Dialog, abandoned by Apple, refuses to accept its fate and spends 45 million to acquire another track

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Recently, American technology media AppleInsider reported that Apple's chip supplier Dialog Semiconductor announced today that with the completion of the acquisition transaction with Apple, the company's revenue this year will decline.

作为苹果自研芯片的另一个受害者，Dialog以电源管理芯片著称，在智能手机流行的这十年里，他们的业绩也表现出色。但因为过度依赖苹果，在苹果杀进这个芯片市场之后，为求自保，智能将公司的一部分业务作价6亿美元卖给苹果。

But the company has not lost confidence and they are increasing their investment in the new track of the Internet of Things.

Last night, Dialog announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the FCI brand mobile communications product line of Silicon Motion Technology (SMI). Dialog will finance the purchase price of $45 million through its balance sheet in an all-cash transaction, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to be completed in 2019, subject to regulatory approval.

FCI is a global leader in T-DMB and ISDB-T mobile TV SoCs, with RF tuner demodulator SoC solutions for smartphones, tablets and automotive portable navigation devices (PNDs). This acquisition greatly fills Dialog's connectivity product lineup, including ultra-low power Wi-Fi system-on-chip (SoC) and related modules, mobile TV SoCs and mobile communication transceiver ICs.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, FCI began mass production of their first ultra-low power Wi-Fi SoC (FC9000), accompanied by a series of fully Wi-Fi certified module solutions, including integrated antenna options. This product series is designed for the needs of battery-powered IoT devices and can connect directly to Internet access points (APs) while providing banking-grade security. A complete software stack as well as a complete reference design and evaluation platform form a comprehensive low-power system solution to meet the most demanding customer requirements.

Dialog CEO Jalal Bagherli said the acquisition of Silicon Motion's mobile communications product line will provide Dialog customers with ultra-low power Wi-Fi SoCs and complete certified and designed modules that meet the needs of all today's battery-powered IoT devices.

Jalal Bagherli said, "Ultra-low power Wi-Fi is a strong strategic fit for Dialog, giving us the opportunity to combine Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low energy chips and modules for the IoT, consumer and automotive markets. We are very pleased to welcome the mobile communications team to join the Dialog lineup, and by building a more diverse range of low power connectivity products, we will be able to create more value for our customers."

Dialog is recognized as a leading semiconductor supplier in the field of low-power technology and has become a leader in Bluetooth low-power SoCs and configurable mixed-signal ICs (CMICs) across IoT applications. To date, Dialog has shipped more than 250 million Bluetooth low-power SoCs, covering a wide range of IoT applications. The addition of ultra-low-power Wi-Fi gives Dialog an advantage in the integration and development of future combined solutions.

Silicon Motion's Mobile Communications business reported revenues of approximately $30 million for its existing product lines in 2018, primarily from its mobile TV SoCs. The ultra-low power performance of the new Wi-Fi product line has received full Wi-Fi certification and has passed all interoperability tests for most routers. Some world-class customers have already integrated Wi-Fi SoCs and complete Wi-Fi modules into their products, laying a good foundation for future revenue growth.

In addition to its current product lines, the acquisition brings to Dialog a wide range of new technologies and engineering capabilities, including extensive design expertise in RF wireless communications for cellular 4G and 5G, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) transceivers, power amplifiers and deep sub-micron chip design. Combined with Dialog's extensive configurable mixed-signal, low-power and connectivity expertise, the acquisition is a good platform for the development and integration of a range of new products.

In addition to power management chips, Dialog is well-known for its Bluetooth chips, but recently they launched a wireless multi-core MCU to occupy the IoT host control market, which also shows their determination to win the IoT.

Dialog Semiconductor has announced the launch of its most advanced and feature-rich wireless multi-core microcontroller unit (MCU) SmartBond™ DA1469x Bluetooth low energy SoC series. This new product series includes 4 models, building on the success of Dialog SmartBond™ product line, providing more powerful processing power, more resources, greater coverage, and longer battery life for a wide range of IoT connected consumer applications.

Designed to help device manufacturers expand the range of applications they can create using Dialog’s proven SmartBond™ technology, the DA1469x family of three integrated cores have been carefully selected for their superior sensing, processing and inter-device communication capabilities.

To provide the device's processing power, the DA1469x is the first production wireless microcontroller family to feature a dedicated application processor based on the ARM Cortex-M33 processor. The M33 provides more powerful processing for compute-intensive applications such as high-end fitness trackers, advanced smart home devices and virtual reality game controllers.

The DA1469x family provides developers with advanced connectivity features to meet the needs of multiple applications and make them future-proof. Its new integrated radio provides twice the range of its predecessor, combined with a software-programmable packet engine based on the ARM Cortex-M0+, which can deploy protocols and provide full flexibility for wireless communication.

On the connectivity side, an emerging application is for manufacturers to enable precise positioning through the Angle of Arrival and Angle of Departure features in the newly introduced Bluetooth 5.1 standard. With world-class radio front-end performance and a configurable protocol engine, the DA1469x complies with this new version of the standard, opening up new opportunities for devices that require precise indoor positioning, such as building access control and remote keyless entry systems.

To enhance the sensing capabilities of the DA1469x family, the M33 application processor and M0+ protocol engine are equipped with a sensor node controller (SNC), which is based on a programmable micro DSP that can run autonomously and independently process data from sensors connected to its digital and analog interfaces, waking up the application processor only when needed. In addition to this energy-saving feature, its state-of-the-art power management unit (PMU) can also provide the industry's best power management by controlling the different processing cores and activating them only when needed.

Developers can take advantage of the comprehensive computing power and features of the DA1469x series. The SoC series offers up to 144 DMIPS, 512 kBytes RAM, memory protection, floating point unit, dedicated encryption engine, etc., providing end-to-end security and scalable memory, ensuring that the chipset series can be used to achieve a wide range of advanced smart device applications, and supports a series of key value-added interfaces to further expand functionality.

The PMU also provides three regulated power rails and one LDO output to power external system components without the need for an additional power management IC (PMIC). In addition, the DA1469x product family is equipped with a range of key value-added interfaces, including display drivers, audio interfaces, USB, high-precision ADCs, haptic control drivers capable of driving ERM and LRA motors, and programmable stepper motor controllers.

“Today’s consumer demand for connected devices continues to grow with each new product cycle. Our SmartBond™ wireless microcontrollers are recognized in the market to not only meet the needs of today’s users, but also to anticipate where the market is headed and provide growth opportunities for our customers during their next product cycle,” said Sean McGrath, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Connectivity Business Unit at Dialog Semiconductor. “With double the processing power, quadruple the available resources and double the battery life of our predecessors, the DA1469x family is one of the most advanced and feature-rich Bluetooth products we have ever developed.”

Can Dialog, which has worked so hard, get out of the quagmire of the post-Apple era? Let's wait and see!

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