Kawasaki Microelectronics Adds Globespan Virata’s IEEE 802.11 Technology to its ASIC IP Portfolio

Complete MAC and Baseband Solution for Wireless SoCs

SAN JOSE, Calif. — February 2, 2004 — Kawasaki Microelectronics, a leader in advanced yet affordable ASICs, announced today that it has added Wi-Fi Certified IEEE 802.11 technology to its ASIC intellectual property (IP) portfolio. This technology, licensed from Globespan Virata by Kawasaki, supports IEEE 802.11 versions a, b, e, g, h, i, and j. Target applications include consumer products such as printers, digital cameras, and set-top boxes, and custom wireless LAN chipsets. Customers can immediately use this technology to add IEEE 802.11 capability to their Kawasaki ASIC designs.

Key features of the IEEE 802.11 technology being added to Kawasaki ASIC IP portfolio include:

MAC and Baseband RTL
MAC Firmware
Host Drivers
Reference Designs for hardware and radios
A-Ds and D-As for interface with the Intersil ISL3690/ ISL3680 radio chips

"We expect the wireless SoC market to grow significantly, driven by the needs of customers to couple IEEE 802.11 support with their proprietary designs", said Hisaya Keida, General Manager, Product Marketing and Development Department of Kawasaki. "For example, customers may want to implement their proprietary power management schemes in a wireless wake-on-LAN SoC, or they may want to combine additional system-level blocks such as MPEG-4 or TCP-IP off-load engines with IEEE 802.11 in a single chip. To enable wireless SoCs, it was essential that we add support for a broad range of IEEE 802.11 protocols in our ASIC library. Globespan Virata’s PRISM technology was the clear choice, having been adopted by more than 50 of the world's leading telecom, networking and computer companies into hundreds of wireless product designs."

About Kawasaki Microelectronics

Kawasaki Microelectronics is the leader in advanced yet affordable ASIC semiconductor technology solutions. The company’s innovative core technologies and world-class design support are used in the consumer electronics, computer, office-automation, networking, wireless, and electronic-storage markets. Deployed worldwide, Kawasaki’s products enable customers to quickly introduce highly competitive solutions. The company is an active participant in industry standards organizations, including the Network Processing Forum (NPF), Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), USB Implementers Forum, MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF), Mobile Computing Promotion Consortium (MCPC), and the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). Kawasaki has design centers in Boston, Osaka, San Jose, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, contact the company at 408-570-0555, or visit its English-language web site at http://www.klsi.com/, its Japanese-language web site at http://www.k-micro.com/, or e-mail to info@k-micro.com.

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PRISM GT^TM, PRISM Nitro^TM, PRISM WorldRadio^TM, PRISM WorldRadioAPDK^TM, PRISM PowerSave™, PRISM SingleSource™ are trademarks of GlobespanVirata. "Wi-Fi®" and the Wi-Fi logo are the registered trademarks of the Wi-Fi Alliance and "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED," "Wi-Fi ZONE," "Wi-Fi Alliance," their respective logos, and "Wi-Fi Protected Access" are the trademarks of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.