TI to boost wireless tech in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Texas Instruments will try to win the attention of Taiwanese hardware designers by opening a center here in 2003 to show off the company's wireless wares.

TI Chief Executive Tom Engibous announced the wireless applications center plan in a talk on Monday, the opening day of the Computex trade show here, which gathers many of this country's influential technology companies under three large roofs.

TI's center will focus on selling its chips for use in mobile phones, 802.11 Wi-Fi networks, and short-range Bluetooth communications, Engibous said. Eventually, TI believes a single device will need to support all three wireless communication technologies, he said.

The Dallas-based company is one of the major manufacturers of processors and other chips for wireless devices. Building a design center here indicates the importance of courting Taiwanese designers.

The company isn't exclusively focusing on wireless technology, though. At a keynote address Monday, Greg Jones, general manager of TI's DSL business unit, described TI's work to try to boost digital subscriber line technology for bringing high-speed Internet access to homes and businesses.

Home users considering broadband are chiefly concerned about cost, entertaining applications and ease of use, while businesses are concerned about the installation cost, security and upgrades, Jones said.

Declining costs has spurred broadband adoption, he said. In South Korea, where broadband access costs about $20 per month, the service penetrates 77 percent of households, he said.

The International Telecommunications Union said last week that the penetration in South Korea means 95 percent of Internet users have broadband access.

And phone companies, which sell the DSL, are concerned about having technology that can be upgraded. To that end, TI is backing two improvements to DSL technology, he said. ADSL2+ will improve speeds for subscribers nearer the DSL service provider's network equipment, while READSL will extend the reach so more subscribers can be served with the DSL networking equipment.