MindTree develops chip for mobile devices

A milestone in the company's growth path

MindTree Consulting, one of the fastest growing IT and R&D services companies in the country, on Wednesday said that it has designed and developed a new analog integrated circuit (IC) with intelligent charging capabilities for Lithium-ion batteries, commonly used in hand held mobile devices.

The chip has been developed for a leading Korean manufacturer of semi-conductor devices for wireless products. The 1.5 mm chip is an effort in mitigating portability - one of the challenges of wireless devices.

For managing portability, the devices must weigh less and have increasingly smaller form factor. This means batteries need to be lighter, smaller and remain charged for a longer time.

"The heaviest part of a wireless device, especially mobile phones, is its battery and this newly designed chip will have intelligent power management as to when and how to manage the power efficiently," said Subroto Bagchi, chief operating officer, MindTree Consulting.

The analog IC will be taped out (the design finalised) for fabrication over the next few weeks and the end product is expected to be shipped out in early 2006.

The stand-alone chip will improve power management for products using Lithium-ion batteries by intelligent charging. Lithium-ion batteries are favoured for hand-held devices due to their light weight, high energy density and lower maintenance needs.

The "father of the chip" and vice president-Engineering R&D services, S N Padmanabhan said that it took five months for the development of the chip. Analog design capability is rare because today more and more engineers know digital designing. The IP for the chip will belong to the customer.

Ashok Soota, chairman and managing director, MindTree said that the company will, in R&D services, work both ways. In some cases the IP will be owned by the customer and in some cases by the company.

The company also announced that Japan based NEC Corporation has agreed to integrate Bluetooth wireless technology into its GSM phones.

Under the deal, some of NEC's GSM phones will port the MindTree's Bluetooth stack for short range wireless features.

MindTree will have the IP and will get royalty for each unit sold by NEC.

Bagchi added that the company will double its headcount in the R&D services to 400 in the next few months from the present 200.

The company plans to close this year with a revenue of $100 million against $55 million last year. Bagchi said, "We are the first IT services company to grow to this proportion in six years."