Marvell Technology Group
Encyclopedia
Marvell is an American producer of storage, communication
s and consumer semiconductor
products.
Founded in 1995, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has operations worldwide and approximately 5,700 employees. Marvell’s U.S. operating subsidiary is based in Santa Clara, California and Marvell has international design centers located in the U.S., Europe, Israel, India, Singapore and China. Marvell has corporate offices in 16 countries besides the US. A leading fabless semiconductor company
, Marvell ships over one billion chips a year. Marvell’s expertise in microprocessor architecture and digital signal processing, drives multiple platforms including high volume storage solutions, mobile and wireless, networking, consumer and green products.
Marvell manufactures a wide array of products including high-performance processors, broadband & wireless transceivers, storage controllers, and LED processors.
assets was announced. Intel agreed to sell the XScale business to Marvell for an estimated USD 600 million in cash and the assumption of unspecified liabilities. The acquisition was completed on November 9, 2006.
of the Free Software Foundation
and Theo de Raadt
of OpenBSD
.
In 2009, Marvell announced that the SheevaPlug
, a small, competitive, low-power, SoC
-based ARM architecture
computer, would be released with full schematics.
is the first automobile in the market to feature a factory-installed MMH.
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s and consumer semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
products.
Founded in 1995, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has operations worldwide and approximately 5,700 employees. Marvell’s U.S. operating subsidiary is based in Santa Clara, California and Marvell has international design centers located in the U.S., Europe, Israel, India, Singapore and China. Marvell has corporate offices in 16 countries besides the US. A leading fabless semiconductor company
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...
, Marvell ships over one billion chips a year. Marvell’s expertise in microprocessor architecture and digital signal processing, drives multiple platforms including high volume storage solutions, mobile and wireless, networking, consumer and green products.
Marvell manufactures a wide array of products including high-performance processors, broadband & wireless transceivers, storage controllers, and LED processors.
XScale
On June 27, 2006, the sale of Intel's XScaleXScale
The XScale, a microprocessor core, is Intel's and Marvell's implementation of the ARMv5 architecture, and consists of several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE . Intel sold the PXA family to Marvell Technology Group in June 2006....
assets was announced. Intel agreed to sell the XScale business to Marvell for an estimated USD 600 million in cash and the assumption of unspecified liabilities. The acquisition was completed on November 9, 2006.
Controversy
In October 2006, Marvell was criticized for failing to publicly provide specifications of their hardware in enough detail to support their wireless devices in the One Laptop Per Child program. Marvell was criticised by Richard StallmanRichard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
of the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
and Theo de Raadt
Theo de Raadt
Theo de Raadt , born May 19, 1968 in Pretoria, South Africa, is a software engineer who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is the founder and leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects, and was a founding member of the NetBSD project.- Childhood :...
of OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
.
In 2009, Marvell announced that the SheevaPlug
SheevaPlug
The SheevaPlug is a "plug computer" designed to allow standard computing features in as small a space as possible.One of the first such computers on the market, the device has a 1.2 GHz Marvell Kirkwood 6281 ARM-compatible CPU . The operating system is Ubuntu Linux version 9.04...
, a small, competitive, low-power, SoC
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
-based ARM architecture
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
computer, would be released with full schematics.
Consumer design wins
- Marvell supplied the Wi-FiWi-FiWi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
chip for the original (1st generation) Apple iPhoneIPhoneThe iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
.
Acquisitions
Through the years, Marvell has acquired smaller companies to enter new markets.| Date | Acquired company | Expertise | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2000 | Galileo Technology | Ethernet switches, system controllers | $2700M in stock |
| June 2002 | SysKonnect | PC networking | |
| February 2003 | Radlan Radlan RADLAN computer communications LTD. , is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marvell Technology Group, that specializes in LAN networking technologies.-Products:The RADLAN's core technology, Open and Portable Embedded... |
Embedded networking software | $49.7M |
| August 2005 | Hard disk controller division of Qlogic | Hard disk & tape drive controllers | $180M in cash + $45M in stock |
| December 2005 | SOC division of UTStarcom | Wireless communications (3G) | $24M in cash |
| February 2006 | Printer ASIC business of Avago | Printer ASICs | $240M in cash |
| February 2006 | Xscale product line from Intel | Communications processors and SOCs | $600M in cash |
| January 2008 | PicoMobile Networks | Communication software for IWLAN and IMS | |
| August 2010 | Diseño de Sistemas en Silicio S.A. ("DS2") | Spanish company, PLC communication ICs |
Marvell Mobile Hotspot
Marvell Mobile Hotspot (MMH) is an in-car Wi-Fi connectivity. The 2010 Audi A8Audi A8
The Audi A8 is a four-door, full-size, luxury sedan car manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Audi since 1994. Succeeding the Audi V8, the A8 has been offered with front wheel drive or permanent four-wheel drive, with multitronic or tiptronic automatic transmissions — and in short- and...
is the first automobile in the market to feature a factory-installed MMH.
See also
- List of Marvell Technology Group chipsets
- Marvell Software Solutions Israel