Macronix Selects ParthusCeva's Bluetooth™ Platform to Power Bluetooth Connected Portables
San Jose, CA & Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, R.O.C.- 25 February 2003 -
ParthusCeva, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCVA; LSE: PCV), the leading licensor of
digital signal processors (DSP) and application-specific platform
Intellectual Property (IP) to the semiconductor industry, and Macronix
(Nasdaq: MXICY) announced today that Macronix have completed a licensing
agreement to deploy ParthusCeva's BlueStream platform to enable Bluetooth
connected portable devices.
Under the licensing agreement's terms, Macronix, Taiwan's leading
wireless semiconductor company, will use the BlueStream baseband and
software protocol stack to develop Bluetooth products with leading OEMs in
the Asia-Pacific region. Macronix plans to roll-out its Bluetooth solution
in early 2003.
Bluetooth is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for wireless
communication between a range of electronic devices such as mobile phones,
laptops, PCs, printers and handheld devices. By eliminating the need for
cables between inter-connecting devices, individuals can share voice and
data using fast and secure local wireless connections. Research Group
In-Stat/MDR revealed that Bluetooth shipments hit 35 million by the end of
2002, with compound annual growth forecast at 118% between 2001-2006.
"We believe that Bluetooth will be a critical technology to help
connect millions of devices without wires," said Mr. J.P. Peng, vice
president of Macronix. "By working closely with a trusted partner like
ParthusCeva whose platform provides Macronix a rapid development cycle, we
will be able to deploy a full Bluetooth solution more quickly and at a
significant savings in our internal development costs."
"The Asian market is clearly leading the way in next generation
wireless adoption and device innovation. The addition of Macronix as a
lead customer in Taiwan adds to our expanding presence in the Asia-Pacific
region," said Gerry Maguire, general manager of wireless technologies at
ParthusCeva. "Bluetooth is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative
wireless markets. Deploying our BlueStream IP delivers the fastest
time-to-market for companies targeting this high growth market."
About BlueStream
ParthusCeva BlueStream is a flexible, silicon proven platform designed
for ease of integration in System-on-a-Chip subsystems. The BlueStream
platform contains all required deliverables for OEMs, semiconductor, ASIC
and fabless customers to rapidly design Bluetooth™ technology into their
ASICs and ASSPs.
The ParthusCeva BlueStream delivers the complete Bluetooth Platform
comprising:
Baseband Controller in RTL
Software
Protocol Stacks - HCI & Embedded
Extensive
Profile Support
BlueStream architecture accelerates Bluetooth deployment and reduces
time-to-certification and time-to-revenue. BlueStream is fully Bluetooth
version 1.1 compliant and implements all mandatory and optional features
required of Bluetooth specification.
*Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and is used
by ParthusCeva under license.
Flexible Development Platform
Baseband Controller IP
The BlueStream 1000 baseband controller IP solution provides the radio
and lower link controller for the Bluetooth specification. The ParthusCeva
Platform leads the industry in form factor, MIPS requirements and software
ROM size. The ParthusCeva BB is targeted at 0.18µm CMOS. The proposed
ParthusCeva partitioning is a digital 1Mbps interface with low-voltage
signaling.
Protocol Software Architecture & Deliverables
The ParthusCeva protocol stack software has been written in ANSI C
using object oriented techniques, and has been architected to be modular
and easily extended. The software can support both L2CAP variants, with
L2CAP either residing on a host above the HCI or below the HCI in a deeply
embedded ASIC implementation. The stack extends all the way to the RFCOMM
and SDP layer and comes with a fully documented API for applications
developers. Again, with a baseband protocol stack requiring less than
40kbyte, the solution is optimized for integration.
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About Macronix International Co., Ltd.
Since its inception in December 1989, Macronix has been a leading
provider of innovative customer/application driven non-volatile memory
requiring state-of-the-art technology. In the past ten years, Macronix has
established remarkable world-class customers in Japan, United States,
Europe, and Asia Pacific. Macronix is on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (code:
2337) and was the first company based in Taiwan to be listed in NASDAQ
(MXICY). Macronix is well known as one of the world's leading suppliers of
non-volatile memory. Macronix delivers total solutions in Flash, EPROM,
and Mask ROM. In addition, Macronix has a strong capability to provide
competitive know-how in the areas of audio, video, and networking. These
building blocks enable Macronix to offer System-on-a-Chip (SOC) solutions
for multimedia applications in the post-PC era. For further information
visit http://www.macronix.com/
About ParthusCeva, Inc.
Further information about ParthusCeva
A PDF copy of this press release is also available here
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Safe Harbor Statement
This document contains "forward-looking statements", which
are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those stated. Any statements that are
not statements of historical fact (including, without limitation,
statements to the effect that the company or its management "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "plans" and similar expressions) should be
considered forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause
actual results to differ from those indicated by such forward-looking
statements include uncertainties relating to the ability of management to
successfully integrate the operations of ParthusCeva and Ceva,
uncertainties relating to the acceptance of our DSP cores and
semiconductor intellectual property offerings, continuing or worsening
weakness in our markets and those of our customers, quarterly variations
in our results, and other uncertainties that are discussed in the
registration statement on Form S-1 of ParthusCeva (formerly called Ceva,
Inc.), on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.