Spirent and UbiNetics enter into strategic partnership — Spirent and UbiNetics announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to expand test solutions for the 3G market.

Under the terms of the agreement Spirent has acquired UbiNetics' CS100 product line and rights to associated intellectual property for £6.5 million in cash.

In addition, under the agreement Spirent and UbiNetics will partner for the further development of the CS100 product line and future test platforms.

The CS100 3G base station emulator product is used by leading mobile phone manufacturers and chip set developers for the test and verification of wideband CDMA (WCDMA) user equipment and provides a flexible multi-cell simulation of the physical layer of a WCDMA network.

The partnership brings significant strategic benefits to both parties. Spirent's Communications group has already developed a strong global presence with its test solutions for 3G wireless networks based on CDMA technology and this relationship will extend Spirent's expertise into WCDMA air interface testing.

As a result of the partnership, both parties will be able to develop complementary advanced solutions for testing and managing complex WCDMA infrastructure and user equipment.

Partners and customers will benefit from increased development efforts, better global reach and greater breadth of expertise.

Matsushita Electric licenses ARM cores — ARM and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan announced that Matsushita has licensed the ARM946E-S and the ARM926EJ-S microprocessor cores.

Using these ARM microprocessor cores, Matsushita will offer advanced system-on-chip (SoC) products for use in future wireless devices such as mobile phones, including WCDMA devices.

This licence expands Matsushita's use of ARM cores and will enable them to reinforce their presence in the embedded market.

ARM cores previously licensed by Matsushita include the ARM7TDMI core and the ARM920T core.

The ARM926EJ-S core combines high-performance and low power requirements with support for ARM Jazelle technology for Java acceleration.

The ARM946E-S core is a complete high-performance embedded processor solution, offering savings in chip complexity and area, chip system design, power consumption and time-to-market.

Matsushita will offer SoC devices based on the ARM926EJ-S core in Q2 2003 and based on the ARM946E-S core in Q3 2003.

Avnet RF & Microwave inks deal with Directed Energy — Avnet RF & Microwave has signed a distribution agreement with Directed Energy Inc., a division IXYS Corp.

DEI's Fast Power product family utilizes low-inductance, high-power, plastic package portfolio combined with MOSFET technology, offering high-perfromance electrical and thermal functionability in high speed switching and RF applications.

With this agreement, Avnet RF & Microwave will now distribute DEI's Fast Power MOSFET transistors, a class of RF transistors designed for high power RF applications.

DEI's Fast Power technology features low insertion inductance, and a low profile package, which provides exceptional power handling capabilities.

The DE series MOSFET's are available in five power ranges and offer three times the thermal dissipation with greatly reduced die stress of comparable conventional power MOSFET devices.

Peregrine unveils $14 million in financing — Peregrine Semiconductor has announced that it has raised $14 million in the first round of its Series A1 round.

Known for its UTSi (Ultra Thin Silicon) CMOS on an inherently insulating sapphire substrate, Peregrine Semiconductor develops chips that combine high frequency and low power in highly-integrated RFICs.