Wireless technology
company picoChip has
been racking up accolades in recent months.
The Bath-based company has outstripped
the competition to win the prestigious
Frost & Sullivan
2006 Semiconductors Industry Innovation
award. In addition to that, picoChip
is one of only two UK companies to make
the ‘Fierce 15’ list
of the most significant private companies
in the wireless area. Perhaps most important
of all, however, picoChip’s technology
is now recognised as the gold standard
for WiMAX communications.
picoChip, which ranks as the best-funded
private WiMAX Company, has developed the
world’s highest performance Digital
Signal Processing (DSP) silicon chip designed
for decoding wireless signals.
WiMAX technology is designed to extend
local WiFi networks across greater distances
typically between 5km and 15km and provide
the wireless equivalent of last mile DSL
service into the home or business.
picoChip’s industry leadership was
sealed in a new partnership with Spain-based
CETECOM, the WiMAX Forum’s sole approved
test lab for the certification of WiMAX
products. picoChip’s multi-core processor
arrays and software will be incorporated
into CETECOM’s protocol conformance
tester.
picoChip Vice President of Marketing Rupert
Baines explains the significance of the
move: “We’ve become the ‘golden
modem’, the official test reference
point. Everyone else has to test against
us to see if they meet required standards.”
picoChip, which was founded in 2000 and
is headed by Chief Executive Officer and
President Guillaume d’Eyssautier,
has expanded rapidly in the last 12 months.
Its staff has grown from 40 to 70, it has
added a string of new partners and offices
and revenues have grown significantly.
“We’re going through a step-change
in terms of size and scale. Between 2004
and 2005 our revenues roughly quadrupled
and in 2005-2006 we’re likely to
do the same,” says picoChip’s
Baines.
As well as demonstrating its technical
prowess, the company has constructed a
powerful network of alliances to help customers
bring products to market quickly and is
well-positioned for rapid international
growth. picoChip boasts a number of blue-chip
partners including Intel, which is both
a shareholder and a customer. Telecoms
giant AT&T has also made a strategic
investment in the company.
picoChip’s Rupert Baines describes
WiMAX as ‘WiFi on steroids’ and
says it will revolutionise communications
capability. While much attention has focused
on WiMAX as a challenger to 3G in rich
countries, Baines also sees significant
opportunities for it in nations such as
Russia, Mexico, Nigeria and India, which
have a low level of fixed copper telephone
lines and therefore DSL ownership, but
growing penetration of mobile phones and
demand for e-mail and web access.
As a result of customer demand picoChip
has opened new offices in San Jose and
Boston in the US, as well as Shenzhen,
Shanghai, Yokohama and Seoul in the Far
East. picoChip has a partnership with the
Electronic and Telecommunications Research
Institute (ETRI) of Korea, a nation which
will become the first to introduce truly
portable broadband when it launches mobile
WiMAX later this year.
The company is also raising its game in
Europe where it has an agreement with Ultimate
Renaissance to sell picoChip’s products
across its European network and clocked
up a design win from InfiNet Wireless,
a leading vendor of broadband wireless
access equipment in Eastern Europe and
other emerging markets.
SEP led a $20.5 million third round funding
last year for picoChip alongside Pond Venture
Partners and Atlas Venture to finance the
company’s ambitious growth plans.
Stuart Paterson, a Director in SEP’s
Information Technology group said: “picoChip
has been developing multi-core systems
for many years and now has the most efficient
DSP on the market using over 300 processors
on a single chip. This is quite an engineering
feat when you consider Intel has only just
launched their dual core generic processor.”
Paterson added that picoChip has also
developed the necessary software tools
as well as the software specific for WiMax
and 3G products: “With over 20 customer
design wins including being in products
from AirSpan, Intel, Ericsson, Marconi,
Fujitsu and Infinet, the company has made
impressive commercial progress.”
