Qualcomm, the firm most commonly associated with the Snapdragon platform that powers many Google Android devices and literally every Windows Phone 7 device, is rumored to have spent $55 billion acquiring New York based Sandbridge Technologies. They specialize in what’s known as “software defined radios”, or in plain English: they make processors that can connect to a cellular network that uses one type of technology, say GSM, then when it wants to support something totally different, like CDMA, it can just by shifting a few bits around. It’s been the Holy Grail for mobile phone manufacturers, to be able to shove one of these into a handset, but problems such as power consumption and heat have prevented the technology from taking off. Qualcomm is no stranger to software defined radios. They sell a product dubbed “Gobi” that goes inside many high end enterprise laptops as it supports literally every networking standard on the planet.
Will Strauss, President and Principal Analyst with Forward Concepts, the guy who tipped off the world to this unannounced purchase, says Qualcomm just wants the patents Sandbridge has amassed since being founded in 2001. Some talented engineers may also get a job, but don’t expect Sandbridge’s product line to be continued going forward. Of note is that in 2006 Samsung invested over $15 million into this firm, so they’re not just a bunch of dunces patenting things for the sake of making money off royalties. They were also given the title of “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum in 2004.
Why exactly would Qualcomm keep this a secret? It’s unknown, but Sandbridge’s website is down so something is definitely up. After Intel purchased Infineon’s wireless unit earlier this year, things became heated in the semiconductor business. If Intel starts using their fabs to build chips that support LTE then we’re going to see the pace of wireless innovation ramp up so fast that none of us, especially our wallets, are going to be able to keep up with.
[Photo via IEEE]