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Linksys inks a deal with Verizon, in the Technology column



3DSP Eyes Chips for New Digital Music Format; SimpleTech Adds Stores

It looks like Irvine’s Linksys Group Inc. could show Intel Corp. or 3Com Corp. a thing or two about home networking.

The maker of devices that link home computer products together recently struck a deal with Verizon Communications Inc. to package its products with Verizon digital subscriber line connections.

“This makes it easier for businesses to get up and running on the Internet with this kind of support,” said Janie Tsao, Linksys’ business development vice president.

For the past few years, tech heavyweights Intel and 3Com have sung the praises of home networking, but have managed to land only a little of the market for home networking gear.

With only six months in the market, Linksys has passed Intel, Lucent Technologies Inc. and others in wireless networking kits, which allow people to move around the house and still surf the Web. To boot, Linksys has more than half the market for simple routers, devices that connect multiple personal computers to cable or DSL.

Linksys could reap benefits. Sales of home networking products reached $290 million in 2000,a 97% increase from the prior year. And the market is expected to double to $585 million by the end of 2001, according to market researchers.

Linksys itself has grown to 250 employees and has seen its yearly sales increase from $6.4 million in 1994 to $206 million last year. Company executives expect to pull in $350 million in sales by the end of this year.


3DSP’s New Project

It may have just gotten funding, but chip designer 3DSP Corp. already is looking at a new technology. The company recently launched a new project aimed at designing programs for MPEG-4 formatted media, the next version of the wildly popular MPEG-3, or MP3, digital music format.

Specifically, 3DSP engineers plan to look at developing what are called profiles for MP4 programs. The profiles will allow hardware running MP4 files to use the special features being developed in future software.

“Compared with previous standards, we believe new functionalities are being addressed with MPEG-4 that meet the need for almost all high-performance streaming (audio-video) media required for next generation communication products,” said H. D. Boesch, vice president for marketing at 3DSP.

The program follows other developments at 3DSP. The company recently announced a joint partnership to develop MP4-based software with Wipro Ltd., a Bangalor, India-based company.

3DSP, an Irvine-based chip designer founded in 1997 by former Texas Instrument Inc. engineers, comes up with chip designs and then sells them,without the overhead of wafer fabrication plants, or fabs. The company counts markets on three continents.

3DSP has signed on several notable customers, including National Semiconductor Corp. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc., formerly Hyundai Electronics.

The company has fetched nearly $24 million through three separate rounds of funding, with Intel Capital, Intel Corp.’s investment arm, leading the most recent $12.5 million investment. Alcatel Ventures, the investment arm of Alcatel, led the second $8.5 million round and private investors anted up the initial $3 million. 3DSP plans to secure a single $30 million investment by the fourth quarter, company officials said.


SimpleTech Ups Retail Ante

In a bid to boost the exposure of its computer memory cards, Santa Ana-based SimpleTech Inc. has doubled the number of stores carrying its products, to 600. Among other products, SimpleTech included its flash memory, multimedia cards, external hard drives and memory upgrades in its retail effort.

“The increasing popularity of today’s electronics devices is fueling an unprecedented demand for rugged, affordable and high-quality storage media,” said Jeff Jones, SimpleTech’s director of commercial sales. “We are gratified that the breadth of our product line, and the industry-high densities we consistently offer make SimpleTech’s products a popular choice for the nation’s most widely shopped retailers and their customers.”


Seeking Nominees

The Software Council of Southern California is looking for nominees for it annual Software Industry Awards.

The awards are presented to individuals and companies that have made extraordinary contributions to the growth of Southern California as a center for technological innovation.

Nominees for the 2002 event will compete for one of four awards, CEO of the year, software entrepreneur of the year, developer of the year, and interactive content company of the year.

Previous winners include Lee Roberts of Costa Mesa-based FileNET Corp., Michael Bell of Gardena-based Encore Software Inc., Ed Gavaldon of El Segundo-based Peerless Systems Corp. and David Hanna of Irvine-based Sage Software Inc.

Nominations for the 2002 event must be received by Oct. 31. Nominees do not need to be members of the software council, but they must be headquartered in Southern California. Full details of the nomination process and award criteria can be found at www.scsc.org.

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