Press Coverage Archive
Articles Prior to 2008:
12.05.2006
The Reality of Next-Gen Mobile Phones
Business Week, News Factor
It is probably going to take years before the 3G standards battles get sorted out and the visions of high-powered, do-all, mobile phones becomes a reality for the majority of global consumers. "How are we ever going to deliver that in a world of diverging standards?" asks Guenter Weinberger, president and chief executive officer of Sandbridge Technologies. That is a question that has yet to be untangled.
09.27.2006
Sandbridge Launches Power-Optimized Programmable Handset Processor
Inside DSP, DSP Design Line by BDTI
A fully programmable baseband chip has obvious appeal given the multiplicity of cellular standards and the expected emergence of handsets supporting not only cellular but also WLAN and television receiver functionality.
09.27.2006
Sandbridge Technologies Announces
World’s First Viable Flexible Baseband Processor:
A MobileCrunch Exclusive
With funding coming from A-List VC’s including Bessemer Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures, Doughty-Hanson Technology Ventures, Columbia Capital and other strategic investors and top caliber engineers from IBM, Lucent and Cadence, today’s announcement is nothing short of a radical revolution in the development of mobile devices.
09.27.2006
Multi-Mode 3G Chip Starts Sampling
Cellular News
The SB3011 baseband processor's architectural innovations deliver completely scalable DSP performance for virtually any radio protocol used in various regions around the world, such as GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, CDMA2000, EV-DO, Wi-Fi, DVB-H and GPS. Sandbridge is also developing HSDPA and WiMax solutions as an upgrade to the platform.
05.30.2006
Firm Perfects Wireless Switching System
Westchester County Business Journal
With more than $15 million in additional funding on hand, a White Plains company is months away from bringing to market a chip-based technology that will make switching between wireless networks from a single device as easy as switching between AM and FM on a radio.
05.10.2006
Sandbridge Plans Mobile Phone Shake-Up with Programmable Chipset
Computer Business Review
Software defined radio chip developer Sandbridge Technologies Inc is set to launch a programmable chipset that can adapt to all the main wireless technology standards so that mobile phone users can roam anywhere in the world with the same handset.
05.09.2006
Sandbridge Gets $15M Add-On
The Deal.com, George White
For any road-weary globetrotter who carries several different phones while traveling because no mobile device offers easy access to all types of wireless networks, Sandbridge Technologies Inc. hopes to answer some prayers.
04.04.2006
Running Start Helps Clear 90-nm Hurdle
EE Times, EE Times Asia
Gary Nacer, Sandbridge VP of engineering provides insight into 90nm design and implementation hurdles and how to address and overcome them.
01.31.2006
Software Defined Radio System Holds out the Hope of Full
Wireless Interoperability
ComputerWeekly.com
Wireless networks have been a boon for business travelers but users often have to carry multiple devices to get the full benefit. This is because, although laptops, PDAs and smartphones can all send and receive data, they often do so over different networks....
12.01.2005
SDR Offers Benefits and Challenges to Handset Makers
Wireless Web
It is becoming increasingly clear that the convergence of future wireless data services will not involve a single global network standard. Instead, convergence will be driven by flexible user devices that can access a continuously evolving patchwork of wireless networks, which are optimized for specific applications.
11.04.2005
Panelists Optimistic on Lower Power Design
Information Week, Dylan McGrath
SAN JOSE, Calif., Design for reduced power consumption may not be as daunting a challenge as widely assumed, according to a panel of industry executives here Thursday at Cadence Design Systems Inc.’s design chain partners event.
07.25.2005
Chip Start-Ups Battle to Provide Network Flexibility for Cellphones
The Wall Street Journal, p.B3
Sandbridge Technologies, after four years of effort on Monday is announcing that it has completed the design of a chameleon-like chip that can communicate using different kinds of cellular technologies as well as fast wireless networks such as Wi-Fi. The approach uses software to give cellphones multiple capabilities, which can be modified after they are sold rather than having features set permanently in hardware.
07.25.2005
ARCHITECTURES: Handset Integration Strategies Vary
EE Times, Ron Wilson
In contrast, Sandbridge (White Plains, N.Y.) is responding to a potentially more serious problem with a radical change in architecture. The root of the problem appears to be the aborted rollout of 3G networks. Not only has 3G failed to become ubiquitous, but it is not even the primary network for most carriers in most areas. That has forced handset makers to support 2G and 3G air interfaces and basebands in parallel, soon to be augmented by the curtain call of other network interfaces about which handset makers are speculating.
07.25.2005
Sandbridge Demos SDR-Based Processor in Multimedia Handsets
Wireless chip designer Sandbridge Technologies, Inc. has demonstrated a complete software-radio based multimedia terminal design using its baseband processor.
07.25.2005
Flexible Chips Will Let Phones Do It All
PC World
Where Sandbridge might make the biggest impact is in new types of devices, such as digital still or video cameras that can stay connected to the Internet over different kinds of networks depending on location, Baron says. If the company's chips have enough processing power, they could shift the device to the best available network for price, speed or power consumption, based on the user's priorities, he says. That capability might even come in handy in cars, Baron adds.
07.28.2005
MEX: Flexible Building Blocks
PMN.co.uk, www.mobileuserexperience.com
For many years handset development has proceeded along two tracks: devices designed for GSM and devices designed for CDMA. One of the most basic design choices is the baseband processor where these functions are handled and, since these have always been done in hardware, there is relatively little flexibility. In some ways, you could say the user experience starts with this choice.
07.25.2005
Sandbridge Technologies Develops Programmable Cellphone Chip
Engadget
There's a new product on the block in the cellphone chip market that's hoping it can snag some mindshare among handset makers. Sandbridge Technologies' SB3010 chips are flexible enough to handle a wide range of protocols, multimedia and application processing, which would enable handset makers to built multifunction handsets using a single chip, driving costs down.
07.25.2005
Providing Network Flexibility for Cellphones
Textually.org
the basic idea of multifunction phones face a chicken-and-egg problem. Though cellphone users now can roam among some networks when they travel, carriers are not exactly eager to let users jump among services in their home market.
07.25.2005
World's First Software-Radio '3G' Processor
3G.co.uk
The SB3010 platform departs radically from dedicated baseband hardware by allowing manufacturers to create, test, modify and execute their designs entirely in software. Coupled with intuitive programming tools and a supercomputer class "C" compiler, the SB3010 not only reduces risk, cost, complexity and time-to-market. It uniquely facilitates swift and easy adaptation to multiplying and evolving standards; emerging network requirements like MIMO; and diverse audio and video formats. The SB3010 also provides manufacturers with a method of differentiating and extending the usability of their designs by streamlining the development and integration of new features and applications.
07.25.2005
Software-Based 3G Baseband Promises Multi-Standard Handset Connections
EDN
The product in question – Sandbridge Technologies SB3010 (PDF) – is being termed a platform because it includes a processor chip, the algorithms that implement the baseband, and other elements such as a specialized C compiler. The processor integrates an ARM 9 RISC core along with Sandbridge's own Sandblaster DSP technology. The company claims the processors cumulatively can deliver 10 billion MAC operations per second. Sandbridge states that they are sampling the platform now.
07.22.2005
Sandbridge Unveils Software-Radio 3G Processor
Converge! Network Digest
Sandbridge Technologies, a start-up based in White Plains, New York, announced a complete "3G" multimedia handset design utilizing its SB3010 flexible baseband processor to perform all baseband and multimedia functions in software.
07.10.2005
Bridging Functions with Sand
John Peddie's Tech Watch
The Sandblaster ISA employs multi-threaded design with eight hardware threads operate simultaneously – and the software system, claims the company, enables near-limitless software parallelism without the traditional performance penalties associated with task switching.
06.01.2005
Is a Universal, Future-Proof Chip Possible?
Dow Jones Venture Capital Analyst, p.14
chips have the potential, it appears, to radically change the economics of handset manufacturing in two significant ways. First, a single model of phone could be kept on the market for more than one generation of cellular technology. And second, a single model could be adopted to and sold in many different geographic markets, which today differ widely in the levels and kinds of service they offer.
05.2005
Tanuj Raja: Leading Wireless Authority and Vice President of
Business Development at Sandbridge Technologies, Inc.
CIPS Connections
Interview by Stephen Ibaraki, I.S.P.
12.06.2004
The World Economic Forum Selects Sandbridge as Tech Pioneer
Unstrung
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. and GENEVA – The World Economic Forum announced today that it has selected Sandbridge Technologies, Inc. as one of its 29 Technology Pioneers for 2005. This year’s Pioneers represent innovation at its best—ranging broadly from nanotechnology to drug development, renewable energy and wireless. Their work is fundamentally changing the way societies are developing, and the ways people live, work, and play.
10.12.2004
Architecture Options for Convergent Devices
EE Times
The wireless phone is transforming into a device with 24/7 connectivity and support for a broad range of integrated, networked applications that will be coupled with private secure storage and always-on Internet service. Interacting with these applications will be an array of expandable I/O options, including Bluetooth-enabled headphones and displays, high-resolution flat-panel monitors, streaming data over ultrawideband and natural language processing. Network connectivity will be maintained seamlessly even while roaming among such networks as Wi-Fi, WiMax and 3G/B3G (beyond 3G).
05.18.2004
Software Radio, Radio Revolution?
France's Next Generation Internet Foundation
Today, the most promising product on the market is called Sandblaster. This chip SDR, designed by the start-up new yorkaise Sandbridge, is compatible with the majority of the standards of mobile telephony 2G and 3G, but also with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and satellite system GPS.
12.04.2003
SMART RADIOS: How the Radio Changed Its Spots
From The Economist print edition
Smart radios: Radios capable of switching from one wireless standard to another, with nothing more than a dose of new software, are at last emerging from the laboratory.
View article online (subscription required)
09.2003
BIZ CHINA: Wireless Tech
Clip: CCTV, Biz News
GDS International, Sept. 2003
09.01.2003
Five Wireless Innovators; Sandbridge – Bridging the Gaps
Forbes.com
Scott Woolley, 09.01.2003 – Guenter Weinberger runs a company that is barely two years old, has only 40 employees and has yet to earn a dime. But, boy, does this guy have big dreams. “I don't want to appear too far away from reality,” he says, “but we have the technology to become the next Intel.”
What 78,000-employee Intel is to the PC industry, Weinberger thinks his shop, Sandbridge Technologies, can be to the cell phone industry – which spent $20 billion on chips last year.
To view entire article:
08.12.2002
In-Stat/MDR's 2002 Microprocessor Forum to Headline More than
15 First Public Disclosures of Microarchitectures and Chips
In-Stat
San Jose, California, 08.12.2002 – In-Stat/MDR's 2002 Microprocessor Forum, being held in San Jose, CA from October 14 through 17, will feature over 15 first public disclosures of new microprocessor chips and architectures from companies like AMD, ARM, Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC), Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, IBM Microelectronics, Intel, Motorola, NEC Corporation, Sandbridge Technologies, Inc., Tensilica, and VIA. The event will also include seminars by In-Stat/MDR analysts Max Baron, Peter N. Glaskowsky, Kevin Krewell and Markus Levy.
08.04.2003
Wireless Wonder: Sandbridge Technologies Racks up $26.5M
For Reprogrammable Chip Technology
Westchester County Business Journal
ALEX PHILIPPIDIS, 08.04.2003 – With millions of dollars in venture capital on hand, a White Plains semiconductor company said it will spend the next year bringing to market a new technology that promises to change how the world uses cell phones, PDAs and other wireless devices.
Fresh Finance Takes Sandbridge Commercial
3G Mobile devices
U.S.– based fabless semiconductor startup Sandbridge is ready to produce working examples of its software-defined radio solutions, following the completion of its second round of financing via investment by Siemens Venture Capital.
06.30.2005
Chipmaker Sandbridge Packs in Standards
CNET News.com
Ben Charny, 06.30.2003 – Sandbridge Technologies said Monday that it's the first chipmaker to pack an entire world of cell phone standards into a single handset.
The White Plains, N.Y.-based company will begin shipping the chips this year to handset makers, and the first “world phones” will appear by the end of 2004, according to Sandbridge spokesman Jeffrey Schwartz. “That's three to five years ahead of what people thought,” he said.
Sandbridge Blasts off at MPF
A Multithreaded Compound ISA for DSP Applications
By Max Baron – Very seldom, if ever, does one get an opportunity to develop from scratch a new low-power architecture and an advanced compiler. Most processor vendors can claim to have created both hardware and breakthrough software, but Sandbridge Technologies may be the one to have taken, at inception, the extra step that brings technology closer to its peak. Many recently introduced DSP architectures have concentrated on delivering workload-optimized performance via massively parallel processing at lower frequencies; some of these powerful cores are intended to work in tandem with a generic DSP and a general-purpose processor. Architects at Sandbridge, however, decided to adhere to multiprocessor configurations and—in order to extract performance—opted for operation at higher frequencies. It is fortunate that, in their quest for performance, the architects were forced to take a fresh look at compilers.
View article online (if you have an account)
10.17.2002
Sandbridge's SandBlaster DSP and Tensilica's FLIX
ExtremeTech
Intel's HyperThreading technology looks like child's play compared to SandBridge's new 8-way multithreading capable DSP (digital signal processor) targeted at 3G wireless devices. Replicating and sharing a number of processor resources (that takes about 15% more die area than a hypothetical single-threaded version), up to 8 threads can execute simultaneously in this chip. Apparently, the algorithms and processing steps required for 3G communications can be efficiently allocated across multiple threads and executed simultaneously. The Sandblaster is capable of processing 10 billion multiply/accumulate operations per second, and consumes less than 500 milliwatts on average. Special logic ensures no single thread can dominate the instruction cache, as each thread is only capable of evicting its own specific subset of cache lines. Note that threads can read instruction cache lines from other threads, so that cache is considered to be shared among threads. For power savings, if a thread is not used, it is turned off, and any functional units not presently used can be temporarily powered down.
10.15.2002
SandBridge Core Eyes Software-Defined Radio
ExtremeTech
Sandbridge's Sandblaster DSP and SB3000 baseband processor were designed for the multitude of standards surrounding wireless: everything from GSM and WAP protocols, to multimedia-specific algorithms like MPEG-4, to applications languages like Java. By 2006, 140 million of the 700 million mobile phones will have a digital camera attached, according to analyst firm In-Stat/MDR.
The reprogrammable nature of the core allows designers to specify which wireless algorithm the core needs to process at one time, the "software definition" of software-defined radio.