Agilent Technologies Inc., which had already disclosed its intentions to become a supplier of baseband ICs for the 3G wireless handset market, today agreed to license a family of DSP cores from 3DSP Corp.
The agreement provides Agilent with the DSP portion of the baseband solution which it would be able to pair with its ARM-based processor introduced in May. For 3DSP, the agreement provides the company with another significant customer to bolster its DSP IP licensing efforts.
"We believe that the Agilent licensing agreement represents a significant endorsement of our DSP architecture, and our advanced SoC design tools by a major player in the communications industry," said Tom Beaver, chief executive and president of 3DSP in Irvine, Calif.
Duane Smith, vice president of operations for 3DSP, said the license with Agilent, "although driven by a single division [wireless], is a corporate-wide agreement. We will have a number of opportunities as Agilent looks at this as their core DSP technology through the coming years."
Under the agreement, Agilent will be able to integrate 3DSP's SP-3, SP-5, and SP-5flex cores, as well as its DSP-Shuttle intelligent bus controller in system solutions.
"3DSP's configurable DSP processors deliver a significant advantage in tailoring high performance SoC solutions for the mobile appliance and communications markets," said Kathy Tobin, manager for Agilent's Mobile Information Solutions Initiative in Palo Alto, Calif. "We can tune the capabilities of the DSP provided by 3DSP to specific application requirements, and deliver very high performance semiconductor solutions that meet market requirements for optimal power consumption and low cost."
3DSP previously announced a licensing agreement with National Semiconductor Corp., and in April disclosed that Intel Corp. has taken an investment position in the company that now totals $24 million.
