Newport Beach’s Jazz Semiconductor, part of Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd., inked a deal with a French nonprofit that helps startups, universities and research labs make prototype chips at a lower cost.
Jazz teamed with Circuits Multi-Projects, which consolidates new chip designs into what it calls “multiproject” wafers.
Wafers are the silicon building blocks of chips, which are etched in a multistep process and then cut apart.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
TowerJazz, which is the chipmaker’s brand name, could see design wins after making successful prototypes, “which might generate future revenue for the company,” according to a report in Israeli technology and business news website Globes.
Tower Semiconductor bought Jazz in 2008 for $170 million.
The company has integrated Jazz into its operations, which also counts two chip factories in Israel.
Copper Play in Costa Mesa
MegaPath Inc., a technology services outsourcing company with its operational headquarters in Costa Mesa, is expanding its nationwide network that seeks to connect offices cheaply by way of copper networks.
MegaPath is building out what’s called wide-area networks that stream voice data via Ethernet connections over copper wiring into some 50 new markets by the end of next year.
“Ethernet over copper is proving to be the next wave in Internet connectivity—offering extremely high performance at a price point much lower than competitive offerings,” Chief Executive Craig Young said.
During the first phase, the company plans to roll out in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
MegaPath, which started in 1998, provides what’s called “managed services” to companies, offering voice-over Internet, data networking and network security services.
The company moved its on-the-books headquarters to Northern California last year when it combined with San Jose-based Covad Communications Group.
Young and other top officials have stayed in Costa Mesa and run the company here.
Incipio’s New Friends
Irvine’s Incipio Technologies is putting social media to work.
The maker of protective cases and related accessories for cell phones and other mobile devices is using social networking giant Facebook and Apple Inc.’s iPhone to boost sales.
The company tapped Atlanta-based ShopVisible LLC to run the back-end technology to make the sales happen.
It allows Incipio’s Facebook “fans” to make purchases directly through Incipio’s page without having to actually leave Facebook.
“What we are doing is taking our product line to where our customers are,” Chief Executive Andy Fathollahi said.
Facebook has become the No. 2 source of Internet traffic for Incipio, after plain old Google searches, Fathollahi said.
Shopping via Facebook boosts the number of people who visit the company’s site and actually follow through with a purchase.
“The traffic we get from Facebook more than doubles the add-to-cart rate,” he said. “It’s attracting a higher quality customer than you would typically get from traditional, organic search.”
The company had some 14,000 fans on Facebook, according to a recent check.
Incipio also scored a hit with its free iPhone application, called the “Bespoke Case Customizer,” which allows users to upload their own designs and photos onto a gadget case.
The custom designs can be shared with friends via Facebook and Twitter. Others have the chance to buy it if they like it.
“The entire process is shared through social networks,” Fathollahi said.
The first day that the iPhone app launched, Incipio processed some 1,500 custom case orders. The cases go for about $25 a pop.
The Business Journal estimates Incipio is set to see $50 million in sales this year.
PCs Yield to Tablets
Stamford, Conn.-based market researcher Gartner Inc. this month lowered its forecast for 2011 PC sales more than 5% due to concerns about tablet computers eating into the mainstay laptop market.
Gartner currently forecasts 2011 growth of 10.5% for PCs, down from a previous projection of nearly 16%.
“Consumers in mature markets appear to be either buying tablets instead of mobile PCs or postponing notebook purchases as they track new tablet announcements,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.
Notebooks and their smaller cousins, called netbooks, had average annual increases of nearly 40% in the past five years, Gartner’s data showed.
The growth rate is expected to fall off to about 10% through 2015 as consumers increasingly get Internet access via other mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.
