Skyworks Offers Licenses To Revolutionary SMV Technology
Patented and Proprietary Selectable Mode Vocoder (SMV) Improves Voice Quality for CDMA Handset Applications While Increasing Network System Capacity By Up To 75 Percent
CONTACT: Skyworks Media Relations Lisa Briggs, 949-231-4553 lisa.briggs@skyworksinc.com or Skyworks Investor Relations Thomas Schiller, 949-231-4700Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS), the industry's leading wireless semiconductor company focused on radio frequency (RF) and complete cellular system solutions for mobile communications applications, today announced that licensing rights for the patented and proprietary Selectable Mode Vocoder (SMV) technology incorporated in mobile handset applications, are immediately available on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.
Adopted by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP2) as the next-generation vocoder for CDMA wireless networks, SMV is a technology that is capable of increasing subscriber capacity by up to 75 percent, while improving the quality of wireless voice communications for the consumer. In independent tests of voice call quality, SMV has consistently outperformed existing vocoders, including the GSM network's Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) vocoder, in a variety of environments including car, street and office backgrounds.
"The capacity and quality improvements made possible with SMV will have a significant impact in the CDMA wireless industry," said David J. Aldrich, Skyworks' president and chief executive officer. "Users will notice a marked improvement in the voice quality of their communications, especially under less-than-perfect conditions, while service providers can enjoy increased network capacity. The industry's standards boards have already ratified this breakthrough technology. Skyworks' pricing strategy for SMV licenses is designed to proliferate the technology as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible."
"SMV technology provides significant capacity and quality gains on cdmaOne and CDMA2000 systems," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group, which supported 3GPP2 in its development of the SMV algorithm's specification and release. "The state-of-the-art technology utilized in SMV will allow CDMA subscribers to enjoy superior quality while allowing service providers to increase capacity as needed."
About SMV Technology
In contemporary wireless communications systems, speech from a handset is digitized and encoded prior to transmission in order to reduce the number of data bits needed to faithfully represent the original sound. Upon reception, the signal is decoded and returned to spoken word for the listener. The coding and decoding operations are performed by a vocoder, with the number of simultaneous conversations that can be accommodated on an operator's valuable and finite bandwidth limited by the data rate consumed during each conversation. Vocoders that provide high voice quality while simultaneously offering the lowest data transmission rates are of considerable value to operators, as they provide the best customer satisfaction and also provide increased system capacity. SMV is a breakthrough algorithm technology that provides these significant capacity and quality gains.
SMV employs powerful, dynamically variable speech encoding algorithms that automatically select the optimal encoding rate based on speech characteristics. Depending on the speech pattern, successive bits of speech are rapidly digitized at one of four different base band bit rates -- 9.6 Kbps, 4.8 Kbps, 2.4 Kbps and 1.2 Kbps. SMV then allows the network provider to select their preferred operational modes in order to achieve their target voice quality and capacity goals on a dynamically adjustable basis. This provides network operators with the flexibility to make trade-offs between voice quality and capacity at any point. For example, a network provider might increase capacity in one sector to cope with a sudden, unpredictable increase in user demand, such as rush hour. Alternatively, the operator may want to offer business users a premium package guaranteeing the best voice quality.
Unique noise reduction and cancellation mechanisms are also built into SMV's speech pre-processing and multi-level classification modules to ensure a very high level of voice clarity and fidelity under typical noisy cell phone environments such as in a car, on the street or in an office.
SMV is a proprietary technology that was developed by Dr. Huan-Yu Su and his team while at Conexant Systems, Inc. With the spin-off of several of Conexant's businesses over the last several years, the SMV intellectual property rights have been distributed as follows: Skyworks is the exclusive licensor for mobile handset applications; Mindspeed Technologies (Nasdaq: MSPD) is the exclusive licensor for high density wireless infrastructure products (eight or more ports) and Conexant (Nasdaq: CNXT) is the exclusive licensor for low density wireless infrastructure products (seven or fewer ports).
For more information regarding SMV and licensing rights for handset applications, please contact Skyworks at smv@skyworksinc.com or visit the SMV website at www.skyworksinc.com/smv. Demonstrations of the voice quality enhancements achieved with SMV technology are also available by visiting Skyworks' website.
About Skyworks
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. is the industry's leading wireless semiconductor company focused on RF and complete cellular system solutions for mobile communications applications. The company provides front-end modules, RF subsystems and cellular systems to handset, WLAN and infrastructure customers.
Skyworks is headquartered in Woburn, Mass., with executive offices in Irvine, Calif. The company has design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales and service facilities throughout North America, Europe, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and India. For more information please visit www.skyworksinc.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release includes "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include information relating to future results of Skyworks (including certain projections and business trends). Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "believes," "plans," "may," "will," "continue," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. All such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those projected, and may affect our future operating results, financial position and cash flows.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: global economic and market conditions, such as the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry and the markets addressed by the company's and its customers' products; demand for and market acceptance of new and existing products; the ability to develop, manufacture and market innovative products in a rapidly changing technological environment; the ability to compete with products and prices in an intensely competitive industry; product obsolescence; losses or curtailments of purchases from key customers or the timing of customer inventory adjustments; the timing of new product introductions; the availability and extent of utilization of raw materials, critical manufacturing equipment and manufacturing capacity; pricing pressures and other competitive factors; changes in product mix; fluctuations in manufacturing yields; the ability to continue to grow and maintain an intellectual property portfolio and obtain needed licenses from third parties; the ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; labor relations of the company, its customers and suppliers; economic, social and political conditions in the countries in which Skyworks, its customers or its suppliers operate, including health and security risks, possible disruptions in transportation networks and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and the uncertainties of litigation, as well as other risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Note to editors: Skyworks is a trademark or registered trademark of Skyworks Solutions, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and in other countries. All other brands and names listed are trademarks of their respective companies.
SOURCE: Skyworks Solutions, Inc.