ASOCS teams with InterDigital for 4G solution

The agreement could be especially important for ASOCS, as it will reportedly make up to $10 million a year from the sale of the combined solution.

Multicore embedded processor developer ASOCS Ltd. and wireless communications equipment vendor InterDigital, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDCC) have launched a strategic alliance to provide a joint solution for the rapid development of processors for LTE and other 4G technologies. The two companies' joint product is designed for mobile phone manufacturers and communications chipset vendors.

The companies stated, "This combined offering is designed to provide customers with a technology that can be embedded into wireless product platforms or produce a viable chipset solution in less than a year, while significantly reducing development risk and time to market."

The combined solution will include InterDigital’s SlimChip WCDMA modem IP core and ASOCS’ ModemX platform and R4 GSM/GPRS/EDGE solution to create a fully-integrated 2G and 3G modem technology with an upgrade path to HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, and LTE.

The agreement could be especially important for ASOCS, as it will reportedly make up to $10 million a year from the sale of the combined solution, much of which will accrue as net profit from the royalties on the use of its intellectual property supplied under the partnership.

The ongoing patent war in the mobile market is behind the strategic alliance. InterDigital owns numerous patents for communications protocols, and it is known for designing processors based on these protocols. It earns royalties on the use of its patents, albeit only a fraction of the earnings of Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM). In this patent war, InterDigital recently sold several patents to Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) for $375 million.

ASOCS CEO Gilad Garon founded the company in 2003.

"The strategic alliance with InterDigital is an important milestone in our new strategy towards proliferation of our ModemX technology in the mobile world,” said Garon. “ModemX is displacing the traditional DSP approach, with a one-stop-shop of flexibility and performance needed in today's low power designs. Our software programmable architecture makes it easy for customers to quickly react to changes in their product roadmaps."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 4, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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