Jennic Limited was a privately held UK-based fabless semiconductor company founded in 1996. The company developed a range of wireless microcontrollers that support low-power wireless standards, particularly 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN and ZigBee, and also supplied wireline communications products.
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Founded by CEO Jim Lindop, Jennic's main investors included UK billionaire Eddie Healey.[1] [2] In addition to its headquarters in Sheffield, UK, the company had offices in China, Japan, Taiwan, and the US. Customers included IBM, Texas Instruments, Johnson Controls and Honeywell.[3]
Originally focused on IP licensing and design services, Jennic repositioned to focus on fabless semiconductor design in 2004.[4] Jennic also received funding from the Department of Trade and Industry in 2005.[5]
In July 2010, Jennic was acquired by Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors for $12.2 million, plus an additional $7.8 million in consideration if certain performance targets were met.[6] Approximately 50 UK-based Jennic employees transferred to NXP,[7] and the organisation now operates as the NXP Low Power RF product line based in Sheffield.
Products developed by Jennic included JenNet, a wireless networking stack based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.[8] In May 2011, NXP announced its intent to release JenNet-IP network layer software under an open source license.[9]