Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. was an American

fabless Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclu ...

semiconductor company that designed, manufactured, developed, and sold integrated circuits for communications applications in wireless and wired networks.

Products

Wireless

Mindspeed’s products are used in wireless infrastructure and

small cell Small means of insignificant size. Small may also refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text Arts and ...

base-stations. The company's

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

-based processors include low-power, multi-core digital signal processor

system-on-chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with memory, input/output, and da ...

(SoC) products for fixed and mobile ( 3G/ 4G) carrier infrastructure (the Transcede family) and

Picochip Picochip was a venture-backed fabless semiconductor company based in Bath, England, founded in 2000. In January 2012 Picochip was acquired by Mindspeed Technologies, Inc and subsequently by Intel. The company was active in two areas, with two dis ...

's SoCs for 3G (HSPA) femtocells and

s. Mindspeed announced the Transcede family of wireless baseband processors in 2010, including the single-core Transcede 3000, which serves the eNodeB processing needs of a

picocell A picocell is a small cellular base station typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, stock exchanges, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. In cellular networks, picocells are typically used to ...

, while consuming less than 10

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (W) of power, and the dual-core Transcede 4000, which delivers three sectors of

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

processing for macro cells serving thousands of subscribers. The Transcede 4000 integrates 26 programmable processors into a single device, including two ARM®

Cortex A9 The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007. Features Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are: * O ...

® multi-core

symmetric multiprocessing Symmetric multiprocessing or shared-memory multiprocessing (SMP) involves a multiprocessor computer hardware and software architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single, shared main memory, have full access to all ...

(SMP) reduced instruction set computer (

RISC In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...

) processors, 10

CEVA Ceva, the ancient Ceba, is a small Italy, Italian town in the province of Cuneo, region of Piedmont, east of Cuneo. It lies on the right bank of the Tanaro River, Tanaro on a wedge of land between that river and the Cevetta stream. History In th ...

(

digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit chips. ...

s (DSPs) and 10 DSP accelerators, enabling equipment manufacturers to fully support the complete processing needs of single- and multi-sector base stations using the

WCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W- CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficienc ...

HSPA HSPA may refer to: * High Speed Packet Access, a mobile broadband technology * Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Education * High School Proficiency Assessment * Humphrey School of Public Affairs, an American public policy school * Hunter Sch ...

, LTE, LTE time-division duplex (

TD-LTE In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for cellular mobile devices and data terminals. It is considered to be a "transitional" 4G technology, and is therefore also referred to as 3 ...

), time division synchronous code division multiple access (

TD-SCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency ...

, in China) and other air-interface standards. The Transcede 4000 processor was honored as the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough at the 2010 Mobile Excellence Awards. Following the acquisition of

, that company's small cell SoC products are part of Mindspeed's Wireless Business Unit.

Communications convergence processing

Controller of a Western Digital My Cloud 4 TB - ARM Cortex-A9-9888

Mindspeed’s

-based products include low-power, multi-core digital signal processor

(SoC) for residential and enterprise platforms (the Comcerto Product line) and carrier-grade VoIP systems. These are embedded packet processors for a wide variety of applications ranging from high-end VoIP enabled home gateways, small-to-midsized business (SMB) security appliances to Ethernet powered 802.11n enterprise access points. The Comcerto family are based on ARM host processors. Mindspeed announced the new generation of this family, the Comcerto 2000 in June 2012.

High-performance analog

Analog products include high-density crosspoint switches, optical drivers, equalization and signal-conditioning products. The high-performance analog transmission devices and switching products support storage area network, fiber-to-the-premise, OTN and broadcast video typically operating at data transmission rates between 155 megabits per second (Mbit/s) and 10 gigabits per second (Gbit/s). The transmission products include laser drivers, transimpedance amplifiers, post amplifiers, clock and data recovery circuits, signal conditioners, serializers/deserializers, video reclockers, cable drivers and line equalizers. These products serve as the connection between a fiber optic or coaxial cable component interface and the remainder of the electrical subsystem in various network equipment. The switching products include a family of high-speed crosspoint switches capable of switching traffic within network switching equipment. Typical equipment applications for switching products include OTN systems, add-drop multiplexers, high-density IP switches and storage-area routers. In addition, crosspoint switches are used for broadcast video routing and production switching applications.

Wide area networking

The legacy

wide area network A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, use ...

communications portfolio includes

carrier Ethernet Carrier Ethernet is a marketing term for extensions to Ethernet for communications service providers that utilize Ethernet technology in their networks. Background Ethernet has a long history. It has become dominant in enterprise networks. This d ...

devices, Layer 2 processors,

T-carrier The T-carrier is a member of the series of carrier systems developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories for digital transmission of multiplexed telephone calls. The first version, the Transmission System 1 (T1), was introduced in 1962 in the Bell Syst ...

and

E-carrier The E-carrier is a member of the series of carrier systems developed for digital transmission of many simultaneous telephone calls by time-division multiplexing. The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) ori ...

devices and

symmetric digital subscriber line A symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) is a digital subscriber line (DSL) that transmits digital data over the copper wires of the telephone network, where the bandwidth in the downstream direction, from the network to the subscriber, is id ...

(SDSL) devices.

History

Mindspeed Technologies was formed from the spin-off of the Network Access division of Conexant Systems, Inc. to shareowners on June 27, 2003; creating two independent, publicly traded communications semiconductor companies. Conexant Systems was established four years earlier when

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

spun off its Rockwell Semiconductor Systems (RSS) division to shareholders as an independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor products for communications electronics. The Network Access division (which became Mindspeed) helped to develop and commercialize 56 kbps client-side and central-site modem technology in the mid- to late-1990s that was used to deploy dial-up Internet access services offered by

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s (ISPs). As an independent company, Mindspeed used its experience in analog and

mixed-signal A mixed-signal integrated circuit is any integrated circuit that has both analog circuits and digital circuits on a single semiconductor die.Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

(VoIP) gateways, routers and other communications systems. In January 2012, Mindspeed acquired British company

for about $52 million. Mindspeed was acquired by MACOM in 2013 and Mindspeed Wireless was acquired by Intel.

Manufacturing

Mindspeed was a

Fabless semiconductor company Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclu ...

. It outsourced all

semiconductor manufacturing Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuits (ICs) such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, and memories (such as Random-access memory, RAM and flash memory). It is a ...

to merchant

foundries A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

, such as

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies, the world' ...

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

and others.

References

{{reflist, refs = {{cite news , url=http://www.edn.com/article/479246-Conexant_Spins_Off_Mindspeed.php , archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121231104/http://www.edn.com/article/479246-Conexant_Spins_Off_Mindspeed.php , url-status=dead , archive-date=January 21, 2013 , title=Conexant Spins Off Mindspeed , date=March 24, 2003 , publisher= EDN , accessdate=2011-05-18 {{cite news , url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1999_Jan_4/ai_53497542/ , title=Conexant Begins Operations as Independent Company Following Spin-Off from Rockwell , last= , first= , date=January 4, 1999 , publisher=Business Wire , accessdate=2011-05-18 {{cite news , url=http://www.edn.com/article/457516-Mindspeed_visualizes_an_opening_in_the_base_station_market.php , archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121214414/http://www.edn.com/article/457516-Mindspeed_visualizes_an_opening_in_the_base_station_market.php , url-status=dead , archive-date=January 21, 2013 , title=Mindspeed visualizes an opening in the base-station market , last=Wilson , first=Ron , date=January 26, 2010 , publisher=EDN , accessdate=2011-05-18 {{cite news , url=http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4206391/Mindspeed-26-core-basestation-DSP , title=Update: Mindspeed describes 26-core basestation DSP , last=Merritt , first=Rick , date=August 23, 2010 , publisher=

EE Times ''EE Times'' (''Electronic Engineering Times'') is an electronics industry magazine published in the United States since 1972. EE Times is currently owned by AspenCore, a division of Arrow Electronics since August 2016. Ownership and status '' ...

, accessdate=2011-05-18 {{cite news , url=http://www.cisionwire.com/axis-pr/r/for-immediate-release-----2010-mobile-excellence-award-winners,g531291 , title=Mobile Excellence Award Winners , last= , first= , date=December 7, 2010 , publisher= CisionWire , accessdate=2011-05-18 {{cite news , url=http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/processors/4375078/Mindspeed-s-multi-core-ARM-Cortex-A-based-comms-processor-family- , title=Mindspeed's multi-core ARM Cortex-A-based comms processor family , last=Maxfield , first=Clive , date=6 November 2012 , publisher=

, accessdate=2012-08-30

External links

Chipdb.org: Rockwell category Cxtec.com: A Global Dialogue on Emerging Technology
Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States Defunct computer companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Companies based in Newport Beach, California Electronics companies established in 2003 2003 establishments in California Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2014 mergers and acquisitions Intel Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct networking companies Networking hardware companies Networking companies of the United States