Icera
Encyclopedia
Icera Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company
headquartered in Bristol
, United Kingdom
. Icera develops soft modem chipsets for the mobile device market, including mobile broadband datacards, USB sticks
, and embedded modems for smartphones, laptop
s, netbook
s, tablets
, e-book
s and other mobile broadband devices. Icera provides reference design
and full technical and commercial support.
Icera has research and development sites in China
, France
, the United Kingdom
and the United States
and customer engineering and sales offices in China
, Japan
, Korea
, Taiwan
, the United States
and Europe
.
Icera is a privately held company and is backed by a number of venture capital companies, including Accel Partners
, Amadeus Capital Partners, Atlas Venture
, Balderton Capital, and DFJ Esprit. On 9 May 2011 it was announced that Nvidia Corporation
had agreed to acquire Icera for $367 million in cash.
RF design, customer support and wireless handset platform integration. In January 2003, Icera completed a $10M Series A round from a major investor. Later in the year, Icera inaugurated two offices in Bristol
, United Kingdom
and in Japan
. 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, the Sophia Antipolis
offices 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 in Austin, Texas
, and in Cambridge, United Kingdom
.
In June 2007, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset powers the SoftBank
Mobile HSDPA data card, making its Adaptive Wireless solution the one that delivers Japan's highest performance cellular broadband system. Icera acquired Sirific Wireless in May 2008, adding CMOS RF to its portfolio. In the same month, the company began to ship its 65 nm Livanto ICE8040 baseband chips and the associated Espresso 300 reference design
was 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, including venture debt
.
In June 2009, Icera announced that its platform is supported by NVIDIA
Tegra-Based MIDs. In late June 2009, Option
launched a new iCON 505 HSPA USB modem with TeliaSonera
in Sweden, which is powered by the Icera Livanto baseband chipset. In December 2009, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset is powering the Sierra Wireless
AirCard USB 305. In April 2010, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset is powering the USB modem from LG
Mobile Phones which launched with AT&T
in 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 for Vodafone
customers. 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.
On 9 May 2011 it was announced that Nvidia Corporation
had agreed to acquire Icera for $367 million in cash.
In February 2009, Signals Research Group LLC, in conjunction with Spirent Communications
, identified that Icera's Espresso soft modem platform, based on its Livanto chipset, is the clear performance leader for performance and high speed data. Icera outperformed the market leader Qualcomm, and placed on top overall. Icera led the field in ten out of twelve of the most challenging, but realistic, network scenarios. High performance translates directly to an improved user experience for cellular operators' customers using mobile data devices on live networks based on Icera technology.
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
headquartered in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Icera develops soft modem chipsets for the mobile device market, including mobile broadband datacards, USB sticks
Dongle
A software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will only run when the dongle is plugged in...
, and embedded modems for smartphones, laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
s, netbook
Netbook
Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers.At their inception in late 2007 as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost — netbooks omitted certain features , featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing...
s, tablets
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
, e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
s and other mobile broadband devices. Icera provides reference design
Reference design
Reference design refers to a technical blueprint of a system that is intended for others to copy. It contains the essential elements of the system; however, third parties may enhance or modify the design as required....
and full technical and commercial support.
Icera has research and development sites in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and customer engineering and sales offices in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Icera is a privately held company and is backed by a number of venture capital companies, including Accel Partners
Accel Partners
Accel Partners is a global venture and growth equity firm funding companies from inception through the growth stage.The firm is based in Palo Alto, California with major offices in Bangalore, Beijing, London, and Shanghai....
, Amadeus Capital Partners, Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is an international early-stage venture capital firm that invests in communications, information technology, and life sciences companies. From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s the firm was leading investor in startup companies in both the U.S. and Europe...
, Balderton Capital, and DFJ Esprit. On 9 May 2011 it was announced that Nvidia Corporation
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
had agreed to acquire Icera for $367 million in cash.
History
Icera was founded in April 2002 by Stan Boland, Steve Allpress, Simon Knowles and Nigel Toon. The company is staffed by a team employed in custom processor design, wireless algorithm development, CMOSCMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
RF design, customer support and wireless handset platform integration. In January 2003, Icera completed a $10M Series A round from a major investor. Later in the year, Icera inaugurated two offices in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. 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, the Sophia Antipolis
Sophia Antipolis
Sophia Antipolis is a technology park northwest of Antibes and southwest of Nice, France. Much of the park falls within the commune of Valbonne. Created in 1970-84, it houses primarily companies in the fields of computing, electronics, pharmacology and biotechnology. Several institutions of higher...
offices in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan 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 in Austin, Texas
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
, and in Cambridge, United Kingdom
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
.
In June 2007, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset powers the SoftBank
SoftBank
is a Japanese telecommunications and internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-Commerce, Internet, broadmedia, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses....
Mobile HSDPA data card, making its Adaptive Wireless solution the one that delivers Japan's highest performance cellular broadband system. Icera acquired Sirific Wireless in May 2008, adding CMOS RF to its portfolio. In the same month, the company began to ship its 65 nm Livanto ICE8040 baseband chips and the associated Espresso 300 reference design
Reference design
Reference design refers to a technical blueprint of a system that is intended for others to copy. It contains the essential elements of the system; however, third parties may enhance or modify the design as required....
was 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, including venture debt
Venture debt
Venture debt or venture lending is a type of debt financing provided to venture-backed companies by specialised banks or non-bank lenders to fund working capital or capital expenses, such as purchasing equipment. Unlike traditional bank lending, venture debt is available to startups and growth...
.
In June 2009, Icera announced that its platform is supported by NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
Tegra-Based MIDs. In late June 2009, Option
Option N.V.
Option N.V. is a publicly quoted technology company, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium. Option specializes in the design, development, production and commercialization of broadband wireless technology devices. Option's mission statement is to provide "anywhere, anytime easy access to information"...
launched a new iCON 505 HSPA USB modem with TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera AB is the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland. The company has operations in other countries in Northern, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Spain, with a total of 150 million mobile customers...
in Sweden, which is powered by the Icera Livanto baseband chipset. In December 2009, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset is powering the Sierra Wireless
Sierra Wireless
Sierra Wireless is a wireless communications equipment designer and manufacturer, founded in 1993 and currently headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada....
AirCard USB 305. In April 2010, Icera announced that its Livanto chipset is powering the USB modem from LG
LG Group
LG Corp. is the second-largest South Korean conglomerate company following Samsung, and it is headquartered in the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. LG produces electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications products and operates subsidiaries like LG Electronics, LG Display,...
Mobile Phones which launched with AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
in the United States: the AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
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 for Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
customers. 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.
On 9 May 2011 it was announced that Nvidia Corporation
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
had agreed to acquire Icera for $367 million in cash.
Products
- Livanto Chipsets - Chipsets for mobile broadband cellular modem devices. Livanto is the world's first wireless soft modem.
- 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 for mobile broadband data devices and next generation smartphones
- Espresso 400 Data Platform (sampling in H2 2010)
- Espresso 302 Data Platform
- Espresso 300 Data Platform
- Espresso 200 Data Platform
Technologies
- Adaptive Wireless - Adaptive Wireless runs with Icera's Livanto soft baseband. The Adaptive Wireless technology results in a significant throughput advantage for HSPAHigh Speed Packet AccessHigh Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access and High Speed Uplink Packet Access , that extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA protocols...
data communication, and allows device manufacturers to develop multiple products with different performance levels, all from a common platform.
- DXP (Deep eXecution Processor)- DXP is a new class of processor that works at the ultra-low power consumption levels necessary in mobile applications.
- Advanced CMOS RF - Icera launched the world’s first single chip HEDGE CMOSCMOSComplementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
RF Transceiver with Rx Diversity. This technology optimizes performance and resolves design issues associated with direct-conversion CMOS architecture.
- IceClear - IceClear was launched by Icera in January 2010 and is the world's first interference-aware technology delivering up to triple the previous user data rate and cell site network efficiency. IceClear was shortlisted for a GSM Association 2010 Global Mobile Award in the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough category.
In February 2009, Signals Research Group LLC, in conjunction with Spirent Communications
Spirent
Spirent Communications plc is a multinational telecommunications testing company headquartered in Crawley, United Kingdom.It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
, identified that Icera's Espresso soft modem platform, based on its Livanto chipset, is the clear performance leader for performance and high speed data. Icera outperformed the market leader Qualcomm, and placed on top overall. Icera led the field in ten out of twelve of the most challenging, but realistic, network scenarios. High performance translates directly to an improved user experience for cellular operators' customers using mobile data devices on live networks based on Icera technology.