LSI Logic Corporation Establishes New Divisions to Address Growing Communications Business
Broadband Communications and Wireless Divisions to Propel
Communications Growth
MILPITAS, Calif., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today intensified its focus and investment in the rapidly expanding communications market by establishing two new divisions: the Broadband Communications and Wireless organizations. Both divisions were previously part of the Communications Division.
Giuseppe Staffaroni today was named vice president and general manager of the Broadband Communications Division. Danny Biran was named vice president and general manager of the newly created Wireless Division, which will focus on the wireless handset business.
"Within the communications industry, the broadband segment has grown tremendously, while the booming wireless market continues to develop its own unique needs," said John Daane, executive vice president of Communications, Computer and ASIC Products. "Our strategic realignment will allow us to best serve these high-growth markets."
Infrastructure Building Boom
The Broadband Communications Division is leading the development of digital-signal processors (DSPs) and ARM processor cores, technologies aimed at communications products. In doing so, Staffaroni said the group is focusing on two primary objectives:
-- Powering broadband-access products that connect a wide range of
peripheral devices to the Internet.
-- Serving broadband networks, which are bandwidth-intensive technologies
that collectively serve as the backbone of the Internet.
"The communications market has been driven heavily by a building boom of the Internet infrastructure," Staffaroni said. "Not only is the Broadband Communications Division powering wide area networks (WANs), but we're also providing customers with technology to build state-of-the-art products which will change the way people access the Internet."
"We intend to develop intellectual property to further address these markets and expand our product line."
Focus on Wireless Market
"The world is going wireless and we see a future where there will be a proliferation of hand-held, peripheral products delivering data from the Net," Biran said. "These products will rely on highly integrated systems on a chip, which is great news for LSI Logic."
Meanwhile, the number of manufactured wireless handsets is expected to quadruple worldwide during the next three-to-four years. According to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the worldwide handset market will produce 254 million units in 1999, 377 million units in 2000 and 1 billion units in 2003.
"Facing engineering and time-to-market challenges, many manufacturers are now seeking assistance in developing solutions for their wireless products," Biran said. "They will need to turn to a supplier such as LSI Logic, which is expanding third-generation standards in this area."
The new Wireless organization, which becomes the company's seventh vertical-market group, includes its own staff of engineers and marketing professionals. Most of the engineers in the division are located in a dedicated wireless technology center in San Diego.
Earlier this year, engineers in this division developed a processor using the technology standard known as CDMA (code division multiple access). CDMA is a digital technology that offers high voice quality and increased network capacity. The processor enables numerous communications devices, including wireless basestations and switching products. Due to its small size, decreased power consumption and low cost, the processor also serves cellular phones, wireless modems and other hand-held wireless devices.
"The engineering groups in Milpitas and San Diego have done an excellent job in developing the CDMA baseband processor ASSP," said Biran, who previously served as vice president of Strategic Marketing at LSI Logic. "Recently, a customer in Japan began selling wireless phones using our CDMA chip. It was a major milestone for us, and now we're looking to build on that success." |
