Wipro Sub-licenses Ittiam's 802.11b Wireless LAN Baseband Technology

Bangalore. September 15, 2003 - Ittiam Systems today announced that it has entered into a sub-licensing agreement with Wipro for its IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN (Local Area Network) baseband technology. 802.11 has two components - the baseband which is the core signal-processing engine and MAC (Media Access Controller) that is the protocol layer. Under this agreement Ittiam will offer its 11 Mbps (Mega Bit Per Second) 802.11b baseband intellectual property to Wipro, who in turn has right to license it to its customers either standalone or in combination with Wipro's other Wireless LAN offerings.

Wipro is developing a complete portfolio of Intellectual Property building blocks for the emerging Wireless Local Area Network - Wipro's 802.11 family of cores and software.

"This is an important milestone in our roadmap and enables us to have a complete IP portfolio. We were looking for a 802.11b baseband IP which was robust and complete, and would integrate well with the rest of Wipro's Wireless LAN IPs. We spent a considerable amount of time evaluating different vendors before selecting Ittiam", said Ramesh Emani, Chief Executive of Embedded and Product Engineering Solutions at Wipro. This relationship further enhances Wipro's leadership in the Wireless LAN IP market. "Added to this, Wipro's superior strengths in delivering total customised solutions to customers incorporating our WLAN technology will make a big difference to the customers particularly in the consumer electronics segment", said Ramesh.

Ittiam Systems specialises in Digital Signal Processing Systems for media processing and communications. Wireless LAN is part of the company's strategic product roadmap. Ittiam has made large R&D investment to develop the complete 802.11 based Wireless LAN portfolio that covers all the extensions of 802.11 viz. a, b, g, i and e. The offering includes the baseband core, MAC software and finally, a complete reference board on which the entire IP is demonstrated in real time. It is designed to work with commercial off-the-shelf RF solutions.

According to Srini Rajam, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ittiam Systems, the partnership enables Ittiam to access a larger customer base through Wipro's network and enables Wipro to address the Wireless LAN market opportunities. "The two companies have worked out a win-win revenue sharing arrangement that is so crucial to make the agreement work out for all parties involved", he added.

The agreement has already yielded results. Wipro and Ittiam Systems have signed up a customer and are in advanced stages of discussion with several prospects to use the Wireless LAN solution that brings together the best of the two companies.

About Ittiam
Ittiam Systems Private Limited, headquartered in Bangalore, is a technology product company singularly focussed on digital signal processing systems in media and communication. The company operates through its network of offices and representatives around the world. Ittiam's customers include Fortune 100 companies and are distributed across U.S., Europe, Japan and Asia. For more details, visit www.ittiam.com.