Pat I have been unable to access CTIA webpage thus far. If i can find out any specifics regarding Spectrums' presence//roll I will forward it. However, given the two products below which Spectrum has been working on I suspect that they will be there in a big way wether in person or on the system.
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Multicarrier Base Station Solution
ADI will demonstrate a Multicarrier base station that uses ADI's new
software radio architecture, which allows Direct IF sampling of
multicarrier signals and digital receiver channelizing of desired
signals. The chipset represents a radical shift in radio architecture
and enables smaller, more powerful base stations to be designed for
wireless systems.
Technology Capabilities for 3G Infrastructure
ADI will showcase its silicon technology capabilities for 3G
infrastructure, which offer a promising platform for WBCDMA. The
portfolio will demonstrate the breadth of ADI's product line and
reinforce the company's position as a leading supplier of high-per
formance, end-to-end silicon-based wireless solutions for third
generation wireless infrastructure.
The TigerSHARC(TM) DSP
ADI's ground-breaking digital signal processor (DSP) architecture will
also be featured. The DSP will offer designers with the fastest signal
processing performance on the market, starting at 2 billion
multiply/accumulates (MACs) per second at 250 MHz. TigerSHARC's Static
Superscalar architecture provides single-chip native support for 8-, 16- and 32-bit data processing, each critical for the next generation of telecommunications protocols under development including IMT-2000.
spectrumsignal.com
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Backgrounder
SPECTRUM SIGNAL ACQUIRES ALEX COMPUTER SYSTEMS SOLIDIFYING POSITION AS
WORLD'S LARGEST DSP SYSTEMS COMPANY
Bolsters Spectrum's Floating-Point Solutions for High-Growth DSP Markets Burnaby, B.C., Canada - April 20, 1998 - Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. (NASDAQ NMS: SSPIF / TSE: SSY), the industry leader in high-performance Digital Signal Processing (DSP) systems, today solidified its leadership position in the DSP systems industry with the acquisition of the high growth floating-point DSP company, Alex Computer Systems, for a combination of Spectrum stock, cash and warrants totaling over $8M (CDN). A privately-held corporation headquartered in Ithaca, N.Y., Alex Computer Systems was established in 1995 as a wholly-owned US subsidiary of Alex Informatics, Inc. of Montreal, Canada. Alex Computer Systems is a leading supplier of floating-point DSP systems with a broad portfolio including 26 baseline products. These products are marketed internationally through 12 worldwide distributors and direct sales offices in the U.S., Europe and the U.K., and have been very successful worldwide with a cumulative average annual revenue growth rate of 110%, topping 130% growth in 1997.
DSP industry analyst Will Strauss of Forward Concepts, in Tempe Arizona, commented on the acquisition announced by Spectrum: "The DSP
consolidation trend continues as the strong DSP companies acquire solid, smaller strategic players. The Spectrum/Alex combination is great for the industry and will further solidify Spectrum's position as a leader in the DSP Systems business."
Targeted to fast growing segments such as remote sensing and wireless
applications, Alex's family of software, boards, and modules are based
on Analog Devices (NYSE:ADI) SHARC processor which is entirely
complementary, not competitive, to Spectrum's existing product lines. In addition to hardware, the combination represents a significant
opportunity to dominate the embedded DSP software business by
integrating the features of Alex's "Apex" DSP software development tools with those of established software player 3L, a wholly owned subsidiary of Spectrum, located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Alex also has experience in developing and manufacturing ruggedized DSP boards for harsh environments. All Alex products will be available through Spectrum effective immediately.
Alex has secured significant design wins over the past 18 months with
large commercial and government contractors involved in areas such as
wireless applications (including Signals Intelligence and cellular base stations), imaging applications (such as digital mapping and image processing) and remote sensing applications (such as aircraft radar, shipboard sonar, target recognition and electronic warfare). An order from Boeing Space and Defense (NYSE:BA) represents one such win, with an initial order in excess of US$1M and potential of US$60M over 5 years. Another order was placed by Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) for US$2M over 2 years, and a contract was recently signed with the US Navy with the potential for US$10M over the next 5 years. Alex has also won business in Europe for wireless base station products -- one with a potential yield of US$7.5M which, if successful, will be used in the wireless market by Nokia, Lucent and Motorola.
Barry Jinks, Spectrum's president and CEO, explains: "Buying the fastest growing SHARC-based company is the latest step in our growth strategy. This acquisition enables us to gain immediate access to Alex's customers - some very large floating-point, radar/sonar and wireless customers. This is Spectrum's second acquisition, solidifying our position in the DSP systems industry as the world's leading DSP systems supplier. With the consolidation of Spectrum's floating-point hardware design expertise and Alex's broad floating-point based software and hardware portfolio, customers will be able to access not only the highest performance - but also the easiest to use - COTS DSP systems available."
Andrew Talbot, president of Alex Computers, states: "I am very pleased
that we will be joining the strongest team in the DSP systems industry. This combination will assure that Spectrum remains the industry's largest player, positioning Alex's technology and complementary products in the forefront of the DSP systems industry with its established international presence, large direct sales team and strong marketing group. We are also very pleased that both companies product lines will be integrated, since Spectrum is well-known for upholding very high-quality standards."
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SPECTRUM SIGNAL PROCESSING ANNOUNCES SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE SUPPORT FOR
NEW ANALOG DEVICES1 ADSP-21160 SHARCÔ DSP
Burnaby, B.C., Canada - June 22, 1998 -- Spectrum Signal Processing Inc.
(NASDAQ NMS: SSPIF / TSE: SSY), the industry leader in high-performance DSP systems, announces it will support Analog Devices1 new 32-bit, floating-point, multiprocessing DSP, the ADSP-21160. With the recent acquisition of Alex Computer Systems, experts in massive parallel processing hardware and software, Spectrum is very committed to developing complete DSP system solutions based on the next generation 21160 chip. The Company is also enhancing its existing specialized software to support this new DSP.
Many of Spectrum1s customers will use this type of DSP chip in systems
with very large parallel processing requirements. Radar, shipboard
sonar, diagnostic imaging, vision systems, and radio surveillance are
examples of applications which often have massive parallel processing
requirements and may need a ADSP-21160 to meet the demands of these
applications.
Strong complementary software is the key to developing a large parallel system with the ADSP-21160, and Spectrum intends to offer software solutions that will easily facilitate code and application development for this type of high-performance system. 3L Limited1s real-time operating system software, Diamond (best suited for developing parallel DSP systems), will be enhanced with the very successful software products APEX-Pro and APEX-Debug, previously sold through Alex Computer Systems, with features specific to SHARC-based code development. This combination along with Spectrum1s internal debug, library, RTOS and system level software development will allow the Company to offer complete hardware and software systems to customers looking for off-the-shelf solutions.
3Analog Devices1 new high-performance, 32-bit, floating-point, DSP the
ADSP-21160, has five times the performance of the current SHARC
processor, and is code compatible, allowing our customers a seamless
migration to the new processor,2 comments Andrew Talbot, Business
Development Manager, Spectrum Signal Processing (formerly President of
Alex Computer Systems). 3Migrating to the 21160 will allow our customers to retain their software investment by reusing existing code and software libraries thereby speeding their time-to-market with a seamless move to Analog Devices1 latest parallel processing DSP.2
With the integration of Alex Computers1 specialized software products,
Spectrum now offers a new suite of software tools - the APEX product
line, specifically designed for high-performance, massively parallel
SHARC-based applications. These tools include APEX-Debug, a system level post-mortem debug analysis tool which provides the engineer very
detailed information on the final state of each DSP before a programming
error occurred, and APEX-Pro, an advanced programming environment that
simplifies parallel application development while retaining highly
efficient and optimized code.
The 211601s large internal memory blocks, multiple internal bus
structure, and integrated I/O subsystem, possess all the features
necessary to build very large parallel systems that provide true
scalability to any number of processors. Spectrum plans to develop
modular VME, PCI, and SHARCPAC hardware products based on the ADSP-21160 SHARC DSP, allowing customers greater flexibility and scalability when developing very large, high-performance, parallel DSP systems.
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Regards,
Norden |
