Atheros Comm plans acquisitions
Atheros Communications, US-based wireless networking technology provider, is evaluating options to acquire semiconductor companies in India. Atheros manufactures single chips that are incorporated into laptops, desktop computers, smart phones and printers.
"We are positive about Indian demand for our wireless technology," said Mr Rick Bahr, Vice-President, Engineering, Atheros Communications. Acquisitions would help the company meet local and global demand. Over the last year Atheros acquired Taiwan -based fabless semiconductor companies ZyDAS Corporation and Attansic Technology. Mr Bahr told Business Line that the presence of Motorola, Dell Computers and Flextronics in India would fuel growth for Atheros’ new wireless technology standard – 802.11N.
European Market
The 802.11N standard operates in the 5 GHz spectrum, which has so far remained unused, said Mr Bahr. "The high bandwidth offered by this spectrum can be used for transmitting video signals," he said. Wireless technologies like Wi-Fi LAN operate in the 2.46 GHz and 83.5 MHz spectrums and cannot support high bandwidth data/voice transfers.
Through its Chennai-based subsidiary Atheros India LLC, the company aims to partner with smart phone manufactures, laptop and desktop manufacturers to sell its chipsets. It has tied up with Fujitsu Siemens Computers to incorporate 802.11N chipsets in smart phones for the European market. According to Mr Bahr, globally about 20 crore Wi-Fi chipsets a year are being sold and Atheros is looking at this market for selling its 802.11N chipsets.
To cater to the growing market, Atheros India is hiring people for its product development centre at Chennai. Graduates in Computer Science engineering, Electronics and Communication engineering, Hardware design, networking technology and quality analysis are being considered.
The company has tied up with Anna University and Madras Institute of Technology to set up research labs to familiarise students with VLSI and Wireless LAN technologies.
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