Intel to buy TI's Cable modem venture

Intel has proclaimed of signing a deal to buy Texas Instruments (TI) cable modem manufacturing firm.
The move will aid in boosting the production unit of Intel's Atom microprocessors in consumer electronic devices.
In addition to this the contract will permit Intel to grow in the efforts that will help develop its Atom microprocessors to employ the usage in consumerelectronic devices like the set-top-boxes, smartphones and tablet PCs.
The takeover of Intel would mean Intel will increase a strong competition with rival firms such as Arm Technologies, which offers microprocessors aimed specifically for consumer basedelectronic devices.
The experts claim that if the deal goes smooth, Intel will acquire TI's Puma 5 chips, which will aid in better designing of cable modems which make use of Arm processing cores.
An Intel representative explained: "In the future, we plan to power the Puma product with the Intel Atom processor as well as to incorporate the product technology into future Intel SoC (system-on-chip) and platform designs."
Intel stated that the recently clinched deal will be an important part of Intel's Digital Home Group.

Intel agreed to purchase Texas Instruments’

Intel agreed to purchase Texas Instruments’ (TI) cable modem product line, saying it will enhance their cable industry and consumer electronics focus.  Intel’s system on a chip (SoC) products, using their Atom processors, will be brought in.  TI’s PUMA chips, or at least their technology, will be used in set-top boxes (STBs), residential gateway and cable modems along with Intel’s SoCs.  DOCSIS is Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification which  will also be part of Intel’s cable offerings.
Much of TI’s cable modem team was based in Israel and have been offered jobs there with Intel’s Digital Home Division, according to their press release.
Slashgear speculates that Intel may have made the acquisition to shift the set-top boxes to the Google TV platform.  Intel was a launch partner of the Google TV project, along with Dish Network, Logitech and Sony.  Google’s set-top box would deliver internet content, browsing, and searching as well as provide a different and more powerful UI to television content delivered by existing cable companies through their own STBs.
Google TV would use Android 2.1 OS.  Now you know why we care.

Intel acquires TI's cable modem unit, might be sneaking into your AV rack

Intel's been trying to break into the home entertainment market for years, and while it's made some inroads, it's also looking at a notable list of ho hum attempts that never managed to gain traction. Take the CE3100 processor, for instance -- a couple of years ago, the outfit seemed certain that this here chip would be powering every last living room box for the rest of eternity, and nowadays it's hardly a household name. But this week, Intel has picked up Texas Instruments' cable modem unit, which gives it a direct link into the very area it's been trying to exploit. The goal of the acquisition -- which is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of this year -- is to combine TI's Puma product lines with DOCSIS and Intel SoCs. Once that magical marriage takes place, Chipzilla intends to push out complex set-top boxes, residential gateways and modem products, possibly even going for the OEM artery. Details beyond that are few and far betwixt, but we doubt it'll be too long before the pickup begins to bear fruit.

Intel buys cellular chip maker Comsys

Intel seems to have taken yet another surreptitious step towards the world of cellular, snapping up bankrupt Israeli based Comsys Mobile Communication and Signal Processing, a WiMAX/GSM modem chip maker for a reported $30 million.
 The acquisition, said to have taken place in late May, has not been confirmed by Intel, but has been widely reported in the Israeli press, as well as by Forward Concepts analyst Will Strauss who claims his comsysmobile.com email addresses now work with intel.com.
Comsys started out as a modem making firm for PCs developed for Conexant Systems, but later developed IPR for 2G and 2.5G cellphone modems. Strauss notes that the firm’s biggest licensee was Texas Instruments, which later purchased the Comsys cellphone operation.  Comsys, says Strauss, then changed direction and entered the WiMAX business, Intel’s playing field, with its combo WiMAX/GSM modem chip.
Strauss says Comsys’ 80 employees will now join Intel’s major wireless R&D centers in Haifa and Petah Tikva.
Another source close to both firms confirmed to RCR Unplugged, “Comsys did, or was about to, go out of business, so Intel just hired some of their employees.”
The source goes on to say he doesn’t think Intel acquired any Comsys products, but that it was normal and expected that Intel “continue to hire wireless expertise inside Intel…not just for Wifi or WiMax, but many areas.”
Meanwhile Strauss notes that “although 3G capability was mentioned in the Israeli news reports of the acquisition, we are unaware of such IPR by Comsys.”
He added, “Comsys has closed shop, and I suspect that Intel wanted their brains and IPR, not their chips.
“Any cellphone chips that Intel may make, whether 3G or 4G will have to also “down-clutch” to 2G and Comsys has that IP,” Strauss told RCR Unplugged.
Strauss posits that Intel is “anxious” to return to the cellular business, realizing it is the only segment that can rival the PC space. “Intel, now under different management, is searching for ways to get back into the cellphone chip market that it once abandoned,” he claims.
The firm, says Strauss, had reasonable success with its XScale-based application processors, but had a tough time merging its multi-level flash memory on the same die with its baseband “Frio” DSP core. Intel sold both properties to Marvell, which has since revitalized and expanded on them.
Intel has been making massive efforts to scale its Atom chips enough in terms of size and power usage to make them suitable for cell phones. Several months back the tech giant announced its latest iteration of Atom, the Atom Z6xx based on the latest “Moorestown” silicon had cut idle power to 1/50th of its predecessors and that power consumption for audio processing had reached 1/20th of the previous version. Not a bad start.
This achievement, admitted Intel, was largely thanks to the company’s use of Freescale’s power management IC (PMIC) and Strauss claims an audio DSP in Intel’s accompanying Platform Controller Hub MP20DSP also went a long way to slashing most of the audio processing.
Still, rumors abounded that Intel was on the prowl for a cellular chip company, with Infineon Technologies AG topping most speculators’ lists. Such an acquisition would, in Strauss’ opinion, have put Intel head-to-head with Qualcomm, the world’s largest fabless chip house and #1 cellular chip vendor.
Unfortunately for Intel, however, Infineon was not up for sale, so the chip giant went looking elsewhere, and appears to have found at least some of what it was looking for.
As to why Intel hasn’t formally announced this ‘acquisition,’ Strauss told RCR “Intel doesn’t have to inform the public unless there’s a ‘material effect’ on its revenues or profits.”

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