Qualcomm announced Wednesday that it has acquired wireless chip maker Wilocity in a bid to improve its short distance wireless technology in future devices.
Qualcomm, the renowned mobile chip maker, is making a new move that puts it above rivals such as Intel. The chip maker announced Wednesday that it has completed the acquisition of wireless chip maker Wilocity. The buy up is to achieve multi-gigabit speeds on mobile devices. The Israel-based startup is a perfect match as it develops chips based on new WiGig technology that is deemed important for the industry's growth.
Qualcomm invested in the startup Wilocity and has worked closely with it in the development of tri-band technology for the computer market. The partnership of several years takes a new turn as Qualcomm decided to take complete ownership of the highly capable tech firm. Qualcomm strongly believes in Wilocity's WiGig technology, which is a standard use across the industry and offers speeds several times faster than Wi-Fi.
The WiGig technology, which has the potential to replace physical cables from PCs in the near future, has certain limitations. The frequency sent over the 60GHz band cannot penetrate walls or cover long distances. Critics doubt WiGig's long-lasting commercial value. But the company says its focus is on speed rather than distance, so WiGig is likely to sustain with limited applications. For instance, the technology can be used for data-saturating functions that take place in small areas, such as wirelessly streaming 4K video from a smartphone to a television, for gaming purposes and more.
"Combining multi-gigabit speeds and low energy use, WiGig technology will strengthen Qualcomm Atheros' connectivity leadership and create exciting new experiences that will accelerate the commercialization and adoption of 802.11ad technology," Amir Faintuch, president of Qualcomm Atheros, said in a press statement. "Ultimately, the integration of WiGig will help Qualcomm fulfill its 1000x vision to densify the network to address increasing mobile data demand."
The partnership will bring the tri-band package in smartphones and tablets, which will improve the performance speed of wireless applications tremendously. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. TheMarker, an online publication, earlier put the price of $300 million on the imminent deal, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Wilocity will continue its operations from Israel while Qualcomm has already dispatched an engineering team to join Wilocity. The first prototype smartphone running Sparrow Wil6300 chipset by Wilocity was showcased at the Mobile World Congress this year. The chipset was built on 60GHz band, allowing the smartphone to achieve data transfer speeds up to 7Gbps, ZDNet reports.
