Thoma Bravo to acquire Proofpoint for $12.3 billion

Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sector, agreed to acquire ProofPoint for $12.3 billion in cash.

Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT), which is based in Sunnyvale, California, provides software as a service and products for inbound email security, outbound data loss prevention, social media, mobile devices, digital risk, email encryption, electronic discovery, and email archiving.

Under the deal, Proofpoint shareholders will receive $176.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 34 percent over Proofpoint’s closing share price on April 23, 2021, the last full trading day prior to the transaction announcement, and a premium of approximately 36 percent over Proofpoint’s three-month volume-weighted average closing share price through April 23, 2021. Upon completion of the transaction, Proofpoint will become a private company with the flexibility and resources to continue providing the most effective cybersecurity and compliance solutions to protect people and organizations around the world.

“Today’s announcement is a testament to the strength of Proofpoint’s people-centric approach to cybersecurity and compliance and underscores our important role preventing, defending and responding to today’s threats,” said Gary Steele, Chairman and CEO of Proofpoint. “We have made tremendous strides in expanding the sophistication and scale of our offerings, and in 2020 we generated more than $1 billion in annual revenue – making Proofpoint the first SaaS-based cybersecurity and compliance company to reach that milestone. We believe that as a private company, we can be even more agile with greater flexibility to continue investing in innovation, building on our leadership position and staying ahead of threat actors. Thoma Bravo is an experienced software investor, providing capital and strategic support to technology organizations, and our partnership will accelerate Proofpoint’s growth and scale at an even faster pace. ”

Thoma Bravo to privatize Barracuda Networks for $1.6B

Monday, November 27, 2017  Barracuda, Privatization, Security  

Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity firm, will acquire all shares of Barracuda Networks (NYSE: CUDA) in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.6 billion. Barracuda shareholders will receive $27.55 in cash for each share of Barracuda common stock they hold. The price represents a premium of 22.5 percent to the company's 10-day average stock price prior to Nov. 27, 2017, of $22.49. Barracuda supplies appliance and cloud-enabled solutions for data...

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Thoma Bravo to Acquire Majority Stake in DigiCert

Sunday, August 30, 2015  Mergers And Acquisitions, Security, SSL, Thoma Bravo  

Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm, agreed to acquire a majority interest in DigiCert from TA Associates, another private equity firm currently holding the majority share. Financial terms were not disclosed. DigiCert is a global SSL Certificate Authority (CA) and the leading provider of trusted certificate management solutions.  The company provides its digital certificates to over 115,000 customers in more than 180 countries,...

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Riverbed Enters $3.6 Billion Privatization Deal with Thoma Bravo

Monday, December 15, 2014  Privatization, Riverbed, Thoma Bravo  

Riverbed Technology (RVBD) announced a privatization deal with Thoma Bravo, LLC and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investor department of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Riverbed stockholders will receive $21.00 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $3.6 billion. Riverbed CEO Jerry Kennelly will remain with the company as CEO. “We are extremely pleased with this transaction, which we believe will be a winning proposition for all...

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Thoma Bravo buys Veracode from Broadcom for $950 million

Sunday, January 13, 2019  Broadcom  

Thoma Bravo, completed its previously announced acquisition of Veracode Software, a provider in next-generation application security testing (AST), from Broadcom in an all-cash transaction valued at $950 million. Veracode's SaaS platform and integrated solutions assist security teams and software developers with finding and fixing security-related defects throughout the software development lifecycle. Veracode's innovative approach allows it

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UK's WPD Telecoms deploys Infinera’s XTM metro optical

WPD Telecoms, Western Power Distribution’s telecoms division, selected Infinera’s XTM Series metro optical platform for its high-capacity network, enabling delivery of next-generation high-speed services to its customers across South West England.

WPD Telecoms is currently rolling out new optical infrastructure to build an advanced 100G/200G optical transport network, positioning the company for a smooth transition to the latest generation of 400G pluggable optical technology.

WPD Telecoms said its new network enables the company to meet the increasing demand for optical and packet-based high-speed services. 

“WPD Telecoms invests in the latest leading-edge technology. That is why we selected Infinera’s XTM Series for this major new network,” said Richard Slane, WPD Telecoms Commercial Manager. “We have always found that Infinera’s metro and regional solutions have provided the capacity and functionality we’ve needed, while also being easy to use and very power efficient. We are confident the XTM will provide our network with the capacity required now and will scale easily to 400G when we’re ready.”

“Enhancing WPD Telecoms’ network with Infinera’s latest XTM Series will enable the company to continue offering its customers reliable, high-capacity, low-latency bandwidth using the latest technology in the industry,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Sales at Infinera. “WPD Telecoms’ longstanding relationship with Infinera and its ongoing selection of Infinera’s metro and regional solutions underscore the value Infinera’s platforms deliver to network operators.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/wpd-telecoms-deploys-new-regional-network-with-infinera-xtm-series

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AT&T boosts its fiber broadband tiers

AT&T is increasing its minimum fiber broadband tier from 100 Mbps symmetric to 300 Mbps.  Pricing starts at $35 per month. AT&T also offers 500 Mbps and Gigabit speed plans.

https://about.att.com/story/2021/att_fiber_enhancements.html

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Ajit Pai joins Searchlight Capital Partners

Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has joined Searchlight Capital Partners, a leading global private investment firm, as a Partner.

Pai first joined the FCC as a Commissioner in 2012, after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. In 2017, he was designated Chairman by President Donald Trump and was again confirmed by the Senate.

Commenting on his new role, Mr. Pai states: “I am excited to join the Searchlight team and help build on the firm’s demonstrated success in the technology media, and telecommunications sectors, especially with respect to digital infrastructure—an area that is essential to consumers and businesses in the United States and around the world. Searchlight’s flexible investment strategy and partnership-driven approach have distinguished it from its peers, allowing the firm to capitalize on opportunities that provide value for its clients and the companies it invests in. I look forward to joining Eric, Erol, and Oliver, and contributing to the firm’s continued investment efforts.”

Searchlight's current portfolio includes: Bezeq (Israel), Consolidated Communications, EOLO (Italy), Liberty Latin America, Mitel, Rackspace, Unity, Univision, and Ziply Fiber, amongst others.

https://www.searchlightcap.com/

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Red Hat cites hybrid cloud wins with communications service providers

 Red Hat announced that several communications service providers (CSPs) have chosen its open hybrid cloud technologies to virtualize and containerize their networks, enabling the faster delivery of new and innovative applications and services. These implementations include:

• HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider and a leading innovator, has worked with Red Hat to diversify and expand the services on its unified online shopping platform, Club Shopping, built on Red Hat OpenShift. Another example is the launch of DrGo, an end-to-end app-based platform, which provides telemedicine services by connecting users with Hong Kong registered doctors and other healthcare professionals through the app. Through the enhanced reliability and flexibility of OpenShift, HKT is now able to react more quickly to market shifts, improving its nimbleness while still delivering innovative new services to its customers.
• Proximus, Belgium’s largest telecommunications provider, is standardizing its NFV strategy on Red Hat OpenStack Platform supported by Red Hat Ceph Storage, Proximus can now run critical service functions in a cost-effective, scalable way, lowering associated costs by 20%. Additionally, by using Red Hat OpenShift for its web properties and cloud-native development environment, Proximus is able to deploy and run container-based microservices at scale, saving approximately $35,000 in monthly infrastructure setup and maintenance costs.
• Samsung, a leader in innovative mobile communications, engaged with Red Hat to expand deployment options of its 5G solutions, including 5G Core and Radio Access Network (RAN), by applying them to Red Hat OpenShift. Samsung completed the testing and validation of its 5G core CNF on Red Hat OpenShift for a joint customer deployment. Samsung is also planning to test and validate its 5G vRAN on Red Hat OpenShift.
• Telecom Argentina is using Red Hat OpenShift to modernize Flow, its digital-based entertainment platform, that offers live content and on demand TV series and shows, movies, games and music. Through this cloud-native platform adoption, Telecom Argentina has advanced the evolution of Flow for future challenges, with new models and new technologies also fostering a strong open source culture and DevOps mindset within the digital and cultural transformation the company is undergoing.

Honoré LaBourdette, global vice president of telco, media and entertainment, Red Hat

“Communication service providers are helping organizations at every enterprise provide groundbreaking innovation while working to modernize their networks in an incredibly competitive market. With Red Hat OpenShift, CSPs can focus on tackling the industries most exciting use cases like edge computing, standalone 5G core and more.”

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Samsung intros SSD based on 100+ layer vertical NAND

Samsung Electronics Co. introduced the industry's highest-performing 24G SAS (SAS-4) SSD, boasting twice the speed of the previous 12G SAS-3 generation. 

The new drive is the industry’s first 24G SAS SSD made with sixth-generation (1xx-layer) V-NAND chips, enabling storage capacities from 800GB to 30.72TB for advanced enterprise server systems. The PM1653 has been optimized for high-performance enterprise servers, offering the industry’s highest random read speed – a key metric for server storage performance – of up to 800K IOPS. Its sequential read speed can reach 4,300MB/s, which is the maximum available speed for the 24G SAS interface and twice the speed of the previous-generation PM1643a drive.

“As the leading provider of SAS storage for a decade, Samsung has been offering the most advanced and reliable enterprise solutions in full support of the critical workloads of global server OEMs, governments and financial institutions. Samsung enterprise solutions are also accredited by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology for the most powerful data security,” said Kwangil Park, senior vice president of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “Like we have done with the PM1653, Samsung will continue to collaborate with our customers to accommodate the ever-growing demand of the enterprise server market for the most uncompromising offerings available.”

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Vertical Systems Group: U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD

Vertical Systems Group’s 2020 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD results are as follows (in rank order by number of on-net fiber lit buildings): AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, Lumen, Comcast, Cox, Crown Castle Fiber, Atlantic Broadband, Frontier, Zayo and Altice USA. These eleven retail and wholesale fiber providers qualify for this benchmark with 15,000 or more on-net U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings as of year-end 2020.

Additionally, fourteen companies qualify for the 2020 Challenge Tier as follows (in alphabetical order): Cincinnati Bell, Cleareon, Cogent, Consolidated Communications, Conterra, DQE Communications, Everstream, FirstLight, IFN, Logix Fiber Networks, Segra, Unite Private Networks, Uniti Fiber and Windstream. These fiber providers each qualify for the 2020 Challenge Tier with between 2,000 and 14,999 U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings.

“The base of fiber lit buildings in the U.S. expanded in 2020, although the pace of new installations was hampered by the pandemic. Challenges for fiber providers ranged from impeded installations due to commercial building closures and business shutdowns to supply chain disruptions,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “As the economy rebounds in 2021, fiber providers have opportunities to monetize the millions of small and medium U.S. commercial buildings without fiber, as well as larger multi-tenant buildings with only a single fiber provider. However it remains uncertain how changes in U.S. regulatory policies and federal funding could alter fiber investments and deployment plans in the next several years.”

2020 Fiber Provider Research Highlights

• AT&T retains the top rank on the U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD for the fifth consecutive year.
• The threshold for a rank position on the 2020 Fiber LEADERBOARD is 15,000 fiber lit buildings, up from 10,000 buildings previously.
• Atlantic Broadband advanced to eighth position on the LEADERBOARD, up from eleventh in the previous year.
• Windstream and Consolidated Communications move into the Challenge Tier from the LEADERBOARD.

https://www.verticalsystems.com/

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Vertical Systems Group: 2020 U.S. Fiber Availability

New deployments of optical fiber to U.S. commercial buildings and data centers expanded in 2020 despite the pandemic, according to the latest ENS @Fiber Plus research from Vertical Systems Group. Fiber lit buildings are strategic assets that enable competitive advantages such as more profitable delivery of services and applications requiring up to gigabit speeds.

The latest research analysis shows that fiber availability for commercial sites continues to vary widely based on the size of the building. The U.S. Fiber Lit Landscape chart below illustrates the two primary segments tracked for this research: Fiber 20+ (buildings with twenty or more employees) and Fiber <20 (buildings with fewer than 20 employees). 

For 2020, fiber availability extends to 14.1% of buildings in the Fiber <20 segment. In contrast, the availability of fiber is 69.2% for all buildings in the Fiber 20+ segment. Detailed ENS research available for Fiber 20+ shows how fiber penetration varies significantly across four medium/large building size segments: 20 – 50 employees, 51 – 100 employees, 101 – 250 employees and 251+ employees.

Fiber market leadership is measured by Vertical Systems Group with annual Fiber LEADERBOARD benchmarks based on lit building counts. Eleven retail and wholesale fiber providers attained a rank position on the 2020 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD.

A fiber-lit building is defined for this analysis to include multi-tenant and company-owned commercial sites plus data centers that have on-net optical fiber connectivity to a network provider’s infrastructure and active service termination equipment onsite. Excluded from this analysis are standalone cell towers, small cells not located in fiber-lit buildings, near net buildings, buildings classified as coiled at curb or coiled in building, HFC-connected buildings, carrier central offices, residential buildings, and private or dark fiber installations.

https://www.verticalsystems.com/

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Five carriers acquire spectrum in Australia's mmWave auction

Five companies have won spectrum in the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s latest spectrum auction in the 26 GHz band.

Winners include:

• Dense Air Australia Pty Ltd won 2 lots for $28,689,900
• Mobile JV Pty Limited won 86 lots for $108,186,700
• Optus Mobile Pty Ltd won 116 lots for $226,203,100
• Pentanet Limited won 4 lots for $7,986,200
• Telstra Corporation Limited won 150 lots for $276,576,200

Of the 360 lots available in the auction, 358 were sold, realising a total revenue of $647,642,100, equivalent to almost $0.0127/MHz/pop.

“This outcome represents another significant milestone for 5G in Australia. The successful allocation of this spectrum will support high-speed communications services in metropolitan cities and major regional centres throughout Australia,” said ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin.

Licences won at auction will come into force later this year, for a 15-year term ending in 2036.

Full results are here:

https://www.acma.gov.au/auction-summary-26-ghz-band-2021

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Fujikura demos vehicle-to-infrastructure over 60 GHz millimeter-wave

Fujikura has demonstrated high-speed vehicle-to-infrastructure communication using an electric pole and in-house developed 60 GHz millimeter-wave wireless communication modules.

The demonstration, which was conducted in March in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, confirmed the effectiveness of the safe driving support system for local bus services by vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

In this demonstration, Fujikura installed a communication device equipped with the module on both electric poles and a local bus to establish a wideband wireless connection between the two. The module has successfully uploaded in-vehicle camera images in real time and also  transmitted the GNSS (global navigation satellite system) correction data necessary for high-precision vehicle positioning.

In addition, the module achieved a speed >2Gbps over a distance of >500m.

Other participants in the test included Kansai Transmission and Distribution, KYOCERA, Shinki bus Co., Panasonic System Networks R&D Lab, and Magellan Systems Japan.

https://www.fujikura.co.jp/eng/newsrelease/products/2063554_11777.html

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OneWeb launches 36 more satellites bringing constellation to 182

A Russian Soyuz rocket lauched 36 OneWeb broadband satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East. 

The launch brings OneWeb’s total in-orbit constellation to 182 satellites, and is the third launch in OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ programme, to deliver its connectivity solution to regions north of 50 degrees latitude by June 2021.

OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ programme aims to connect broadband data users in the northern hemisphere, with services covering the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic Seas and Canada. Service will be ready to start by the end of year, with global service available in 2022.

OneWeb also highlighted recent distribution signings across multiple industries with The AST Group, PDI, among others.

OneWeb also agreed its latest MoU with the Government of Kazakhstan this month as it continues to demonstrate the company’s commercial viability and the confidence customers have in its services and offering.

https://www.oneweb.world/

• In March 2021, OneWeb conducted its first network demonstrations to the U.S. Government and will be rolling out additional demonstration kits and Service Demo-centres in locations such as: Westcott 5G Centre, U.K., Talkeetna, Alaska, in the Washington D.C. area and more.

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EFFECT Photonics raises $43 million for system-on-chip

EFFECT Photonics, a leading developer of DWDM components based on its optical System-on-Chip technology, announced $43 million in Series-C funding.

EFFECT Photonics, which is a spin-off from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, has developed a photonic chip in which light signals can be generated, modulated, filtered, and detected. 

The first close of the investment round, was co-led by Smile Invest together with existing investor Innovation Industries Fund, exactly one year after announcing the tape-out of its Manta full photonic integration coherent PIC. Smile Invest are joined by existing investors including Innovation Industries Fund, Photon Delta, btov Partners, Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and individual investors. This new round of funding will be used to further expand the current product line of optical transceivers for among other things 5G networks, and to scale up production capacity. In addition, the R&D activities for the next generation of optical chips, with capacity of more than 400 gigabits per second, will also be ramped up.

Boudewijn Docter, one of the founders and President of EFFECT Photonics: “As a company, we have come a long way to make the photonics technology market-ready. We are pleased that Invest-NL is joining our other investors in helping us scale up our production and enabling us to bring additional products to market quicker”.

Ruud Zandvliet, Senior Investment Manager at Invest-NL: “The Netherlands has a unique ecosystem for photonics technologies. EFFECT Photonics is a leading player in this field, capable of developing complex, fully integrated photonic chips. This offers the company the opportunity be a leading player as a manufacturer of the next generation of transceivers. By joining this investment round, Invest-NL contributes to the availability of financing for upscaling and future R&D investments. This is a good example of the role Invest-NL plays in increasing the strength of scale-ups and is in line with our objective of making the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative.

https://effectphotonics.com/

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QTS moves to renewal energy in 4 more mega data centers

QTS Realty Trust announced that the following four additional data centers are now powered by renewable energy: QTS Hillsboro, QTS Fort Worth, QTS Eemshaven, Netherlands and QTS Richmond.

The four locations join QTS data centers in Irving, TX, Chicago, IL, Piscataway, NJ and Groningen, Netherlands currently powered by renewable energy.

QTS said approximately 36% of its portfolio-wide data center power requirements are now sourced from renewable energy and that it is committed to procuring 100% of power for all of its data center from renewable sources by 2025.

• 
• QTS Hillsboro – Purchases renewable energy certificates equal to at least the expected electricity needs of the facility from Three Peaks Power, LLC solar facility in Utah through Calpine Energy Solutions. With the purchase, QTS said it now offers a true zero water cooling solution powered by 100% renewable energy.
• QTS Fort Worth – Purchases renewable energy from a provider in Texas equal to 100% of the projected power consumption of the data center.
• QTS Eemshaven – Purchases environmental attributes from Dutch wind and Nordic hydro sources. The agreements cover over 20 gigawatt hours of energy and account for 100% of the expected electrical load of QTS Eemshaven.
• QTS' Richmond --  signed a multi-year agreement to purchase renewable energy certificates equal to the majority of the expected electricity needs of the facility.  

"Today's announcement is another significant step towards our goal of procuring 100% of our power from renewable energy sources by 2025," said Travis Wright, Vice President Energy and Sustainability, QTS. "Renewable energy is a cornerstone of our ESG program that documents our commitment to minimizing our carbon footprint through advanced development and procurement initiatives.

http://www.qtsdatacenters.com

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Dell'Oro hires Cliff Grossner to cover Edge Computing and IT Equipment Silicon

Dell'Oro Group has appointed Dr. Cliff Grossner to the role of Vice President, Edge Computing and IT Equipment Silicon including coprocessors for AI and ML. His current research agenda also includes AI driven data center automation suites and adoption of open infrastructure including OCP certified designs.

Dr. Grossner has more than 25 years of telecommunications experience encompassing scientific research, market analysis, strategy, and product management. Prior to joining Dell'Oro Group, Dr. Grossner held management roles in Omdia, and IHS Markit, focused on cloud services, data center IT and physical infrastructure.  He frequently is an expert judge for industry and technology innovation awards and an invited speaker, and often quoted in technical publications. Dr. Grossner earned his Ph.D. at McGill University, and his MSC in Computer Science at Concordia University, winning national scholarships to support his graduate work. He holds over 10 patents in computer networking, network embedded security and telecommunications applications.

"Dr. Grossner adds significant fire-power and experience in the world of IT equipment, components, and the intelligence software running over it. The team is excited with the perspectives and wisdom a man of his caliber brings. He has an excellent track record of identifying emerging markets and developing theories on where they are headed. I am very pleased Dr. Grossner has joined us," Tam Dell'Oro, Founder and CEO said.

 "I am excited to join Dell'Oro Group to research IT ecosystems, innovation has never been higher, driven by digitization and consumer demands. Equipment markets are shifting due to new technology, new business models, and disruptive early stage companies. I look forward to being first to identify and quantify new trends, provide insight on markets changes, help with product and go to market strategies following the Dell'Oro tradition of providing timely, accurate, and insightful information," commented Grossner.

http://www.delloro.com

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Skyworks to acquire the Infrastructure & Automotive business of Silicon Labs

Skyworks Solutions will acquire the Infrastructure & Automotive business of Silicon Labs in an all-cash asset transaction valued at $2.75 billion. The acquisition encompasses the technology portfolios and related assets of Silicon Labs’ power/isolation, timing and broadcast product lines.

Skyworks said the acquisition will accelerate its expansion into the industry’s most important growth segments, including electric and hybrid vehicles, industrial and motor control, power supply, 5G wireless infrastructure, optical data communication, data center, automotive, smart home and several other applications. Skyworks will be uniquely positioned to address a combined market opportunity approaching $20 billion annually.

Mark Thompson, senior vice president of Silicon Labs and general manager of the Infrastructure & Automotive business, will join Skyworks as part of the transaction, reporting directly to Liam K. Griffin, president and chief executive officer of Skyworks. In addition, approximately 350 employees, including the senior management team of the business, are expected to join Skyworks upon completion of the transaction.

“We are pleased to welcome the Infrastructure & Automotive team to Skyworks when this transaction is completed,” said Mr. Griffin. “This acquisition will broadly expand our capabilities across high-growth end markets including automotive, communications and industrial, creating new and highly compelling opportunities for Skyworks. By leveraging our global sales channels, operational scale and deep customer relationships, Skyworks is well positioned to drive above-market growth, while diversifying revenues, expanding margins and delivering strong returns in earnings and cash generation.”

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Alphawave IP files for IPO

Alphawave IP, a start-up offering DSP-based silicon IP building blocks, has filed registration statements for a planned listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Recently, Alphawave announced the successful silicon bring up of its TSMC N6 1-112Gbps AlphaCORE100 IP, which is a multi-standard DSP PHY that supports 100G Ethernet, PCIe, CXL and Base Station standards.

In November 2020, Alphawave announced the successful silicon bring up of its TSMC N5 1-112Gbps AlphaCORE100 IP, which a multi-standard DSP PHY that supports the 100G Ethernet, PCIe, CXL and Base Station standards.

The company, which was founded in 2017, is based in Canada and the UK.

https://www.awaveip.com/

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Comcast tests Broadcom's 10G Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 chip

Comcast has conducted the first-ever lab test of a Full Duplex DOCSIS system-on-chip (SOC) device from Broadcom that is expected to become the world’s first production silicon to be developed using the DOCSIS 4.0 Full Duplex standard.

“We are always pushing the envelope to stay ahead of our customers’ growing needs,” said Charlie Herrin, President of Technology, Product, Xperience at Comcast Cable. “This milestone is particularly exciting, because this technology is an important step forward toward unlocking multigigabit upload and download speeds for hundreds of millions of people worldwide, not just a select few.”

Comcast technologists in Philadelphia and Denver conducted the test by installing the Broadcom SOC in a simulated network environment to track the performance of its Full Duplex DOCSIS features – including echo cancellation and overlapping spectrum – which combine to support substantial improvements in network throughput. In the test environment, the research team demonstrated the ability of the SOC to deliver upstream and downstream throughputs of greater than 4 gigabits per second (Gbps). Future optimization is expected to drive even greater capacity.

Elad Nafshi, Senior Vice President of Next Generation Access Networks at Comcast Cable, said that the performance of the Broadcom SOC in Comcast’s simulated network environment exceeded expectations, and sets the stage for expanded testing later this year.

“With this test we gain a powerful new tool to support our mission of delivering the best possible connected experiences to our customers,” Nafshi said.

The Full Duplex DOCSIS test is the latest milestone on Comcast’s path to 10G. Last October, Comcast technologists were able to deliver 1.25 Gig symmetrical speeds over a live, all-digital network by leveraging advances in Distributed Access Architecture, Remote PHY digital nodes, and a cloud-based virtualized cable modem termination system platform (vCMTS). Even as Comcast works to test and deploy Full Duplex DOCSIS to enable multigigabit upload and download speeds in the future, the company is leveraging the technologies from the October trial, along with DOCSIS 3.1 in the upstream, to increase speed and capacity in the near term.

https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/comcast-conducts-ull-duplex-chip-multi-gigabit-symmetrical-speeds

CableLabs releases DOCSIS 4.0 spec for 10G downlinks

Thursday, March 26, 2020  10G, Cable Labs  

CableLabs released the DOCSIS 4.0 specification, which incorporates both full-duplex and extended spectrum capabilities enabling a downstream speed of up to 10 Gbps (doubling the maximum download speed available with DOCSIS 3.1 technology) and an upstream speed of up to 6 Gbps - quadrupling what DOCSIS 3.1

Work on DOCSIS 4.0 has been underway since August 2016.

In a blog post, Doug Jones, Principal Architect, says the DOCSIS 4.0 specification reflects the four pillars of the 10G platform initiative: speed, lower latency, increased security, and higher reliability.

https://www.cablelabs.com/on-the-path-to-10g-cablelabs-publishes-docsis-4-0-specification

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Bell Canada activates 400G wavelength service

 Bell Canada launched a commercial 400G wavelength service powered by Ciena's WaveLogic 5 Extreme technology.

The 400G service is now deployed across major spans of Bell's 17,000 km fiber infrastructure. Bell plans to expand the service across Canada in the coming months.

"Bell 400G wavelength service efficiently delivers the speed and capacity necessary to meet the fast-growing demand of bandwidth-intensive operators moving massive amounts of data and content to the cloud," said Ivan Mihaljevic, Senior Vice President, Wholesale at Bell Canada. "Bell's unparalleled network infrastructure and customer support, coupled with Ciena's market-leading optical wavelength technology, offers major operators here in Canada and internationally the opportunity to scale up easily, efficiently and sustainably with our highly energy efficient 400G capabilities."

"The global shift to 400G is happening and Bell Canada is leading the way by evolving its network to support the insatiable and often unpredictable network demand driven by the cloud, streaming video and more," said Bruce Hembree, Vice President and General Manager for the Americas at Ciena. "With WaveLogic 5 Extreme, Bell can offer new, high bandwidth 400G services to carrier and content provider customers between key points of presence across Canada and into the US."

https://www.bce.ca/news-and-media/releases/show/Bell-Canada-rolls-out-commercial-400G-wavelength-on-fibre-optic-backbone

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EPFL develops ultralow-loss integrated photonic circuits

Researchers at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) are developing ultralow-loss integrated photonic circuits based on silicon nitride (Si3N4), whose exceptionally low optical loss are orders of magnitude lower than that of silicon.

The work, which is led by Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences, has just been published in Nature Communications.

"Combining nanofabrication and material science, the technology is based on the photonic Damascene process developed at EPFL. Using this process, the team made integrated circuits of optical losses of only 1 dB/m, a record value for any nonlinear integrated photonic material. Such low loss significantly reduces the power budget for building chip-scale optical frequency combs (“microcombs”), used in applications like coherent optical transceivers, low-noise microwave synthesizers, LiDAR, neuromorphic computing, and even optical atomic clocks. The team used the new technology to develop meter-long waveguides on 5x5 mm2 chips and high-quality-factor microresonators. They also report high fabrication yield, which is essential for scaling up to industrial production."

“These chip devices have already been used for parametric optical amplifiers, narrow-linewidth lasers and chip-scale frequency combs”, says Dr Junqiu Liu who led the fabrication at EPFL’s Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMi). “We are also looking forward to seeing our technology being used for emerging applications such as coherent LiDAR, photonic neural networks, and quantum computing.”

https://news.epfl.ch/news/new-tech-builds-ultralow-loss-integrated-photonic-/

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Intel posts rise in EPS, dip in data center sales

 Intel reported Q1 revenue of $19.7 billion (GAAP), down 1 percent year over year (YoY), and non-GAAP revenue of $18.6 billion, flat YoY, which exceeded January guidance by $1.1 billion. First-quarter GAAP earnings-per-share (EPS) was $0.82; non-GAAP EPS was $1.39, which exceeded January guidance by $0.29.

“Intel delivered strong first-quarter results driven by exceptional demand for our leadership products and outstanding execution by our team. The response to our new IDM 2.0 strategy has been extraordinary, our product roadmap is gaining momentum, and we’re rapidly progressing our plans with re-invigorated focus on innovation and execution,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. “This is a pivotal year for Intel. We are setting our strategic foundation and investing to accelerate our trajectory and capitalize on the explosive growth in semiconductors that power our increasingly digital world.”

First-quarter revenue exceeded January guidance by $1.1 billion led by continued, 

Intel said its results were driven by strong PC demand. PC unit volumes were up 38 percent YoY, and notebook volumes set a new Intel record. The company also saw initial recovery of Enterprise and Government sales in the Data Center Group (DCG). 

Intel also achieved better-than-expected revenue in Internet of Things Group (IOTG) and Mobileye, and Mobileye set a new revenue record in the quarter.

https://www.intc.com/financial-info

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