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Pace Soft Silicon ships first VoIP systems

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DQW Bureau
New Update

The Pune-based engineering team of Pace Soft Silicon has

released their first VoIP based systems in conjunction with Parthus

Technologies, Dublin, one of the world' leading mobile platform vendors. Neil

Salvi, MD, Pace Soft Silicon called this the first step in their strategy of

building software-based IP components for System On-a-Chip (SOC) implementations

in the consumer and communications segments.

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"Over the next year we will be working closely with

our development partners and their OEM customers to understand what consumers

want and to deliver wireless voice and video systems accordingly," he told

the CNS. Salve was in Pune to oversee the company operations.

Pace Soft Silicon was founded in April 2000 to develop

software silicon intellectual property for wireless multimedia applications. The

parent company has been operating from Europe and India for two years now. It is

focused on solutions targeted for applications such as Voice Over IP, Video,

Cryptographic systems and Bluetooth.

The company has optimized its software for the TI, ARM

and Motorola platforms. Interestingly, the company finds a mention among the top

33 quality emerging technology companies in Ireland at the SummIT2001.

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Pace has also optimized their software to run on

emergent type of silicon architecture. Salvi believed that this could prove to

be a huge opportunity for the company. Cradle Technologies, a US start-up have

developed their Universal Microsystem (UMS) chip based on this architecture.

This new architecture is based on generic silicon with

most of the functionality implemented through custom written software. The

emergence of this new silicon architecture is expected to alter the way in which

value can be added to semiconductor solutions. These software solutions will be

offered to companies as an alternative to using custom built Application

Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). 

The silicon will become more of a commodity while the

real value of the solution will be added through custom written software.

Companies that get an early lead in creating value added IP around this software

will stand to benefit significantly as the market for this type of software

grows.

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Pace already has a considerable first mover advantage in

the UMS platform of the knowledge it has gained through their design services

through Cradle. Salvi believed that this advantage would be key as more

companies began developing software for the platform.

On their new product, Salvi revealed that the company

had already developed their first generation software for coding/decoding

Voice-over-IP and had licensed it to Parthus Technologies to use in their

MediaStream platform. "We are currently developing a H.263 video decoder

which will initially be targeted for TI's and Motorola's wireless

platforms," Apte said.

Today a large number of companies are involved in the

development of coders/decoders for voice and video applications--from large EDA

companies such as Mentor Graphics to other more focused semiconductor IP

companies such as Amphion.  According to Salvi, Pace would be attempting to

compete with these companies through their technologies. The advantage would be

key as more companies begin developing software for the platform.

Pace uses a standard IP licensing model with initial

up-front license fees, license fees for each end-customer and per-unit royalty

fees based on the number of devices shipped. The company currently earns about

70 per cent of its revenues from IP licensing and 30 per cent from services. The

company has been working on the product for the last six months. The first demo

will be held sometime in June.

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