Altair Semiconductor and ZTE Announce LTE Cooperation

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair Semiconductor, a 4G chip company developing the world's most advanced mobile semiconductors for handheld devices and ZTE, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, today announced their cooperation on LTE interoperability testing (IOT).  

Altair and ZTE have performed extensive system level Interoperability Development Testing (IODT) on their respective products – Altair's recently announced FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE and ZTE's LTE eNodeB.  The successful testing validates the performance and maturity of the companies' LTE products, and will soon follow with a field trial to be conducted in an actual carrier network.

A system including several Altair FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE's and a ZTE LTE eNodeB will be demonstrated at ZTE's Mobile World Congress booth, 8B145.

"The early availability of Altair's commercial grade LTE chipset combined with strategic relationships with industry leaders, like ZTE, highlights the company's commitment to advancing LTE technology," said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development for Altair Semiconductor.  "ZTE's market leading LTE portfolio combined with Altair's small form factor LTE USB ExpressCard and ability to support any band and duplex mode is helping to further develop LTE technology and bring LTE-enabled devices to market quickly and successfully."  

Altair's FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is one of the industry's first Category-3 datacard solutions. Based on Altair's FourGee™-3100/6200 baseband/RFIC LTE chipset, the ExpressCard is an ideal test and IOT UE platform for system vendors and carriers involved in the development, trialing and deployment of LTE systems. The FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is also a reference design for terminal manufacturers working to develop commercial products based on the FourGee™ family of LTE chips.  

"As an advanced LTE end-to-end solution provider, ZTE is working on IOT cooperation with the world's leading chipset and terminal vendors, like Altair, to promote the commercialization of LTE," said Zhang Jian Guo, President, UMTS/LTE product division for ZTE Corporation. "In addition, ZTE is closely cooperating with more than ten top operators around the world including CSL, Singtel and Etisalat and is greatly contributing to the development of commercial LTE applications."

Altair's FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE Feature Highlights Include:

• Category-3 speeds of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload
• Power consumption within the USB specification power budget (<2.5W)
• ExpressCard34 form factor with a USB2.0 HS host interface
• Available in select FDD/TDD bands in the range of 700M-2700MHz
• Full-featured, IOT tested LTE L1 and protocol stack

The FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is part of Altair's comprehensive portfolio for LTE, which also includes:

• FourGee™-3100 – an LTE CAT-3 baseband processor
• FourGee™-6150 – a MIMO LTE RF transceiver that supports LTE-TDD
• FourGee™-6200 – a multi-band LTE MIMO transceiver that covers all global FDD/TDD bands

More information on the companies and their products can be found at www.altair-semi.com or http://www.zte.com.cn.  

About Altair Semiconductor

Altair Semiconductor is the world's leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors. The company's products provide device manufacturers integrating any 4G technology into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair's comprehensive product portfolio includes baseband processors, multi-band RF transceivers for both FDD and TDD bands, and a range of reference hardware and product level protocol stack software. Based on a novel, proprietary Software Defined Radio (SDR) processor, codenamed "O2P™", Altair's products are the smallest and most highly power optimized in the industry, offering an unmatched combination of flexibility and performance. Altair is privately held and has raised a total of $48M in three rounds of financing from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, BRM Capital, ETV Capital, Giza Venture Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Pacific Technology Fund.

About ZTE

ZTE is a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions. It has the widest and most complete product range in the world - covering virtually every sector of the wireline, wireless, service and terminals markets. The company delivers innovative, custom-made products and services to over 500 operators in more than 140 countries, helping them to achieve continued revenue growth and to shape the future of the world's communications. ZTE commits around 10% of its annual turnover to research and development and takes a leading role in a wide range of international bodies developing emerging telecoms standards. A company with sound corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, ZTE is a member of the UN Global Compact that strictly adheres to the Ten Principles of the Global Compact in developing and carrying out CSR programs. ZTE is China's only listed telecoms manufacturer, with shares publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ). For more information, please visit http://www.zte.com.cn.

SOURCE Altair Semiconductor