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Technology Stocks : Bluetooth: from RF semiconductors to softw. applications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mats Ericsson who wrote (160)	2/24/2000 5:01:00 PM
From: Mats Ericsson	Respond to of 322

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.

To: Mats Ericsson who wrote (160)	2/24/2000 5:19:00 PM
From: Mats Ericsson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 322

CONVERGENCE, NeoSilicon, same Bluetooth-venturecapitalist CONVERGENCE CEO: James Harkins Founded: 1997 Employees: 15 Norcross, Georgia 770/849-9950 www.cvcorp.com Recently funded Startups that have received seed funding in the last six months By Red Herring. MARKET Develops software for connecting wireless smart devices to each other via the Internet and corporate networks. In April 1998 launched first product, TeleBrowser, which provides notification and remote-query capabilities to communications devices and runs on NT server software. Users can monitor corporate data like sales, inventory levels, and production capacity and specify conditions to allow orders to be processed automatically. Currently developing embedded-system software for the new Bluetooth short-range (10 to 100 meters) wireless radio specifications for mobile devices. Formulated by IBM, Toshiba, Intel, Nokia, and Ericsson, the Bluetooth specifications are designed for low-powered radio frequency modules of chips that use a globally available unlicensed frequency (2.4 GHz). Expects to ship Bluetooth-based software in the second half of 1999. Is currently negotiating first partnership agreements. Customers include Ericsson, GTE, LG, Lucent Technologies, and Panasonic. Competes with Phoenix Technologies and Smartcode Software. FINANCE Profitable. Revenues for 1997 were more than $500,000. Raised seed funding of $715,000 in September 1998 from Venture Investment Management. Expects to raise another round this year. CEO cofounded the company and was previously director of sales at SystemSoft. By Lawrence Aragon, Editor Redherring.com, December 11, 1999 (Excerpts:) Does Bluetooth have bite? Will Norwest Venture Partners sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA)? When should you run a background check on your venture capitalist? Promod Haque tackles these questions and more as he once again plays the role of The Smart VC. The first half of Mr. Haque's interview ran on Tuesday. You liked it so much that you fired off more questions over email, which the Norwest general partner was happy to answer in a follow-up phone interview Thursday. .... LONG IN THE BLUETOOTH Q. OK, here's a question about the Bluetooth standard. This person wants to know what you think about it and whether it's going to take off. [Bluetooth is a short-range wireless standard that would allow a bunch of mobile devices to talk to each other as well as to regular phones and desktop computers -- even when users wander around an office full of walls. The first Bluetooth products are expected to ship early next year.] A. I think it's going to be huge, because you're playing in a consumer market -- personal digital assistants, cell phones, car phones. Opportunities will emerge for specific products that use the Bluetooth standard, and for Bluetooth-enabling chips that go into the devices. But these chips have to be very cheap, very small, and produced at a very low cost. Today, it's very expensive, because you have to use bipolar/BiCMOS semiconductor processes. If you're going to get into a mass market, you really need to get into vanilla CMOS. The bulk of the digital circuits used in the industry today are traditional CMOS. norwestvp.com