Limited today announced their first Near Field Communication (NFC) Software Stack partner agreement.  This partnership enables Innovision to provide its customers with the Sasken NFC Protocol Stack software solution, for integration with Innovision’s GEM NFC hardware IP solution.

This relationship underscores both companies’ mutual strengths and capabilities.  Sasken recognised Innovision’s unique market-leading position for custom NFC hardware Intellectual Property (IP) with its GEM™ IP offering, whilst the relationship with Sasken further demonstrates Innovision’s approach to providing a complete NFC IP solution for its customers by working with strong partners.

Innovision is recognised as a leading NFC System-on-Chip (SoC) hardware IP provider with its GEM IP, available under an attractive licensing programme. This combined IP and software solution will enable semiconductor companies to develop complete NFC capability, either for stand-alone solutions or as part of System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated NFC solutions within wireless connectivity devices such as Bluetooth, Wireless LAN and UWB.

David Wollen, CEO at Innovision, says: “For NFC to scale up into mass volume deployment, cost control is critical and necessitates NFC becoming a feature on a chip rather than an additional dedicated chip in the handset. Our advanced GEM IP uniquely enables customised, cost-effective and fast-time-to-market NFC implementations.  By partnering with Sasken, who has demonstrated capability for providing NFC software solutions, and using GEM as the baseline hardware solution, we can together offer a truly turnkey solution. I believe this partnership can help many device and chipset designers to meet the growing demand for high-performance, low-cost NFC-enabled devices and applications.”

Sasken is developing its protocol stack, targeted for Innovision’s GEM hardware IP to ensure a uniquely seamless solution.  The solution is targeted for various environments including SoC implementations.  The protocol stack supports ISO18092 and ISO14443A/B reader/writer modes and provides an ETSI HCI compatible interface towards upper layers. The solution is highly configurable and is designed to work on scarce resources.

The software stack, available to partners under a flexible licensing agreement, provides a simple solution, integrating the GEM IP to middleware and application levels to provide a low cost, small space solution with minimal processing and power requirement.  Wollen continues “Licensing NFC silicon IP bundled with a custom full NFC software solution, clears the way for semiconductor companies to move to the next stage of NFC integration within chipsets and devices.  It will deliver significant unit cost benefits to implementers of NFC technology, and accelerate mass-market deployment of NFC.  The GEM IP is fully compliant with NFC standards and includes support for advanced features such as ‘battery off’, Single Wire Protocol (SWP) and ‘zero power in standby’ mode. “

Kannankote Srikanth, President & COO, Sasken added, “When considering prospective hardware partners for our NFC software stack, Innovision with their GEM IP were an obvious choice, given their market-leading position. Sasken has already been involved with many NFC projects, and development and licensing of our NFC software stack is a natural progression of our business.  Sasken’s world class communications software development skills and commitment to quality, will provide greater confidence to semiconductor companies, for developing economical yet powerful NFC-enabled devices and applications.”

About Innovision Research & Technology plc

As the leading fabless developer of Short-Range Data Communication semiconductor and system solutions, with particular focus on NFC/RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and ultra low-cost Integrated Circuit (IC) and RF electronic design, Innovision Research & Technology plc is pushing cost performance to enable clients to get maximum utility for minimum cost.

The company develops innovative semiconductor technologies, ICs, RF systems (HF/UHF) and complete end product applications for mass volume commercialisation and then licenses customers for its incorporation into their own products.

At the heart of the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) market, Innovision R&T designs and develops NFC/RFID IC solutions for the global mobile handset and consumer device sectors.

Products include Topaz, mandated by the NFC Forum as the NFC number one tag type format, Jewel for mass transit ticketing applications, and io, the world's smallest standards compatible Near-Field RFID reader.

IRT is headquartered in the UK.

About Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd.

Sasken is an embedded communications solutions company, that helps businesses across the communication value chain accelerate product development life cycles.

Sasken offers a unique combination of research and development consultancy, wireless software products, software services and network engineering services, and works with Network OEMs, Semiconductor Vendors, Terminal Device OEMs and Operators across the world. Global Fortune 500 and Tier 1 companies in these segments are part of Sasken's customer profile.

Established in 1989, Sasken employs over 3,500 people at its offices in India, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, UK and USA.

In addition to being directly involved in the development of a variety of technologies, Sasken is a member of premier technology bodies including ITU, 3GPP, GCF, MPEG-ISO, WiMAX, NFC, DLNA and ATM, DSL & SDR forums. Sasken is SEI CMM Level 5 certified and its solutions are backed by ISO 9001:2000, ISO 27001 and TL 9000 certifications. Sasken’s commitment to environment is highlighted by its ISO 14001 certification.

Information Source:    Innovision Research & Technology

Image of David Wollen courtesy of Innovision Research & Technology website

Image of  Kannankote Srikanth courtesy of Sasken Communication Technologies website