Intel buys Envara

Rethink IT, May, 2004

Intel has made its second acquisition in four months of a radio specialist, snapping up Israeli firm Envara. Combined with Texas Instruments' purchase last year of Radia, the two transactions point to the narrowing options for independent radio makers--as the giants move to make all components of their wireless platforms inhouse in order to improve integration, the small manufacturers need to be acquired, or face a bleak future.

Envara is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Ra'anana, Israel, which focuses on low cost, low power dual-chip products for all three Wi-Fi standards. It was founded in March 2000 by serial entrepreneur Gideon Barak, who also founded short range wireless company Butterfly, which he sold to Texas Instruments in 1999 for $50m. Envara has raised about $40m in two rounds of venture capital.

Its acquisition by Intel was reported in the Israeli press, though has not yet been officially confirmed by the chip giant.

Last year, Envara launched its WIND series of multimode chipsets, the 502 802.11a/b/g device and the 512 802.1 Ib product.

Intel has been moving towards making all the components of Centrino itself but the low end 'b' versions still use third party radios, although the recently announced multimode upgrade did feature an Intel radio. Buying in readymade, low cost technology should enable it to keep Centrino's prices down, especially as it tries to move into the cost sensitive consumer electronics sector this quarter.

In November, Intel bought Mobilian, whose key product was a two-chip set called TrueRadio, which supports simultaneous operation of 802.I I b and Bluetooth radios. This will enable the production of a PC card including both the technologies for under $35, Intel claims.