Icera
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Stan Boland (President and CEO) |
| Parent | Nvidia Corporation |
| Website | http://www.icerasemi.com |
Icera Inc.is a Britishmultinationalfabless semiconductor companyheadquartered inBristol,United Kingdom, and a wholly owned subsidiary ofNvidia Corporation.It has developedsoft modemchipsetsfor the mobile devices market, including mobile broadband datacards,USB sticks,and embedded modems forsmartphones,laptops,netbooks,tablets,e-booksand other mobile broadband devices.
Icera has research and development sites inChina,France,the United Kingdom and theUnited Statesand customer engineering and sales offices in China,Japan,Korea,Taiwan,the United States andEurope.[1]
On 9 May 2011 it was announced that Nvidia Corporation had agreed to acquire Icera for US$367 million in cash from its venture capital owners, which includedAccel Partners,Amadeus Capital Partners,Atlas Venture,Balderton CapitalandDFJ Esprit.[2][3]
On 5 May 2015 Nvidia Corporation announced that Icera would wind down its operations.[4]
History
[edit]Icera was founded in April 2002 byStan Boland,Steve Allpress, Simon Knowles and Nigel Toon. The company is staffed by a team employed in custom processor design, wireless algorithm development,CMOSRF design, customer support and wireless handset platform integration. In January 2003, Icera completed a $10MSeries Around from a major investor. Later in the year, Icera inaugurated two offices inBristol,United Kingdom and inJapan.In July 2004, Icera completed another $32.5M Series B funding round and, later that year, licensed TTPCom's 2G/3G protocol stack. In January 2005, theSophia Antipolisoffices in France were opened. In September 2005, Icera's first 90 nm Livanto ICE8020 chips were sampled to Seiko Instruments Inc, for a first product development for Vodafone KK. In March 2006, the company completed its third financing round raising $60M Series C funds. Icera launched its Espresso 200 platform in 2006, and two new offices were opened inAustin, Texas,and inCambridge, United Kingdom.
Icera acquired Sirific Wireless in May 2008, adding CMOS RF to its portfolio.[5]In the same month, the company began to ship its 65 nm Livanto ICE8040baseband chipsand the associated Espresso 300reference designwas launched. At the end of that year, the company inaugurated its Chinese office in Shanghai and announced a total of $70M of Series CC financing, includingventure debt.
In June 2009, Icera announced that its platform is supported byNvidia Tegra-based MIDs.[6]In late June 2009,Optionlaunched a new iCON 505 HSPA USB modem withTeliaSonerain Sweden, which is powered by the Icera Livanto baseband chipset.[7]In December 2009, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset is powering theSierra WirelessAirCard USB 305.[8]In April 2010, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset is powering the USB modem fromLGMobile Phones which launched withAT&Tin the United States: the AT&T USBConnect Turbo. In May 2010, it was announced that Icera's Livanto chipset and IceClear interference-aware technology were being used in Vodafone's K3805-Z USB stick, boosting mobile broadband reliability and connection speeds forVodafonecustomers. The Vodafone K3805-Z is the world's first USB modem to incorporate Icera's IceClear interference-aware technology. In May 2010, Icera secured a further $45M in Series DD financing, which will accelerate its growth. To date, Icera has raised $258M in venture investments. In August 2010, Icera announced that it had opened its second customer support center in Xi'an, China.[9]
On 9 May 2011 it was announced thatNvidia Corporationhad agreed to acquire Icera for $435.7M in cash.[10][2][3]
On 5 May 2015 Nvidia Corporation announced that Icera would wind down operations.[4]
Products
[edit]- Livanto Chipsets– Chipsets formobile broadbandcellular modemdevices. Livanto is the world's first wireless soft modem.[11]
- Baseband chips
- ICE8060 (sampling in H2 2010)
- ICE8042 (up to 21 Mbit/s)
- ICE8040 (up to 21 Mbit/s)
- ICE8020 (up to 3.6 Mbit/s)
- Radio chips
- ICE9225 (sampling in H2 2010)
- ICE8260 (2G/3G/4G)
- ICE8215 (2G/3G)
- Power Management chips
- ICE8145 (BGA or wafer-level CSP package)
- Espresso Reference Platforms– reference platforms formobile broadbanddata devices and next generationsmartphones
- Espresso 400 Data Platform (sampling in H2 2010)
- Espresso 302 Data Platform
- Espresso 300 Data Platform
- Espresso 200 Data Platform
References
[edit]- ^"Icera Locations".Archived fromthe originalon 2010-01-10.Retrieved2010-04-27.
- ^ab"Cambridge coup as Icera goes to NVIDIA for £225m".Business Weekly. 9 May 2011.Retrieved9 May2011.
- ^ab"NVIDIA to acquire Baseband and RF technology leader Icera".Icera.Retrieved9 May2011.
- ^ab"NVIDIA to Wind Down Icera Modem Operations".Nvidia.Retrieved28 June2016.
- ^"Icera acquires Sirific Wireless".EE Times. 4 July 2008.Retrieved27 November2010.
- ^Icera platform supported by NVIDIA Tegra-Based MIDs
- ^Option launches new new iCON 505 HSPA USB modem with TeliaSonera in Sweden[1]Archived2009-06-21 at theWayback Machine
- ^"Icera Powers the Sierra Wireless Aircard 305 HSPA Modem".Archived fromthe originalon 2010-02-01.Retrieved2010-04-27.
- ^"Icera in China expansion".Business Weekly. 16 August 2010.Retrieved27 November2010.
- ^"The Shining Star Which Crashed".15 July 2016.
- ^"Livanto Chipsets".Archived fromthe originalon 2010-02-01.Retrieved2010-05-03.
