Neosilicon bites into Bluetooth
redherring.com
By Phil Harvey, Editor
Redherring.com, January 05, 2000
In a sign that the hyped Bluetooth standard is close to becoming a reality, two seasoned VCs have launched a startup to create a low-cost chip that makes it easier for computing devices to talk to each other.
Neosilicon, with about $7 million in seed funding from Norwest Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, aims to build high-speed communications circuits on standard CMOS chips. The company's intent is to provide communications device makers with cheaper chips that consume less power and space inside Bluetooth devices.
The company is being led by David Tahmassebi, a former marketing executive at VLSI Technology, a set-top box chip company that Philips (NYSE: PHG) acquired in June. The technical brains behind the outfit is chief technical officer Morteza Saidi, also formerly with VLSI.
If successful, Neosilicon could speed the adoption of Bluetooth in consumer electronics and computing devices, bringing us closer to the day when we can share information between digital devices without the tangle of cables and wires.
The company wants to keep quiet about specific plans until February, says Bruce Graham, a partner with Bessemer and a Neosilicon director. But Redherring.com has learned that one of the first applications of Neosilicon's technology will be a Bluetooth-enabled chip that combines the microprocessor and wireless radio functions on a chip the size of a postage stamp.
For device makers, a one-chip solution for the Bluetooth specification will help them add wireless networking capability at about one third of what it costs today, analysts say. Some analysts have speculated that adding Bluetooth capabilities to a device could cost anywhere from $5 to $25 per device.
CUTTING BLUETOOTH
Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Toshiba, and a slew of other companies created the Bluetooth standard to make it easy for device users to synchronize and share data. The specification calls for a tiny, short-range radio to be built into a 9mm-by-9mm chip, along with software that would do things like manage the radio's connection to other devices.
|
