InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

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Innovics Wireless: New baseband ASIC cuts power consumption of dual-mode



California, Feb 20, 2003 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Semiconductor start-up Innovics Wireless announced a new diversity processing solution for next-generation wireless systems, which will significantly reduce the power consumed by dual mode 2.5/3G terminals. By enabling a significant increase in the rate of data download, the Innovics IW7520 reduces the time spent downloading and thereby increases terminal battery life.

Implemented in a small silicon area, the Innovics IW7520 device has a low-power architecture that is compliant with 3GPP UMTS (WCDMA), but also compatible with GPRS and GSM standards. This provides the terminal user with access to existing 2G and 2.5G services as well as 3G networks.

President and CEO, Tom Willey commented: "Innovics already manufactures the leading solution for diversity processing in 3G terminals. We wanted to develop our offering to enable manufacturers to bridge the 2G to 3G gap smoothly. The Innovics IW7520 allows our customers to define a product that will achieve the best data rates, whether on 2.5G or 3G networks."

Like Innovics' existing 3G-only solution, the new IW7520 hardware is capable of offering up to 2Mbit/s downloads and 768kbit/s uploads via a 3G network. The new device also supports hard hand-off between UMTS FDD and GSM cells, and complies with GSM Phase 2+ and GPRS multi-slot class 12 (5 slots). The IW7520 offers a full range of GSM standard vocoders, SMS services, EMS messaging and circuit-switched and packet switched data - including fax.

The IW7520 uses Innovics' patented terminal-based diversity processing technology to increase the average data rate available per user in a cellular system. Despite its small size, this low-cost, multi-mode, multi-band baseband processor contains approximately 3 times the processing power of other solutions.

In a typical 3G mobile terminal, diversity processing can increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the mobile terminal by 7dB on average. This gain enables reliable broadband data connections at the promised data rates (384kbit/s to 2Mbit/s) throughout the entire 3G cell. The effective coverage of a cell is dramatically extended and capacity can be increased by up to a factor of four, reducing the need for 3G cells and infrastructure costs by up to 50 percent.

Power-efficiency in the IW7520 is enhanced by the use of clock gating and an intelligent adaptive algorithm, which controls the power mode (active/sleep/shut-down) of different processing blocks according to prevailing channel conditions and the required quality of service. The device also uses dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) - varying the supply voltage and clock frequency to minimise power consumption.

About Innovics Wireless

* Innovics Wireless is a privately held semiconductor start-up with strong expertise in wireless communications. Since 2001, the California-based company has focused of providing advanced baseband signal processing solutions to the emerging 2.5G and 3G cellular markets

* Innovics Wireless is committed to providing complete solutions with enhanced capabilities that enable high speed data communications even under the most challenging environmental conditions - this is achieved through the mobile terminal and does not require any modifications to the base station and infrastructure.

* Through advanced signal processing SoC solutions, Innovics Wireless is able to improve data transmission to wireless handsets and create capacity where none was previously possible.

* Innovics Wireless is the first to market the mobile terminal diversity to simultaneously improve coverage, capacity, talk time and performance.

* Innovics founder Dr Babak Daneshrad has extensive experience in diversity solutions, developed as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCLA and while he was a researcher at AT&T Bell Labs. He is recognised as a world leader in the design and development of high speed wireless data communication systems.

* The company secured its second round of funding in September 2002. Investors include Palomar Ventures, Interwest Partners and Broadcom Corporation.

CONTACT: Gerald Cross/Mary Elvin, EML Tel: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]

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