CSR plc
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| CSR plc (Cambridge Silicon Radio) | |
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| Type | Public LSE: CSR |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Head office Cambridge, England |
| Industry | Fabless semiconductor, Single chip Bluetooth |
| Website | www.csr.com |
CSR (LSE: CSR), or Cambridge Silicon Radio, is a company based in Cambridge, England whose main product line is a single-chip implementation of the Bluetooth standard for radio-signal communication between devices. CSR is a fabless semiconductor manufacturer. It was founded in 1998 by splitting from Cambridge Consultants. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
CSR is currently the biggest global supplier of Bluetooth chips with approximately 50 percent market share, and also produce WiFi and VoIP solutions. CSR's main competitor in the bluetooth chipset market is Broadcom. The largest market for bluetooth chipsets is the mobile handset market; of the almost 1 billion mobile handsets sold in 2006, approximately 50% were Bluetooth enabled. In 2005, CSR acquired the 3G wireless (WCDMA/UMTS/HSDPA) technology company UbiNetics. In 2007, CSR acquired Nordnav, a Swedish based GPS software company, and CPS, a Cambridge based GPS software company producing Enhanced GPS in partnership with Motorola.
CSR's BlueCore bluetooth chips are not based on ARM cores, unlike those of rival Broadcom, but are instead based on low-power processor techonology from its former parent company[1]. Due to CSR's large market share, this makes the relatively unheard-of 16-bit XAP processor one of the most numerous micro-controllers in existence.
The company consists of the following world-wide offices:
- Unit 400, Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge, UK. Original seat of the company, abandoned in November 2004 when the company moved to Churchill House (below), then re-occupied in 2005 after significant growth and now Corporate Headquarters again.
- Churchill House, Cambridge Business Park, Cambridge, UK
- Selwyn House, Cambridge Business Park, Cambridge, UK
- St. John's House, St John's Innovation Centre, Cambridge, UK
- Richardson, Texas, US
- Sophia-Antipolis, France
- Tokyo, Japan
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Novi Science Park, Aalborg, Denmark
- Posco Building, Seoul, Korea
- Lund, Sweden
- Stockholm, Sweden through acquision of Nordnav in 2007
- Detroit, Michigan, US (through acquisition of Clarity Technologies Inc. in 2005)
- IBC Knowledge Park, Bangalore, India (through acquisition of Ubinetics in 2005)
- Platinum Building, Shanghai, China
CSR reports its financial results in US dollars. In the year ended 29 December 2006 it made a profit of $114 million.
