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Technology Stocks : VLSI Technology - Waiting for good news from NASDAQ !!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lifeisgood who wrote (5619)	3/9/1999 3:30:00 PM
From: Linda Kaplan	Respond to of 6565

Headline: INTERVIEW-VLSI sees 99 takeoff for Bluetooth chips ====================================================================== By Marcel Michelson PARIS, March 9 (Reuters) - VLSI Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:VLSI), fighting a $777 million hostile bid by Philips (AMS:PHG), said on Tuesday 1999 would be a breakthrough year for its Bluetooth project to talk to each other by radio waves. The San Jose, California, company said it had taken a lead in the industry because it was the first to make a Bluetooth chip. "All the big groups are working on it but we are the first with a product in the market," Gerhard Heider, director of corporate product planning and development, told Reuters. VLSI's technology position with Bluetooth and its Velocity Standard Communication Platform, which allows rapid development of special chips for appliances, could explain its attraction to Dutch Philips Electronics NV which on Friday made a hostile bid. Last Thursday VLSI announced a deal with Ericsson (SWED:LME.B) that will let the Swedish group's mobile phones communicate with computers, digital personal assistants or a headset by radio waves. Ericsson currently uses infrared links. From manufacture this year of about one million Bluetooth chips, VLSI expects 90 million computers with Bluetooth to be sold in 2002 and that 155 million portable phones sold in 2002 will use the standard. Adding computing, accessories and cellular, VLSI expects a total 250 million chips with Bluetooth to be shipped in 2002. "And these are conservative estimates," Heider said. At the Hannover CeBit computer trade fair, which will start in March 18, Heider expects eight to nine computer companies to make Bluetooth announcements. The Telecoms '99 trade fair in Geneva in October will feature even more Bluetooth applications. "In 1999, we will see whether our hopes will become reality," said Heider. The Bluetooth chips are part of the company's Communications division based at Sophia Antipolis in France. This division generates more than 50 percent of total VLSI revenues -- $550 million in 1998 -- and this proportion is expected to grow with Bluetooth. A current three-block chip, with separate flash memory and radio module costs $20-a-unit, but VLSI plans to put everything on a single chip at $5 per unit in 2001. The Bluetooth consortium was set up in May 1998 on the initiative of Ericsson, Nokia (HELS:NOKAV), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Toshiba Corp (TOKYO:6502). It is named after a legendary Nordic king who ate so many blueberries that his teeth became blue. It now has more than 500 members, including chip makers such as STMicroelectronics (SBF:STM), Motorola (NYSE:MOT) and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) and appliance makers ranging from Denmark's LEGO Systems to The Boeing Corp (NYSE:BA). The radiolinks work up to 10 metres and the Bluetooth standard currently calls for a bandwith of one megabit, more than current telephone lines. That is planned to be upgraded. It would allow portable computers to "talk" to printers, other computers and telephones. It would permit wireless joysticks and small headsets for handsfree mobile telephony. In a car, or in a plane, it could replace much of the complicated wiring between electronic components and fly-by-wire could become fly-by-radio. Combined with a set-top box for cable television, or with an Internet-linked computer, Bluetooth connections could turn a house into a local area network. A user could turn on the oven and raise the heat before setting off home. paris.newsroom@reuters.com)) Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service