optimized Wi-Fi solution to the open source Linux community as part of the OpenLink project, focused on providing a wide range of wireless connectivity solutions for native Linux. Read

TI to acquire National Semiconductor
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) and National Semiconductor today announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which TI will acquire National for $25 per share in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion. Read

Skyworks Powering Multiple LTE Platforms
Skyworks Solutions, Inc., an innovator of high reliability analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling a broad range of end markets, today announced that its extensive LTE product portfolio continues to gain traction with leading handset OEMs and smart phone providers and is at the heart of several new, yet unreleased 4G devices slated for launch later this year. Skyworks enabled the world’s first commercial LTE device, Samsung’s high speed 4G USB modem, the world’s first mobile LTE handset, and several platforms from ST-Ericsson. Since then, Skyworks has secured additional design wins with HTC, among others, to power various 4G smart phones. Read

Imec reports reconfigurable radio solutions enabling low-power spectrum sensing and low cost
Imec presents a digital front-end component for low-cost and low-power spectrum sensing, paving the way to power-efficient cognitive radios and networks. The new results support industry’s search for increased flexibility and reliability for their next-generation wireless devices.  Read

Wireless Experts Say The Signal Is Clear For Whitespace
Cambridge Consultants has highlighted three applications ripe for innovation and market growth due to the newly freed whitespace spectrum: rural broadband provisioning; municipal wireless networks; and in-home media distribution. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently released the final rules for whitespace radio devices, freeing up unlicensed bands to the public. Those highly desirable “super Wi-Fi” whitespace connections can travel through walls and transmit at a distance ten times today’s Wi-Fi signals. Experts suggest the rest of the world will not be far behind in legalizing unlicensed use of those unused TV channels freed up by the digital switchover, creating the potential for a $100B market. Read

Wireless Innovation Forum Meeting and White Space Summit Sept 13-17, 2010
The Wireless Innovation Forum (SDR Forum Version 2.0) will hold a working meeting from Sept. 13-17, 2010 in Schaumburg, Illinois, hosted by Motorola. The second TV White Space Summit will be held in conjunction with this meeting. Read

Tektronix Commits to 200 GHz SiGe Technology for High-Speed Oscilloscopes
Tektronix, Inc. today announced that its next-generation, scalable, performance oscilloscope platform will make broad use of IBM 8HP silicon germanium (SiGe) technology. The 130 nanometer (nm) SiGe bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) foundry technology offers 2x performance over the previous generation — and targets delivery of oscilloscopes with real-time bandwidth beyond 30 GHz. More

SCA Standards Steering Group Announced
The Wireless Innovation Forum (www.WirelessInnovation.org) today announced the initial Steering Group for the Forum’s Coordinating Committee on International Software Communications Architecture Standards (CC SCA). Read

Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy Harvesting and RFID in Asia
Governments in Asia have been strongly advocating RFID in all its forms – from passive RFID tags to tags with a battery or energy harvester that can be used to create Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), including mesh networks. Tags with batteries – known as Active RFID – are used for longer read range applications and where more functionality is required, such as multiple sensor inputs. The fastest areas of growth are Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Read

Skyworks Enables World’s First Commercial LTE Device
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. today announced that Samsung Electronics is leveraging one of its power amplifier (PA) modules for the GT-B3710 – a high speed fourth generation (4G) USB modem that is the world’s first long-term evolution (LTE)-commercialized device. Read

500,000 new 4G Subscriptions in 2010; but Increase is Regional, says In-Stat
4G technology deployments and subscriptions will begin to take root in 2010 but only in North America and Western Europe reports In-Stat. The rest of the world won’t begin to embrace 4G Technology in any significant way until 2012. Read

EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q1 2010
The EDA Consortium Market Statistics Service today (7/12/10) announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue for Q1 2010 was $1,247 million, a 4.6 percent increase compared to $1,192.1 million in Q1 2009. Sequential EDA revenue declined 1.2 percent, while over the last four quarters it declined 5.9 percent. Read

Embedded Insights Launches Embedded Processing Directory
Embedded Insights, Inc.  today launched its Embedded Processing Directory, a live online resource that allows  embedded developers to evaluate and compare embedded processors from over 80  vendors based on processor size, processor type, instruction set, target  applications, and vendor name. Read

Germany Embraces 4G
Germany has taken a first big step toward next-generation wireless Internet by becoming the first country in Europe to auction off a sizeable chunk of spectrum to deliver the new high-speed services. Now users in Europe’s largest mobile communications market will have to wait and see if the operators deliver the goods with 4G (fourth-generation) services, such as LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and WiMAX. Read

TI Announces First Bluetooth Low-Energy Silicon
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced adoption of Bluetooth low energy technology, the hallmark feature of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. In conjunction, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced full qualification of the Bluetooth low energy stack supporting the BlueLink™ and WiLink™ connectivity combo solutions. TI also achieved complete Bluetooth v4.0 controller qualification on the CC2540 low-power, single-mode system-on-chip (SoC) running both protocol stack and application software. Read

Bluetooth SIG Adopts Low-Energy Spec
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the formal adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0, with the hallmark feature, low energy technology. This final step in the adoption process signals to Bluetooth SIG members that the Bluetooth SIG Qualification Program is now open for qualification of all Bluetooth product types to the Version 4.0 Specification. Read

Despite New Devices, WiMAX Development is Hampered by Multiple Factors
The outlook for WiMAX is a mixed bag, reports In-Stat. As the wireless technology vies with LTE and other competitive technologies for market share, it continues to grow. However, its development is hampered by multiple factors. Read

Imec’s cognitive baseband radio to support 4G and broadband access to multiple services
Imec has introduced a cognitive baseband radio (COBRA) architecture targeting 4G requirements at up to 1Gbit/s throughput and multiple asynchronous concurrent streams (for instance simultaneous digital broadcasting reception and high-speed internet access). The low-cost, flexible architecture answers a new trend in wireless communication where terminals give their users ubiquitous broadband access to a multitude of services. Read

Ballots and Proposals to Advance and New Projects Announced at Wireless Innovation Forum Working Meeting, June 21-23
WASHINGTON–May 21, 2010–The Wireless Innovation Forum (www.WirelessInnovation.org) will finalize a Public Safety proposal and a new Security Working Group document as well as propose a new project for developing a “Hybrid SATCOM Reference Architecture for Public Safety Applications,” among many other items, at its 66th General Meeting, June 21-23, 2010, in Mainz, Germany. Read