TI invests and forms foundry alliance with RF
chip maker ParkerVision
Semiconductor Business News
(03/09/01 11:28 a.m. PST)
DALLAS, Tex. -- Texas Instruments
Inc. here today (March 9)
announced it will invest and form a
major alliance with ParkerVision Inc.,
a radio-frequency (RF) chip
developer in Jacksonville, Fla. The
companies have also formed a
foundry and product development
alliance in the RF chip arena.
Under the terms, TI has purchased
83,451 shares of ParkerVision's
common stock at $29.96 per share,
for a total price of $2.5 million.
The companies will also co-develop
interfaces between ParkerVision's
next-generation RF transceivers and
TI's digital baseband chipsets. TI will also provide foundry
services for ParkerVision's line of RF chips based on so-called
Direct2Data (D2D) technology.
D2D is a high-performance, direct-conversion technology,
which eliminates the need for the intermediate-frequency
(IF) circuitry used in conventional RF designs, said Jeff
Parker, chief executive of ParkerVision.
This technology reduces component count and cost for
OEMs, said Doug Makishima, vice president of marking and
sales for the company.
In the first half of this year, ParkerVision will ship its first
product--a RF chip for use in wireless local-area networks
based on the 802.11b standard, Makishima said.
Later this year, the company will ship a RF product for
handsets based on code-division multiple access (CDMA)
technology, he said. This includes both IS-95 and
cdma2000, he added.
Other companies are developing similar RF chip technologies,
namely Analog Devices Inc. and Qualcomm Inc.
Now, TI wants to enter the field. "Next generation RF
solutions will require greater system integration, performance
and power efficiency in order to support the market's
demand for broadband-enabled, wireless data services," said
William Krenik, director of advanced architecture within TI's
Wireless Business Unit.
"ParkerVision's D2D transceiver technology represents a
differentiated approach to delivering direct conversion and
zero IF system architectures for a range of wireless
technologies including 2.5 and 3G handsets, Bluetoothand
802.11," he said.
As part of the terms, ParkerVision also has granted to TI
some 41,725 warrants with an exercise price of $29.96 per
share, 20,863 warrants with an exercise price of $37.45 per
share, and 20,863 warrants with an exercise price of $39.84
per share. |
