SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. April 28, 2011—There is little question that smartphone shipments are increasing by leaps and bounds every year, and that these devices are being enabled with more processing power to perform complex tasks on multiple technologies. As a result, In-Stat (www.in-stat.com) is forecasting that worldwide smartphone processor revenue will have a CAGR of nearly 21% from 2009-2015.

“In the last 10 years, smartphones and phones in general have created a multi-billion-dollar business where one did not exist before,” says Allen Nogee, Research Director. “This business has enticed almost all the semiconductor players on the planet, both large and small, to produce components that enable mobile devices in ways we couldn’t have imagined just 10 years ago. The next 10 years will not see changes quite as dramatic as those in the last 10 years, but that isn’t to say the evolution of the handset won’t continue at a fast pace. It will.”

Recent In-Stat research found:

• Over 60 semiconductor companies worldwide produce semiconductor components for mobile phones.
• Total handset semiconductor content will surpass $81 billion in 2015.
• Pico projector revenue is forecast to grow at an amazing rate of 163% over the forecast period.
• Smartphones are expected to make up 45.3% of all handsets shipped in 2015.
• Semiconductor revenue associated with accelerometers and/or gyros will exceed $300 million by 2014.

Recent In-Stat research Handset Components: Worldwide Trends and Forecasts (#IN1104754SI) looks at the major components of a cellular phone (including smartphones), and includes a comprehensive listing of the component makers and a discussion of the market in each area. Additionally, each section contains a semiconductor 5-year revenue forecast.

Among the companies included in this report are: AMD/ATI Technologies, Anadigics, Analog Devices, Apple, Atheros, Atmel, Beceem, Broadcom, Cavium, Chongyou Technology, Corning, CSR/SiRF Technology, Cypress, Datang Telecom Technology, DiBcom, ElanTech, Elpida Memory, Freescale Semiconductor, GCT Semiconductor, Hisilicon Technologies, Hynix, Icera Semiconductor, IDT/Leadis Technology, Imagination Technology, Infineon Technologies, Intel, Kionix, LG Electronics, MagnaChip Semiconductor, Marvell, Maxim, MediaTek, Micron, MicroVision, National Semiconductor, NEC, Newport Media, Numonyx, Nvidia, Oki Semiconductor, OmniVision, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Ralink, Renesas Technology, RFMD, Samsung, Sandbridge Tech, Spreadtrum Communications, ST-Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Synaptics, Telegent Systems, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, TriQuint, VIA Telecom, Wolfson Microelectronics.

For a free sample of the report and more information contact Elaine Potter, epotter@in-stat.com; (480) 483-4441

To purchase it online, please visit: http://www.instat.com/catalog/wcatalogue.asp?id=68

The price is $3,495 (US).

Guest Blog by Will Strauss, President & Principal Analyst, Forward Concepts

Intel Bulks up Again in LTE

In early March, Intel purchased most of the assets of Cairo-based SysDSoft, one of only two licensors of LTE level-2-and-above software stacks. It is unlikely that Intel will allow the entity to continue the licensing business, so that leaves U.K.-based 4M Wireless as the last man standing in the merchant LTE level-2+ stack business. At MWC, we met with SysDSoft and learned that the 120-man Cairo operations were originally a branch of an American company, Ellipsis Digital Systems. The Cairo operation, headed by Dr. Khaled Ismail (a graduate of MIT and veteran of IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center), split from Ellipsis in 2002 with two people to provide MAC-layer software for Wi-Fi and design services.  The new company then expanded into Bluetooth, WiMAX and RF Design services.  SysDSoft claims to have been profitable since 2005. 

Until the Intel acquisition, the company offered both LTE UE (terminal) and LTE eNodeB (base station) support for both ARM9 and MIPS24KF platforms.  They had earlier licensed their LTE UE stack to Infineon and Beceem (recently acquired by Broadcom), among several others.  Rumor has it that the deal went down for about $50 million, much of that based on the value of the patents and IP.  Intel hired about 100 of SysDSoft’s engineers and it will be interesting to see how Intel’s new Cairo operations interact with their extensive wireless development center in Haifa.  However, it appears that Intel Mobile Communications in Germany (formerly Infineon Technologies) will be the primary interface with the newly acquired Egypt operation.

Intel also Gobbles up Silicon Hive

Netherlands-based Silicon Hive is a Philips Semiconductor spin-out that offers a licensable C-programmable massively parallel architecture for low-power DSP and video processing.  At MWC, Intel announced that they were acquiring the company…one that Intel Capital had earlier invested in.  Although Silicon Hive has offered a family of communication signal processors based on the architecture, my perception is that the company has been more successful with its image processing and video processing product families. I believe that it is the latter two applications that Intel wants to exploit for use with their new 32nm Medfield implementation of its Atom™ processor family.  Medfield is Intel’s hope for finally getting Atom into a real smartphone.

CSR & Zoran Merge

Soon after Mobile World Congress, CSR and Zoran announced that they were merging.  The synergies of CSR’s Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and audio with Zoran’s imaging and video processing could be compelling, but as my colleague David Manners of Electronics Weekly pointed out, the synergies expected by the proponents of M&A are rarely as productive as expected.

MediaTek Licenses LTE Baseband DSP from Coresonic

Sweden-based Coresonic AB offers a baseband-specific DSP based on its unique SIMT™ (Single Instruction-flow Multiple Tasks) architecture that uses a task-level pipeline for parallelization. The company provides its technology as an architecture license or as silicon IP cores, and claims smaller size, lower-power consumption and fewer lines of code compared with traditional DSP designs.  Just prior to MWC, the company announced that MediaTek had earlier licensed the architecture for a future LTE baseband.  The company’s CEO, Johan Lodenius, was formerly a Qualcomm VP of Product Management.

Genasic: New LTE RF Transceiver Coming

U.K.-based Genasic Design Systems Ltd. is an independent RF transceiver supplier that expects to begin sampling its first low-power LTE-capable RF transceiver chip by mid-year.  The company’s CEO, Ashok Dhuna, was earlier involved with RF design at Sequans and has built on that experience with his new company.  Genasic’s claim to fame is a low-power CMOS approach (in 65nm) with multi-band capability from 698MHz to 2.7GHz.  They expect that their 2RX/1TX chip will draw <300 mW, enabling dongles that operate under the 2.5-W limit.  But, femtocells and handsets are also in their future planning.

Cloud Radio Picks up a Crowd

In my last newsletter, I mentioned Intel’s approach to cloud computing for aggregating basebands for hundreds of base stations at a central location.  Also at MWC, others were touting their approach to centralized baseband operation: Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio active antenna processing drew considerable interest at the Congress, but that is simply one element of the centralized baseband approach they are exploring.  Like Intel, IBM Corporation is also researching the cloud baseband approach in China based on its own SDR approach. At CTIA in Orlando last week, Nokia-Siemens Networks unveiled its Liquid Radio approach that allows baseband pools of more than 10Gbps to be shared across 100 cells.

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, the concept of remote radio heads on cellular towers favors the active antenna products by Ubidyne (now competing with Powerwave Technologies and Alca-Lu’s lightRadio) but the need to cram more digital data from the remote radio head on the antenna to a central “cloud” baseband location favors compression algorithm company Samplify Systems.  But, another concept involves carrying the RF signals from the remote radio heads over dark fiber to the central location, reducing latency problems inherent in digital processing of the signal.  But, since dark fiber is not widely available, it makes sense only in select locations.

From a DSP chip (or DSP-centric SoC) standpoint, Texas Instruments (who is working with NSN on Liquid Radio) assures us that the future centralized baseband approach will not materially affect the market size for such silicon, just where it is installed.

Qualcomm Provides Access to its DSPs

Late last month, Qualcomm announced its OEMs and ISVs will now be able to program their own audio and video codecs using optimized processors and hardware on select versions of Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem™ (MSM) chipsets through the new Qualcomm Developer Network DSP Access Program. This allows OEMs to better differentiate their smartphone and tablet devices by augmenting or modifying the Snapdragon™ platform’s multimedia suite with their own features or procure differentiated features directly from ISVs.

A bit of background is helpful.  Qualcomm has long employed two of its own DSP cores in its modem chipsets: one as a pure cellular datapump modem (mDSP) and the other optimized as a speech and audio engine (aDSP). Qualcomm is enabling access only to aDSP, since disturbing the modem functionality would negate the cellphone type approvals required in several parts of the globe. In the case of Snapdragon, where the MSM is joined by the multimedia-centric ARM v.7 circuitry, much of the audio/video capability on the MSM becomes redundant and free for other uses, so Qualcomm reserves MIPS and memory for users.  It‘s actually a novel way to provide additional or enhanced multimedia functionality without adding more chips to the BOM.

AT&T’s Planned Purchase of T-Mobile: There Will be Blood

AT&T’s parent is the largest private “union shop” in the United States, with some 400,000 of its employees as members of unions.  The AT&T Mobility acquisition of T-Mobile will certainly lead to many redundancies (read: layoffs). One might think that the unions would be upset at the prospect of losing some of their members, but the Communications Workers of America, which represents 42,000 AT&T Mobility workers, is salivating at the idea of unionizing T-Mobile’s workforce. One wonders if lack of union representation of its employees enabled T-Mobile to offer cheaper rates than those of AT&T. There may be great operational advantages for AT&T from the accrued cost savings and reduced competition (even largely-non-union Verizon Wireless applauds the reduced competition), but lower cellular subscription prices are not a likely result.  There will be blood.

Open Kernel Labs Brags of OKL4 Deployment

OK-Labs has been a pioneer in introducing hypervisors in cellphones, with Qualcomm as its biggest customer.  Hypervisors provide Virtual Machines that can enable multiple simultaneous operating systems on a single processor and/or segregate functions and applications.  The OK-Labs approach can also provide secure communications for otherwise off-the-shelf cellphones.  The company has just announced that its OKL4 Microvisor has been deployed in 1.2 billion mobile devices, primarily attributable to Qualcomm, but ST-Ericsson is also a customer.

Sandbridge: A Tale of Two Acquisitions

In my two previous newsletters, I reported that Sandbridge Technologies Inc., a designer of cellular baseband chip, had been acquired 1) by Qualcomm and 2) by Wuxi DSP Technologies.  I obtained information for both stories from sources that I deem reliable.  However, in checking with Sandbridge executives, they could not shed any light on the situation, since they are under NDA with both parties.  My speculation is that Qualcomm acquired all of the patents and IPR while Wuxi DSP Technologies acquired the people.  Wuxi DSP Technologies, in turn, licensed the IPR back from Qualcomm.  When the NDAs expire in two years, we’ll know the whole story.

As always, I invite your comments.

Board Based Upon u-blox GPS and GSM/GPRS Modules Makes It Easy To Create Low-Cost M2M Applications With Location-Awareness Capabilities

CHANDLER, Ariz., April 19, 2011 — Microchip Technology Inc. today announced a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) PICtail Daughter Board (part # AC320011) that comes with all of the hardware, wireless-communication protocols and application-code examples needed to help designers jump start their fleet-management or location-based service application. Developed with u-blox, the new Daughter Board includes the u-blox NEO-6Q GPS and LEON GSM/GPRS modules, and interfaces with Microchip’s Multimedia Expansion Board (part # DM320005), and PIC32 Starter Kit (part # DM320001). The board enables the quick and easy creation of designs offering communications, as well as a complete graphics interface, with audio, accelerometer and networking capabilities.

Many developers wish to add location awareness and communications to their designs, such as those involving fleet management, monitoring traffic congestion and observing driving habits for insurance-rate structures. In addition to integrated GPS for tracking via satellites, the M2M PICtail Daughter Board comes with Global System for Mobile (GSM) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology to enable phone, text, e-mail and Web communications, including images and location information. Microchip also offers free-for-download M2M software libraries, to give developers a head start on their coding efforts and reduce time to market.

“The M2M PICtail Daughter Board provides developers with an easy-to-use, economical platform for the development of fleet-management, asset-tracking and telematic applications, among others,” said Sumit Mitra, vice president of Microchip’s High-Performance Microcontroller Division. “Together with our Multimedia Expansion Board and PIC32 Starter Kit, Microchip provides a flexible solution that enables customers to get to market sooner.”

Thomas Nigg, vice president of product marketing at u-blox, said, “As a leading provider of embedded GPS and wireless communications technology in the market for telematics applications, we are pleased that Microchip has chosen to partner with us to develop the M2M PICtail solution. With this platform, our customers can drastically cut their development time and bring their products to market more quickly.”

Daughter Board Pricing & Availability

The M2M PICtail Daughter Board (part # AC320011, $199) is available for purchase at microchipDIRECT (http://www.microchip.com/get/9B8F), today. Designers who already own a Microchip Multimedia Expansion Board (part # DM320005, $249.99) and PIC32 Starter Kit (part # DM320001, $49.99) can simply purchase the Daughter Board to add GPS/GSM/GPRS functionality to their designs. Alternatively, all three components can be purchased individually, for under $500 total, including the debugger/programmer that is built into the PIC32 Starter Kit.

For further information, contact any Microchip sales representative or authorized worldwide distributor, or visit Microchip’s Web site at http://www.microchip.com/get/9WJD. To purchase products mentioned in this press release, go to microchipDIRECT or contact one of Microchip’s authorized distribution partners.

Easily integrates wireless charging technology into new and existing portable electronics

DALLAS (April. 18, 2011) – Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI)  today introduced its next generation of wireless power technology, which is 80-percent smaller than TI’s previous receiver chip. The tiny, highly integrated device makes it easy for designers to implement wireless charging in their existing and new designs for portable consumer devices, such as smart phones, gaming systems, digital cameras, and medical and industrial equipment.

The bq51013 receiver integrated circuit (IC) combines voltage conditioning and full wireless power control in a small 1.9-mm x 3-mm WCSP package. The new circuit supports up to 5 W of output power, provides up to 93-percent efficient AC/DC power conversion and is the only IC required between the receiver coil and system. For more information or to order samples of the bq51013, visit: www.ti.com/bq51013-pr.

“Smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturers are demanding wireless power, and TI is well positioned to help our customers drive widespread adoption of this technology that makes life easier for people on the go to charge their devices,” said Sami Kiriaki, senior vice president over TI’s Power Management business. “Designers can use the bq51013 to quickly integrate wireless power into existing and new applications with minimal impact to overall solution size.”

Key features and benefits

• Highly integrated and efficient wireless power receiver IC includes full-bridge synchronous rectification, voltage conditioning and wireless power control in a single device.
• 1.9-mm x 3-mm WCSP package allows for easy integration with minimal size impact. Device area is 80 percent less than TI’s first-generation receiver.
• The receiver and its associated bq500110 transmitter IC are Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) Qi-compliant. This compliance ensures interoperability between various charging pads and portable devices.
• Built-in protection against voltage, current and temperature fault conditions, assures safe and reliable system operation.
• 93-percent peak efficiency reduces thermal rise inside the system while allowing charge rates comparable to an AC adapter.

Tools and support
TI offers a variety of tools and support to speed the implementation of wireless power:

• bqTESLA150LP Wireless Power Evaluation Kit, which includes the bq51013 receiver and bq500110 transmitter: www.ti.com/bqTESLA150LP-pr
• bqTESLA150LP User Guide: www.ti.com/bqTESLA150LP-pr

Availability and pricing
The bq51013 wireless power receiver is available now in a 1.9-mm x 3-mm WCSP package, priced at $3.50 in quantities of 1,000.

Small-Footprint Module Incorporates FBAR Filtering, Antenna Switch and Path Coupler Technology with Best-in-Class Noise Rejection and Signal Loss

SAN JOSE, Calif., and SINGAPORE, April 12, 2011 — Avago Technologies  today announced a front-end module with robust filtering for 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth radios in handsets and mobile routers for tablets and other portable PC devices. The new AFEM-S102 module integrates a Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR) coexistence filter, SP3T antenna switch and TX path coupler in a small 2.2 by 2.2 by 0.55 mm package that is ideal for space-constrained applications. The 2.5-GHz module delivers superior out-of-band rejection enabling concurrent operation of WiFi and Bluetooth data-communication with cellular communication standards.

Avago front-end modules integrate multiple high-performance technologies to reduce PCB board footprint and simplify design for portable electronics applications. The AFEM-S102 module exhibits low insertion loss that combines with high noise rejection to meet stringent coexistence requirements and enable fewer interference issues between WiFi, Bluetooth and other radios. Effectively leveraging Avago 0.25 µm GaAs enhancement-mode pHEMT process and its leading-edge proprietary FBAR filtering technologies, the module delivers 2.6 dB maximum insertion loss for the TX path and 35 dB rejection in the 2110-2170 MHz range.

“As smartphones and other portable electronics devices add more radio types and bands, coexistence requirements are getting more stringent,” said James Wilson, director of marketing for wireless products at Avago. “The best-in-class rejection and insertion loss of our proprietary FBAR technology enables OEMs to efficiently address these challenging radio environments. The easy-to-use AFEM-S102 front-end module was designed in conjunction with a leading handset designer for their reference design, specifically to meet the coexistence requirements for WiFi and Bluetooth applications.”

Avago FBAR technology delivers steeper roll-off and lower insertion loss than ceramic or SAW filters and other competing technologies, and does so in a more compact form factor. Low insertion loss reduces power amplifier current and improves receiver sensitivity and dynamic range, resulting in extended battery life and talk time and better signal quality for handsets. FBAR technology makes ultra-small, high-Q filters possible at a fraction of their usual size, and allows integration with other radio components.

Additional AFEM-S102 Product Features

• All RF ports matched to 50 ohms for simplified design
• TX, RX, BT and ANT ports DC blocked
• -18dB TX directional coupling
• -30° to +85° C operation

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The AFEM-S102 front-end module is priced at $1.00 each in 10,000 piece quantities. Samples and production quantities are available now through the Avago direct sales channel and via worldwide distribution partners. More information about the latest Avago front-end modules can be found at: www.avagotechwireless.com.

TI contributes its broad low-power wireless connectivity expertise to the Linux kernel community, introducing first OpenLink Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology drivers available on OpenLink.org

DALLAS (April 12, 2011) – Texas Instruments Incorporated today announced delivery of a mobile-grade, battery-optimized Wi-Fi solution to the open source Linux community as part of the OpenLink project, focused on providing a wide range of wireless connectivity solutions for native Linux. Customers and developers targeting battery-powered Wi-Fi products can now use TI’s OpenLink drivers, gaining native kernel benefits such as tested technologies, faster time-to-market, and simplified re-integration when upgrading from one kernel version to the next. In addition to Wi-Fi, the OpenLink project includes native Linux solutions for Bluetooth and FM technologies, and will expand to support other technologies such as ANT, Bluetooth Low Energy and ZigBee TI will also introduce additional low-power features to the kernel when possible. Visit www.openlink.org for source code, development projects, community support and more.

TI stands as a leader in the mobile Wi-Fi market while also offering the industry’s broadest wireless connectivity portfolio. As a result, the company is uniquely positioned to bring to the Linux kernel a number of low power software features and enhancements that were previously available only in proprietary solutions. These features include support for driver suspend/resume, runtime power management and wake-on-wireless, among others.

“OpenLink marks TI’s commitment to deliver cutting-edge wireless capabilities into the hands of Linux developers,” said Oz Krakowski, open source community manager, wireless connectivity solutions, TI. “We’re enabling built-in kernel access to TI’s latest WiLink™ combo solutions, bringing low power wireless communication to battery-operated mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, eBooks and industrial PDAs. We intend to continue sharing our expertise with regular OpenLink submissions to the Linux kernel—where TI can work collaboratively to strengthen these solutions.”

OpenLink wireless connectivity drivers attach to open source development platforms such as BeagleBoard, PandaBoard and other boards. Whether working with Android, MeeGo or other Linux-based distributions, developers can now access code natively as part of their kernel builds to introduce the latest low-power wireless connectivity solution into their products. Additionally, community support and resources are available 24/7 via the active OpenLink community on www.openlink.org.

The Three New WLS-Series Modules Released Today Offer OEMs High-Performance, Low-Cost, Standards-Based Radios for Faster Time-to-Market

DALLAS, TEXAS, (April 11, 2011) - RF Monolithics, Inc. today introduced the WLS-series of Wi-Fi & Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combination modules to the company’s integrated short-range radio products.  With the addition of three new standards-based modules – the WLS1270, WLS1271, and the WLS1273 – the RFM integrated short-range radio product line now includes high-performance standards-based technologies in addition to the company’s proprietary RFIC and SAW-based product portfolio.

“The addition of the WLS-series combo modules enables RFM to reach a broad new level of customer beyond our historical customer base,” said Farlin Halsey, RFM’s President & CEO.  “We are already engaged with both existing and new customers in early evaluation stages, which is providing us initial insight into how this product line further enhances our opportunities in our target markets and across a broader set of applications.  And given the rapid introduction of new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices in M2M applications, the potential market for these products is significant and fits well within our M2M strategy,”  said Mr. Halsey.  According to the April 2011 issue of Connected World Magazine, by the year 2020 over 50 billion M2M intelligent devices will be wirelessly connected.  Many M2M applications employ end-devices that are Wi-Fi- and/or Bluetooth-enabled which are connected to the internet via an open or private communications network.

Commenting on the use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in M2M applications, Larry Miller, Director of Product Management for the RFM integrated short-range radio product portfolio said, “Immediate access to information and the standard-based communications protocols for ease of connectivity have become major selling points for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.  As a result, the RFM WLS-series modules are ideal for OEMs wanting to quickly add Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + Bluetooth connectivity within a broad range of products for world-wide markets.”

Miller added, “The WLS-series modules are particularly appealing to designers because of their optimized RF performance and high-level of integration all within a small form factor.  Both are hallmarks of the RFM integrated short-range radio line for which we are well-known.  The benefits to our OEM customers are low-cost and shorter design cycles.”

The WLS-series of products include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology in a single SoC and a high-efficiency RF front-end circuit plus a DC-DC converter.  The modules are designed to fit into space constrained designs and are slightly smaller than a dime.  Minimal external circuitry is required to complete a radio design; add an antenna, power source, processor and associated interface hardware and the radio hardware design is complete.

Like all RFM Short-Range Radio family of products, the WLS-series of Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Bluetooth Combo Short-Range Radio Modules are FCC and / or ETSI certified.

The WLS-series includes the following new products:

1. The WLS1270 is IEEE 802.11b/g/ and 11n compliant;  the size of the module is 9.2 mm X 8.4 mm x 1.35 mm
2. The WLS1271 is IEEE 802.11b/g/ and 11n compliant, Bluetooth 2.1 plus EDR, Power Class 2 compliant;  the size of the module is 9.2 mm X 8.4 mm x 1.35 mm
3. The WLS1273 is IEEE 802.11a/b/g/ and 11n compliant, Bluetooth 2.1 plus EDR, Power Class 2 compliant; the size of the module is 11.4 mm X 9.4 mm x 1.4 mm

The WLS Evaluation Kits currently support Linux and Android operating systems.

The WLS-series product line includes evaluation kits that are available through all RFM authorized sales representatives and distributors by June 2011.  Samples are available along with RFM design support to qualified customers.  Go to the following URL to locate a sales rep or distributor nearest you:   http://www.rfm.com/contact_php/map.php.

DALLAS and SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 4, 2011 - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) and National Semiconductor today announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which TI will acquire National for $25 per share in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion. The acquisition combines two industry leaders in analog semiconductors, each with unique strengths in delivering products to improve performance and efficiency and convert real-world signals in electronic systems. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction.

“This acquisition is about strength and growth,” said Rich Templeton, TI’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “National has an excellent development team, and its products combined with our own can offer customers an analog portfolio of unmatched depth and breadth. In recent years, National’s management team has done an outstanding job of improving margins and streamlining expenses, which upon close will increase TI’s profitability and earnings per share, excluding transaction costs. Our ability to accelerate National’s growth with our much larger sales force is the foundation of our belief that we can produce strong returns on our investment. The combined sales team will be 10 times larger than National’s is today, and the portfolio will be exposed to more customers in more markets.”

“Our two companies complement each other very well,” said Don Macleod, National’s chief executive officer. “TI has much greater scale in the marketplace, with its larger portfolio of products and its large global sales force. This provides a platform to enhance National’s strong and highly profitable analog capability, power management in particular, leading to meaningful growth.”

Each company has unique strengths. Among them are the breadth of TI’s 30,000 analog products, extensive customer reach, and industry-leading manufacturing including the world’s first 300-millimeter analog factory. National brings a portfolio of 12,000 analog products, a strong position with customers in the industrial power market, and excellent customer design tools. Upon close of the transaction, National becomes part of TI’s analog segment, and sales of analog semiconductors will represent almost 50 percent of TI’s revenue.

The combined company also will benefit from National’s manufacturing operations, located in Maine, Scotland and Malaysia, which TI will continue to operate. Each site has additional capacity to increase production. National’s headquarters will remain in Santa Clara, California.

Under terms of the agreement, National stockholders will receive $25 in cash for each share of National common stock they hold at the time of closing. TI expects to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash balances and debt. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including review by U.S. and international regulators and approval by National’s shareholders. The transaction is expected to close in six to nine months.

The market for analog semiconductors was $42 billion in 2010. TI is the market leader with 2010 analog revenue of $6.0 billion, or 14 percent of the market. National’s revenue in calendar year 2010 was about $1.6 billion, or 3 percent of the market.

For more information, see www.ti.com/acquire or www.national.com.