ARM‘s Andrew Frame interviews Nelson Yang and profiles some of the Mindspeed-powered devices on display at CES for our customers and partners.
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Productive Meetings with Customers and Partners at CES
The Mindspeed CPE and wireless team concluded a full week of meetings and product demonstrations from our private meeting room on the show floor at the 2012 International CES last Friday. While our room was only open to invited press, analysts, partners and customers, we were able to show several leading-edge product and technology demonstrations to those in attendance.
Among the demonstrations were:
Smart Metering: Mindspeed’s Comcerto 1000 SoC processor was featured in a demonstration of Rockethome’s unique User Engagement Platform for interpreting, visualizing and controlling smart home and smart metering applications. CES attendees saw how users can link home appliances and multimedia equipment both inside the home and over the Internet, control and automate functions, and measure energy usage and efficiency in a single, holistic application.
Video Transcoding-Enabled Broadband Gateway: Mindspeed showed how video transcoding in the residential gateway resolves the video format compatibility issues that have been plaguing consumers since the advent of digital video. Transcoding-enabled gateways also enable reliable video streaming over limited bandwidth or variable channels thereby greatly improving the subscriber’s experience.
Remote User Interface for Advanced Home Gateways: Mindspeed demonstrated how the Comcerto 1000 processor enables consumers to watch live or recorded video programming on any consumer electronics (CE) devices in any room. The processor was shown in a home gateway running JetHead Development’s embedded RVU™ server framework software components on an RVU server featuring theDigital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)-based RVU™ client/server remote interface.
Embedded Video-over-Wireless: We showed leading-edge Qualcomm Atheros Wi-Fi technology featuring a 3×3 MIMO radio operating in the 5GHz band has been integrated with Mindspeed’s Comcerto 1000 processors. The combined solution takes a significant step forward in processing Voice- and Video-over-IP media streams in next-generation media gateways for the connected home.
Small Cell Base Stations: We also showed small cell base station solutions powered by our award-winning Transcede® SoC and highlighted 3G/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) commercial femtocell products enabled by technology from Picochip Limited, which Mindspeed plans to acquire. Representatives from Picochip and Mindspeed were on hand to discuss small cell base station development for 3G and long-term evolution (LTE) networks.
Mindspeed to Acquire Picochip
As you know, Mindspeed announced that it would acquire Bath, UK-based Picochip Ltd earlier today.
You can find a webcast replay of the announcement on our Investors page.
You will also find our Deal-at-a-Glance document and a copy of the presentation.
Together, Mindspeed and Picochip will offer the most comprehensive portfolio of base station semiconductor solutions on the market, from residential to enterprise to pico/metro applications. Through this timely combination, Mindspeed’s enhanced product 
roadmap for single- and multi-mode 3G/4G solutions will enable it to capitalize on the rapid acceleration of the small cell wireless base station market, while also addressing comprehensive support for all 3G and 4G global air interface standards. Management estimates the total addressable market for the combined entity will grow to $3.0 billion by 2016. Management also believes technology synergies, operational synergies and opportunities for cross-selling products within each company’s customer base are substantial.
For Picochip, Mindspeed will pay cash of $27.5 million and approximately 5.19 million in new shares of Mindspeed common stock, amounting to approximately 15 percent of outstanding Mindspeed shares, for a total of $24.3 million, based upon the closing price of Mindspeed’s common stock on January 4, 2012. The cash portion of the initial purchase price will be financed in part with bank debt. The terms also include an earnout provision, whereby the purchase price can increase by up to $25 million, contingent on the achievement of certain milestones. The earnout, which is payable in the first calendar quarter of 2013, may be paid in cash, Mindspeed common stock or a combination thereof, at Mindspeed’s discretion.
The transaction has been approved by Mindspeed’s and Picochip’s boards of directors and is subject to certain closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2012. Mindspeed currently expects the acquisition, inclusive of anticipated synergies, to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share in the second half of calendar 2012.
“Our acquisition of Picochip establishes our position as a global leader in wireless infrastructure semiconductor solutions for next generation mobile broadband communications,” said Raouf Y. Halim, chief executive officer of Mindspeed. “It is a great strategic fit for several reasons. First, it positions Mindspeed as the clear leader in small cell base station technology with the industry’s broadest small cell product offering, addressing a significantly expanded market opportunity of $3.0 billion by 2016. Second, it enhances our competitive position as we join our respective 3G/4G technologies to offer single- and multi-mode solutions that we believe will provide us a time-to-market and product performance advantage relative to competitors. Third, it gives us the scale to lead the industry’s move toward fixed/mobile broadband convergence; a trend which we believe will drive revenue and earnings growth for Mindspeed in the future.”
Nigel Toon, chief executive officer and president of Picochip, stated, “Mindspeed is the ideal acquirer for us. Together, we have valuable technology and customer synergies, given Picochip’s carrier-qualified 3G wireless technology leadership with over 70 percent market share in 3G/high-speed packet access (HSPA) and Mindspeed’s proven pathway as the long-term evolution (LTE) small cell pioneer with the Transcede® product family. Our combined resources create one of the largest SoC development groups in the wireless infrastructure sector with complementary intellectual property scale and expertise to deliver the solutions that this fast-moving market demands.”
>> Here are links to some further thoughts on the deal from the media …
Electronics Weekly
January 5, 2012
The Deal
January 5, 2012
US Companies Snap up Euro Chip Bargains
Financial Times (FT Tech Hub)
January 5, 2012
Mindspeed Buys PicoChip for up to $75 Million
EE Times
January 5, 2012
Picochip Joins Mindspeed for Multi-mode Small Cell Push
Mobile Europe
January 5, 2012
Update: Picochip bought by Mindspeed
New Electronics
January 5, 2012
Mindspeed Buys ‘Small Cells’ Maker Picochip For Up To $76.8 Million
Tech Crunch
January 5, 2012
Mindspeed Buys Picochip for Small Cells Push
ReThink Wireless
January 5, 2012
Mindspeed Buys Small Cell Pioneer Picochip for $52M
FierceWireless Europe
January 6, 2012
Milestone: Over 5 million CPE processors shipped
Our Comcerto-series processors continue to drive the new era of value-added carrier services for the connected home.
Today we announced that Mindspeed has shipped over five million of our Comcerto® multi-core system-on-chip (SoC) embedded packet processors for products like residential gateways and broadband home routers (BHRs).
“Our Comcerto 1000 processor has particularly strong penetration in the BHR market, where we are playing an important role in this segment’s rapid expansion and evolution,” said Naser Adas, Mindspeed’s vice president and general manager, CPE and wireless.
“We continue to deliver a growing range of capabilities on the multi-core SoC foundation of our Comcerto processor, which combines performance with extremely low power consumption and carrier-class voice, quality of service (QoS) and reliability. This architecture has proven ideal for value-added services deployment by enabling remotely-managed applications from carriers, or third-party providers, to be run on one core, while the other remains dedicated to primary gateway functionality including voice processing and IPTV routing.”
>> read the full press release here
EE Times: A New Wave in Wireless
A New Wave in Wireless: Small Cells for a Heterogeneous Network by Guillaume de la Rouche and Alan Taylor appears on EE Times Design this month.
The article reviews the landscape for 3G and LTE networks, the challenges facing network planners as they move to heterogeneous networks (HetNets) featuring a wide variety of small cells and the advantages of system-on-chip approaches to this evolution.
The “avalanche of mobile data makes it increasingly difficult for operators to ensure sufficient network performance. Yet the only way they can remain competitive and continue offering unlimited data plans is to reduce the price/performance ratio for mobile data. ”
>> more
Small Cells Featured at RCR Wireless Conference
Mindspeed participated in the RCR Orange County Conference yesterday in Costa Mesa, CA.
Khurram Sheikh, chief technical officer of Powerwave Technologies, and Jim Johnston, chief technical officer in the communications convergence processing (CCP) business unit at Mindspeed, discussed past, present and future developments in mobile infrastructure on the Small Cells & Intelligent Networks panel moderated by iGR founder and president Iain Gillott.
Part of the RCR Wireless Global Tour and Conference Series, the RCR Orange County Conference was an interactive discussion on current mobile broadband trends and how mobile broadband is driving investment, innovation and economic growth. Held in partnership with the California Wireless Association, the event featured leading analyst, service provider and vendor perspectives on current technology choices and business models that will address the escalating demand for data. Attendees had access to Q&A sessions with industry executives, networking sessions and product showcases in a dedicated exhibit area.
iGR forecasts mobile bandwidth demand will increase eleven fold over the next four years with the number of devices connected to mobile networks rising quickly. With the advent of tablets, M2M and a range of mobile consumer electronics devices, the average number of connected mobile devices each person carries will more than double in the next few years with more apps downloaded and more concurrent sessions. This contributes not only to the increase in bandwidth but also to a significant rise in signaling traffic on mobile networks.
A special highlight for attendees, Powerwave’s demo truck was onsite and offered visitors the chance to learn about the company’s small cell and mobile infrastructure solutions.
Mindspeed is Helping to Define a New Class of Device for the Connected Home
Today, Mindspeed announced an extension of our Comcerto 1000 (C1K) product line to enable a new class of hardware for provisioning value-added services using existing home routers.
New service offload platform (or SOP) devices will make it easier and more cost-effective for service providers to deliver value-added connected home applications without requiring the installation of enhanced set-top boxes (STBs) or multi-function broadband home routers (BHRs).
In order to support emerging service-provider-managed, connected home business models, Mindspeed is helping to define a new class of SOP Box(TM) CPE hardware that will enable subscribers to receive value-added, gateway-enabled cloud applications with no changes to their existing CPE infrastructure. Our single-core M83160 and dual-core M83240 processors are the first in a family of Comcerto 1000s application-specific SoC processors optimized for the cost, speed, bandwidth and compact footprint that are required for powering this new type of CPE hardware.
“Carriers and service providers need a simple, low-cost delivery platform for connected home applications that can be used with any existing router and access technology, whether DSL, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or cable,” said Raouf Y. Halim, Mindspeed’s chief executive officer. “We are working with equipment manufacturers, carriers and other value-added service providers to apply the performance and ultra-low power consumption of our proven Comcerto 1000 fiber-to-the-home gateway processors to this new CPE platform, which will meet the unique requirements for provisioning emerging value-added services.”
Comcerto 1000S processors deliver a variety of features that are important for SOP Boxes, including dual-core redundancy to ensure mission-critical service reliability, and both IPSec and secure sockets layer (SSL) hardware encryption to support secure transfer of user and usage information. SOP Boxes are expected to be roughly the same size as an external hard drive, and will feature an Ethernet connection to the router and a number of USB ports to accommodate various application client devices. The Comcerto 1000S processors will be supported by our OpenMind(TM) ecosystem, which includes a complete OSGi and Java application-development framework to speed SOP Box development for a wide range of connected home applications.
“We are pleased to be the first manufacturer working with Mindspeed to develop products that support this exciting new service-delivery model,” said Chinru Lin, senior assistant vice president of the digital home business unit for ZyXEL. “Cost effective SOP devices provide an immediate solution for deploying many value-added connected home services over the ideal delivery platform. This will help both ZyXEL and our customers create differentiations to stay ahead of the competition and win more business. Mindspeed’s Comcerto 1000S devices provide an important piece of the solution because of their single- and dual-core configuration, low-power and embedded security capabilities.”
“With many millions of residential gateways, modems and routers in the field, broadband service providers are developing strategies to leverage this large installed equipment base by adding a remotely-managed services framework that will allow them to offer compelling new services within the connected home,” said Marco Bello, executive director of CPE marketing and product management at Mindspeed. “This new framework can be deployed using low-cost SOP devices, which will enable providers to partner with best-of-breed home automation, utility monitoring, security, healthcare and networked appliance vendors to deliver cloud-based applications that can be provisioned and securely managed via existing CPE hardware and operation and business support systems.”
Transcede-powered Demo at 4G World
Attendees visiting CEVA’s booth (#1424) at 4G World in Chicago this past week saw a real-world small cell LTE base station transmitting high-definition (HD) video to a commercially available LTE smartphone. The demonstration was built around Mindspeed’s LTE small cell reference unit and award-winning Transcede SoC that includes 26 programmable processors, including 10 CEVA DSPs and 10 DSP accelerators and two ARM Cortex A9 multi-core SMP RISC processors.
“Small cell base station designs require unparalleled processing capabilities to cope with the huge performance demands of LTE networks, and our communication DSPs play a critical role in achieving this,” said Eran Briman, vice president of marketing at CEVA. “This real world LTE base station demonstration using commercially available LTE smartphones clearly illustrates the outstanding performance capabilities of the Transcede family of processors, powered by our industry-leading DSP cores.”
Mindspeed’s Transcede processor is the first fully-integrated SoC eNodeB solution offering 3GPP LTE Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3 processing with picocell performance. It enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to leverage the same software architecture and programming model across the entire family of Transcede processors, and to scale designs from enterprise femtocells and picocells to microcells and other evolutionary form factors.
CEVA DSPs form the basis for a broad range of solutions for wireless base station applications, spanning from femtocells to macrocells. Bringing the highest flexibility and performance to base station architectures, CEVA DSPs are backed up by associated reference architectures, a complete development environment and a comprehensive suite of optimized library functions, including LTE, LTE-A, WiMAX and HSPA+.
