Tablets will be First Mobile Devices to Feature MIPS® Architecture for Both Applications and Baseband Processing
HOD HASHARON, Israel; SUNNYVALE, Calif. and BEIJING, China – February 22, 2012 – Altair Semiconductor, MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS), and Ingenic Semiconductor today announced that they are bringing Altair’s MIPS-Based FourGee LTE chipset to MIPS-Based Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” tablets from Ingenic. Altair is a leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high-performance 4G LTE chipsets, and Ingenic Semiconductor is a leading China-based CPU provider for mobile multimedia applications. Both companies’ products are based on the industry-standard MIPS® architecture from MIPS Technologies. Combining their processors, the new tablet will be the first to leverage the MIPS architecture for both baseband and applications processing. Originally announced in December 2011, the Ingenic tablet is the world’s first Android 4.0 tablet. During Mobile World Congress, being held February 27 – March 1, 2012 in Barcelona, MIPS and Altair will demonstrate a prototype of the new solution integrating the Ingenic tablet with Altair’s FourGee chipset. The companies expect that a version of the tablet with LTE on-board will sample to customers in the second quarter of this year, with potential commercial availability in the second half of 2012.
“We are excited to add Android tablets to the growing list of products, including USB dongles, portable hotspots and smartphones, which feature Altair’s low power, high-performance LTE chipsets. The close cooperation between Altair, Ingenic and MIPS holds great promise for the industry, since we share a vision of delivering a combination of high performance, power efficiency and lower total cost of ownership,” said Eran Eshed, co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development at Altair Semiconductor.
“Our MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablet, which features 1GHz performance along with an innovative ultra-low-power pipelining architecture, is already in production with multiple OEMs. When we made the decision to add 4G connectivity to this groundbreaking tablet, it was clear that Altair was the most suitable partner for Ingenic. Like Ingenic’s solutions, Altair’s processors feature extremely high-performance and ultra-low power capabilities, and as fellow MIPS licensees, it is easy for us to work together to speed time to market,” said Qiang Liu, chairman and CEO, Ingenic Semiconductor.
“Altair and Ingenic are innovative and forward-thinking MIPS licensees who realized early the benefits of leveraging the performance-efficient MIPS architecture for mobile device development. As a result, these two companies are offering low power, high performance products that offer differentiation for their customers in a highly competitive and fast-moving market,” said Gideon Intrater, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies.
About Altair Semiconductor
Altair Semiconductor is the world’s leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors. Altair’s chipsets can be found in approximately 30 end-user devices – ranging from USB dongles to smartphones – built by its more than 15 customers across North America, Europe, China, India and Taiwan – making it one of the only TDD/FDD LTE chipset manufacturers in the world with commercially available products. Altair’s comprehensive product portfolio includes baseband processors, multi-band RF transceivers for both FDD and TDD bands, and a range of reference hardware and product level protocol stack software. Based on a novel, proprietary Software Defined Radio (SDR) processor, codenamed “O[2]P™”, Altair’s products are the smallest and most highly power optimized in the industry, offering an unmatched combination of flexibility and performance. For more information, visit the company’s website at altair-semi.com. Follow Altair on Twitter: @AltairSemi
About Ingenic Semiconductor
Ingenic Semiconductor was founded in Beijing in 2005 to develop innovative processor technology. Based on the MIPS architecture, Ingenic designs its own CPU core called XBurst. The XBurst CPU adopts an innovative micro-architecture which consumes very little power under high performance. Powered by the XBurst CPU, the company’s JZ47xx series application processors are widely deployed in embedded devices and consumer electronic products including PMPs, educational electronic devices, eBooks, biometrics and more, with more than 30 million units shipped to-date. For more information, visit http://www.ingenic.cn/.
About MIPS Technologies, Inc.
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications. The MIPS architecture powers some of the world’s most popular products, including broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (408) 530-5000 or visit www.mips.com.