Agilent Develops Business Unit Focused on SOC Test

Electronic News, Oct 23, 2000 by Jeff Chappell

AMONG AGILENT TECHNOLOgies Inc.'s announcements at ITC was its formation of an SOC Business Unit to focus on the system-on-a-chip (SOC) test market. The division will focus on developing less-costly test applications and faster product ramps, as increasing chip complexity forces chipmakers to develop embedded testing, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Agilent said.

The company appointed Tom Newsom as vice president and general manager of the SOC Business Unit. Agilent is charging Newsom with combining a company spread across California, Colorado, Germany and Asia. "The strategy there is to pull the expertise of different design centers together," he said Newsom said that Agilent's testing capability was the reason behind Qualcomm Inc. entering into a partnership with Agilent to develop and deliver production test applications for RF wireless ASICs, Newsom said.