Comstellar-Backed Ashvattha Unveils Breakthrough RF Integration Technology Evidenced by Successful Working Silicon.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 2001

TestDevices Demonstrate All Functions Needed for Integration of Multiple Complete RF front ends on a Single Chip - to Initially Target

2.5G, E911 and M-commerce Cell Phone Applications

Ashvattha Semiconductor, Inc., here, a provider of highly-integrated Radio Frequency (RF) chips for the wireless and handheld markets, today announced a revolutionary technology that will give it an unprecedented ability to integrate multiple complete RF front ends on a single chip.

Initial silicon, manufactured by IBM using its industry-leading 0.25(mu) Silicon Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process technology, demonstrated all the performance characteristics required to support the company's high-integration product strategy. Initial applications will be targeted at the cellular phone market, integrating three separate complete RF front ends supporting wireless, GPS, and Bluetooth standards on a single chip.

"Tomorrow's mobile telephones will have to support multiple wireless technologies including Bluetooth and the Global Positioning System as well as cellular," said Jack Quinn, President of Micrologic Research, a leading wireless market research firm in Phoenix, AZ. "By making it possible to integrate the complete RF portion of these multiple protocols onto a single chip, Ashvattha's technology will make cellular phones lighter, cheaper, and more compact."

According to Ashvattha President and Chairman Guruswami Sridharan, "While our design actually lets us implement chips in any high quality BiCMOS technology, for our initial product especially, we believe IBM's SiGe offers an unbeatable combination of the best performance with the least power consumption. All this for about the same cost, and much lower risk, as any alternative silicon-based BiCMOS process available to us."

The test chip includes all the key subsystems that will be integrated into the initial product: namely, the wireless, GPS, and Bluetooth transmitters and receivers, as well as the unique Ashvattha multi-mode synthesizer and the critical isolation mechanisms that prevent the several on-chip radios from interfering with each other even when operating simultaneously. "We've proven that our key RF circuits operate at high frequency but with comparatively little noise and that the tested synthesizer blocks function according to specification," said Kartik Sridharan, the CEO of Ashvattha. "Additionally, we had to meet an isolation specification more than 100 times that required by single protocol radios in order to integrate all these functions in one chip, and we exceeded that. This chip really validates all our critical path technologies, and shows that we're right on track to bring our initial product to market by the end of the year. All these outstanding technical achievements could not have been accomplished without the financial and managerial help and guidance of Comstellar, they have allowed us to focus on what's required to produce a revolutionary product."

While Ashvattha will initially target cellular handset applications that need to provide multiple RF functionality, its technologies are applicable across a wide range of other application areas including wireless data networking, consumer products and communications infrastructure. OEMs serving the cellular handset market, presently forecast to be over 1 billion units annually by 2004, are being driven to offer multiple protocol functionality by the E911 mandate and the desire to support M-commerce services over cellular networks.

Bluetooth functionality is important as a means of extending these location-based capabilities to the inside of buildings. "Bluetooth by itself has great market potential," stated Connie Wong, director of special services at Semico Research, Phoenix. "If Ashvattha Semiconductor can deliver a single chip that provides the RF function of GSM, GPS and Bluetooth protocols, the projected market could be huge."

A second test chip, with larger and more fully integrated functional blocks, is just now entering the testing phase, and is expected to validate the unique Ashvattha circuit technology at a system level. The next chip to tape out will fully implement the initial product, providing complete integration of the RF front ends for wireless, GPS, and Bluetooth standards. The wireless radio will provide simultaneous wireless, GPS and Bluetooth functionality. The company intends to begin sampling this integrated RF solution in the fall of 2001.

"The key to understanding what Ashvattha has achieved," said Raj Parekh former Sun Microsystems CTO and VP/GM of Java Products for Sun Microelectronics, now Chairman and CTO of Comstellar Technologies and managing member of Redwood Ventures, "is to realize that there is no one key to wireless integration. Ashvattha's breakthrough here isn't the result of a single, swift thrust of inspiration, rather, it's the result of a carefully planned, thoroughly thought out, and meticulously coordinated attack launched on multiple fronts simultaneously. Here at Comstellar we are focused on fostering systematic breakthroughs of mammoth proportions and we are proud to demonstrate the results of our strategy."

To integrate several disparate complete RF front ends on a single chip requires a new approach to RF circuit isolation, in combination with a new kind of smart synthesizer, in combination with a very clever frequency plan, in combination with a carefully coordinated design for both receivers and transmitters. In other words, Mr. Parekh continued, "it requires thinking the problem through from the top down and the bottom up, both at the same time, demanding the highest degree of understanding at the system level and at the circuit level. The wonder isn't that nobody has figured out how to do this before now, it's that Ashvattha has figured out how to do it at all."

"This first product will revolutionize the cell phone market when it becomes available in cellular handsets next year," said Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Comstellar. "As a result of Ashvattha's breakthrough in wireless integration, for about the same price, in about the same form factor, with about the same battery life as this year's single-function cell phones, you'll be able to buy a 'triple-threat' cellular phone with vastly more capabilities. Now that the problem of integrating multiple complete RF front ends on a single chip has been solved, there's no obvious limit to how much functionality you might be able to incorporate not just into cell phones, but into all types of small, affordable, long-running wireless devices."

About Ashvattha Semiconductor, Inc.

Ashvattha Semiconductor (www.ashvattha.com) is "The Wireless Convergence Company"(TM). Its technology is comprehensively designed to enable the integration of multiple disparate RF front ends on a single chip, with no compromise in the performance of the individual systems implemented. Ashvattha is currently applying its innovative circuit and system technology to both the 2.5 and 3.0 generations of cellular standards, creating the lowest power, highest performance and most functional RF front ends in the wireless industry.

About Comstellar Technologies, Inc.

Comstellar Technologies, Inc. (www.comstellar.com) is the premier organization for architecting innovative companies that will develop core disruptive technologies to dramatically improve the capabilities of the communications network and drive the next generation of communications. Its founders have a proven record of leadership and expertise in the communications industry at companies such as Telcordia, IBM, Sun, StratumOne, and Cerent. Comstellar, with headquarters in New Jersey, Denver and California, has raised approximately $150 million in investment capital, led by Accel Partners and New Enterprise Associates. Redwood Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Comstellar Technologies, is a separate fund financing the broader universe of communications companies developing innovative and emerging technologies. The current fund is organized as Redwood Ventures IV, LP.