ZTE Secures US$15 Billion Credit Line from China Development Bank

China Development Bank will provide ZTE a US$15 billion credit line, including ZTE's overseas project financing and ZTE's credit limits, under a 5-year agreement announced by the companies. The two companies are currently in discussion to develop specific terms and procedures on financing project and how to effectively execute the business cooperation.ZTE noted that in view of the current global financial crisis, majority of mainstream financing...

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STMicroelectronics Launches Single-Chip Set-Top Box ICs

STMicroelectronics introduced two new single-chip STB ICs for cable and satellite set top boxes that share a common architecture and are software compatible, enabling efficient development and fast time-to-market for products such as basic zappers, interactive and DVR-capable STBs, and hybrid STBs.The STi5197 (cable) includes a QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) demodulator and the STi5189 (satellite) includes a QPSK (quadrature phase-shift keying) demodulator, and both products have a common architecture for MPEG-2 audio/video-decoding and...

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AOptix Secures $12.9 Million in Venture Funding

AOptix Technologies, a start-up based in Campbell, California, secured $12.9 million in new venture funding for its advanced iris recognition systems and ultra-high bandwidth wireless optical communication solutions. AOptix is currently in production and launch of the company's first commercial product release for the iris biometrics market, the InSight 2 Meter Iris Recognition System.The financing round was led by Northgate Capital of Danville,...

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Opnext Demos 16G Fibre Channel Longwave

Opnext is demonstrating its new 16G Fibre Channel Long Wave (FC LW) SFP+ Transceiver prototype at this week's OFC/NFOEC conference in San Diego.Based on Opnext's 1310nm DFB laser technology, the Opnext 16G FC LW SFP+ optical transceiver offers transmission distances of up to 10km. The next generation 16G FC product specifications are currently in discussion at the T11 industry standards committee. Market release of the 16G FC product line will be...

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Broadcom Expands Set-Top Box Family with HD Decoders

Broadcom expanded its portfolio of set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions with new products that offer a streamlined feature set targeting single, multi-format high definition (HD) decode, including support for China's audio/video standard (AVS).Broadcom said service providers are demanding a broader range of STB solutions to address whole-home connected entertainment environments that include a high-end media gateway in the living room along with mid-to-lower-range thin client devices in "second" rooms such as bedrooms or dens. Meanwhile,...

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CIP Technologies Develops 100 Gbps 2R Regenerator

CIP Technologies has released a new 100 Gbps version of its all-optical 2R (reamplification and reshaping) regenerator for optical networking applications. Based on CIP Technologies' HyBoard hybrid platform, the new device is fabricated from an integrated combination of an array of the company's' high-speed nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA-XN), and planar silica Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs). This component combination extends the outstanding signal regeneration properties of the company's hybrid 2R device from data rates of...

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Alcatel-Lucent and Politecnico di Milano Research 100G

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a two-year agreement with Politecnico di Milano to conduct research in the fields of 100 Gbps technology, multi-service network design and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology for metro-access network applications. The agreement builds on an existing partnership in research, with a particular focus on next-generation optical networks. Alcatel-Lucent said its objective is to further accelerate its product innovation by leveraging the high level skills of Politecnico's researchers and to reduce its time-to-market...

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Sony Ericsson Warns on Weak Q1 Sales

Sony Ericsson warned that its net sales and net income before taxes in the first quarter of 2009 continue to be negatively affected by weak consumer demand as well as de-stocking in the retail and distribution channels. Although final results may differ, Sony Ericsson plans to ship approximately 14 million phones during the first quarter of 2009 with an estimated ASP (average selling price) of EUR 120. Gross margin is expected to decline both year-on-year...

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China Unicom Awards WCDMA Contract to Ericsson

Ericsson has been selected by China Unicom to supply WCDMA networks and services for 15 Chinese provinces. Specifically, Ericsson will supply the 2G/3G common core platform, WCDMA RAN system, network rollout services, tuning, spare parts and training services over the coming months. Deliveries and deployment have already begun. Up to now, first 3G calls have been successfully made in all the 14 cities supplied by Ericsson for China Unicom's initial...

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Georgia Tech Forms 100G Consortium

Ten companies have joined forces with the Georgia Institute of Technology to establish the Georgia Tech 100G Optical Networking Consortium, which will perform multidisciplinary research in all aspects of 100-gigabit-per-second transmission, supported by the diverse and complementary strengths of the industrial partners and faculty members. Research topics range from fundamental studies of 100G optical transmission to assessment of optical and electronic...

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