Nokia Siemens Networks invests in semiconductor innovator ClariPhy Inc.

Specifically, Nokia Siemens Networks’ investment supports ClariPhy’s development of highly integrated single chip complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)* integrated circuits (ICs) for high performance optical networks digital signaling processing (DSP)**. Essentially, these semiconductor chips integrate the multiple tasks required by transport networks such as conversion of analog signals from optical sensors to digital, digital manipulation, and back to analog form again, faster and more efficiently.

High capacity transport networks are vital for delivering fixed and mobile broadband. The amount of data required by applications such as IPTV, video on demand, cloud computing and services is increasing 60% per year. Nokia Siemens Networks predicts that by 2015 data traffic across mobile networks alone will exceed 43 Exabytes, equivalent to 6.3 billion people on the planet downloading two digital books every day.

"The rapid processing of digital signals is crucial in high capacity optical networks,” said Vesa Tykkyläinen, head of the optical networks business line at Nokia Siemens Networks. “We are investing in a company that is innovative and a forerunner of the coherent chip technology*** with 40nm (nanometer) CMOS for 40G. ClariPhy will also be among the firsts to use 28nm CMOS for 100G, high-gain and low-latency soft-decision****, forward error correction and many other innovations. Together with our leading R&D, ClariPhy will enable us to be at the forefront of high performance and low power consumption next-generation optical platforms capable of 400G and beyond along with reducing equipment footprint".

"Funding from a global telecoms industry leader demonstrates confidence and faith in ClariPhy’s leadership and its unique ability to bring together the skills and technologies required to develop cost-effective CMOS networking ICs, enabling next generation of optical networks”, said Paul Voois, CEO of ClariPhy. “The investment highlights the alignment between our strategy for IC development and Nokia Siemens Networks’ plans for packet optical networks to serve a rapidly evolving market".

High capacity optical networks are used for Smart Transport networks, which provide the lowest total cost of ownership for a service provider’s multiservice data transport network. Smart Transport networks are based on Nokia Siemens Networks’ globally available IP Integration capabilities to plan, install, integrate, provision, maintain, optimize and, where needed, operate multi-vendor transport networks. Besides the company’s professional services, it includes Nokia Siemens Networks’ products such as DWDM optical transport platforms; optical transport network switches; TransNet network planning tool; A-Series Carrier Ethernet switches; FlexiPacket Microwave and operational support systems coupled with IP/MPLS, timing over packet and service level assurance partner products from other leading vendors.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ investment in ClariPhy and the installed base of smart transport networks will improve the existing optical networks and take the company beyond 100G. Moreover, it will enable Nokia Siemens Networks to lead the industry in the development of higher rate cards (400G, 1T), enabling it to address the huge increase in IP network traffic.

About ClariPhy

ClariPhy Communications, Inc. (www.clariphy.com) develops mixed signal, advanced signal processing (MXSP) semiconductors targeting 10G, 40G and 100G networks in enterprise backbone, enterprise data center and telecom markets. ClariPhy is headquartered in Irvine, California and has offices in Los Altos, California and Cordoba, Argentina. ClariPhy’s investors include Allegis Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Oclaro, Onset Ventures, Nokia Siemens Networks and Pacific General Ventures.

Check the company’s latest release for more details.

About Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Notes to editors:
* Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology is also used for several analog circuits such as the optical wavelength and image sensors, data converters, and highly integrated transceivers for various types of communication.

** A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor with an optimized architecture for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing. Digital signal processing algorithms typically require a large number of mathematical operations to be performed quickly and repetitively on a set of data. Signals from the optical sensors are constantly converted from analog to digital, manipulated digitally, and then, converted again to the analog form. Many DSP applications have constraints on latency. For the system to work, the DSP operation must be completed within some fixed time as deferred (or batch) processing is not viable. Most general-purpose microprocessors and operating systems can execute DSP algorithms successfully but are not suitable for use in optical transport networks because of power supply and space constraints.

*** The coherent technology treats light like a radio wave, making use of phase and amplitude information. Designers can use the phase information lost in today's direct detection technology, to handle several forms of optical signal dispersion in a single CMOS DSP.

**** Low latency allows human-unnoticeable delays between an input being processed and the corresponding output providing real time characteristics.

Forward error correction (FEC) is a system of error control for data transmission. Classical methods for FEC are usually implemented using hard-decision algorithms, which means that for every input and output signal, a hard -decision is made, based upon whether it corresponds to one or zero bit. In contrast, soft-decision algorithms allow for much higher error-correction performance than hard-decision decoding.