| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: SYMM |
| Industry | Electronic Products |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA |
| Key people | David G. Côté (President), (CEO) Robert T. Clarkson (Chairman of the Board) |
| Revenue | $208.1 Million (FY 2011) |
| Operating income | $4.3 Million (FY 2011) |
| Net income | $24.3 Million (FY 2011) |
| Total assets | $235.8 Million (FY 2011) |
| Total equity | $184.2 Million (FY 2011) |
| Employees | 584 (June 2011) |
| Website | www.symmetricom.com |
Symmetricom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMM) develops, manufactures, and supplies timekeeping technology to customers in industry and government worldwide that require extremely precise synchronization. Symmetricom products support today’s precise timing standards, including GPS-based timing, IEEE 1588 (PTP), Network Time Protocol (NTP), Synchronous Ethernet and Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS®) timing.
Products include hydrogen masers, rubidium and cesium atomic standards, temperature and oven controlled crystal oscillators, miniature and chip scale atomic clocks, network time servers, network sync management systems, cable timekeeping solutions, telecom synchronization supply units (SSUs), and timing test sets.
Symmetricom is the world’s only commercial supplier of cesium atomic standards (atomic clocks). By weighted average, Symmetricom atomic clocks contribute over 90% of UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, the world time standard). The BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) calculates UTC by averaging the combined contributions of the national laboratories of its member countries.
In addition to its products, Symmetricom also offers various lifecycle services including: engineering and installation, operations and support programs, maintenance, training and certification programs and professional development courses as well as consulting and other professional services to support customers of its product lines.
Symmetricom is headquartered in San Jose, California with research and development centers in Boulder, Colorado; Beverly, Massachusetts; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Beijing, China.
Contents |
Symmetricom or its predecessor companies introduced a number of key timing innovations, including:
Symmetricom operates through two business units: the Communications Business Unit and the Government and Enterprise Business Unit.
The Communications Business Unit provides synchronization products to wireless, wireline cable service provider and electric utility markets. These products synchronize wireline communications, provide the precise timing needed for DOCSIS 3.0 broadband services, and provide synchronization and timing support to wireless base stations deployments and smart power grids.
The Government and Enterprise Business Unit supplies solutions to aerospace, defense, metrology, timekeeping and IT infrastructure markets including the Power and Finance verticals. Network synchronization solutions include timing management software and dedicated NTP and PTP time servers. Time and frequency solutions include secure GPS receiver technology, scalable GPS receivers and GPS timing distribution platforms. Components and systems that address specific space, defense, and avionics (SDA) requirements include highly reliable and ruggedized precision frequency references (atomic standards). Symmetricom also provides commercial time scale systems designed to function as a national timing laboratory.
Symmetricom, Inc. was incorporated in 1956 as Redcor Development Corporation, which developed, manufactured and marketed a variety of electronic products. In 1977, Redcor merged with Silicon General and the combined companies formed Silicon General, Inc. Since then it has grown and become broadly diversified within advance timing, often by acquiring companies or divisions of companies targeting other markets for timing and frequency products. Symmetricom has also diversified organically such as when it entered the computer network synchronization market, shipping its first product in 1986. As of the late 1970s, the many companies contributing their “genetic code” to today’s Symmetricom were mostly small independent companies, each targeting a different part of the market for precise time and frequency products.
These companies included Sigma Tau Standards Corporation, a company founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1977 by Harry Peters, who built the first commercially available active hydrogen maser — the MHM 2010 — one of the most precise instruments for measuring time ever built, with several dozen of the original model still in use today at leading national laboratories around the world.
Other companies were Irvine, California-based Efratom and Beverly, Massachusetts-based Frequency and Time Systems. The former supplied the first atomic frequency standard launched into space aboard Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS-1, launched in 1974), a precursor to the GPS. The later supplied the first space-qualified cesium clock launched into space (aboard NTS-2, launched in 1977).
In 1986, Silicon General formed Telecom Solutions, a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment for synchronizing digital telephone offices and networks. Typical customers were telephone companies and private network operators looking to precisely synchronize diverse telephone network elements such as digital switches, digital cross-connect systems and multiplexers for customers who rely upon high quality data transmission.
In 1993, Silicon General changed its name to Symmetricom. It also created a wholly owned subsidiary, Linfinity, owning all the assets of the company’s semiconductor business. Linfinity products included linear and mixed signal, standard and custom integrated circuits (ICs) as well as modules primarily for use in power supply, data communications and signal conditioning applications in commercial, industrial, and defense and space markets. In 1999, Symmetricom sold Linfinity to Microsemi of Irvine, California to focus exclusively on its advanced timing business.
Also in 1993, Symmetricom acquired UK-based Navstar Limited, a manufacturer of systems that use global positioning (GPS) technology to determine precise geographic locations and elevations within a few centimeters. Symmetricom incorporated Navstar’s scalable GPS receiver technology into its synchronization products.
By 1997, Datum-Bancomm of San Jose, California, a manufacturer of timing equipment for the wireless telecommunications market founded in 1969, had acquired Sigma Tau Standards, Efratom, and Frequency and Time Systems — forming Datum’s Trusted Time Division. In 1999, Datum also acquired Digital Delivery, a best-of-breed company in Lexington, Massachusetts for distributing secure time over IP networks. Symmetricom bought Datum in 2002, creating the Time, Test and Measurement (TT&M) division, based in Santa Rosa, California, which existed until the current corporate structure was formed in 2010, consisting of the Communications Business Unit and Government and Enterprise Business Unit.
In 2002, Symmetricom also acquired Santa Rosa, California-based TrueTime Inc., which also became part of TT&M. Founded in 1999 as a spinoff of Houston-based OYO Corporation USA, TrueTime designed, developed, manufactured and marketed precision time and frequency signal generating components. These included: computer bus cards, network time servers, time code products and time displays. Markets included telecommunications, computer networking, e-commerce and aerospace.
Complementing the Datum and TrueTime acquisitions was the acquisition of Agilent Technologies’ frequency and time standards product line in 2005. Among the products Symmetricom acquired from Agilent was the HP 5071 microprocessor-based cesium atomic clock and descendant of the HP 5061 (one of the world’s smallest cesium clocks in 1964).
In 2006, Symmetricom acquired Timing Solutions Corporation — a leading supplier of precise timing systems to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and other government agencies – located in Boulder, Colorado. Symmetricom later developed and brought to market smaller atomic clocks as part of its Quantum® family. These included the first commercially available miniature atomic clock, the rubidium SA.3Xm in 2007, and the first commercially available chip scale atomic clock, the cesium CSAC SA.45s in 2011.
1956 — Symmetricom founded as Redcor Development Corporation
1969 — Datum founded
1964 — HP introduces HP 5061 cesium atomic clock (followed by 5071, its first microprocessor-based model, later sold to Agilent, then Symmetricom)
1972 — Efratom founded – later to be bought by Datum (1995) and eventually become Symmetricom's Irvine operation when Symmetricom acquires Datum (2002)
1972 — TrueTime founded
1974 — First Atomic Frequency Standard (built by Efratom) launched into space
1977 — Redcor merges with Silicon General and the combined companies form Silicon General, Inc.
1977 — Sigma Tau Standards Corporation founded by Harry Peters, which built the MHM 2010, the only commercially available active hydrogen maser with stand-alone cavity switching auto tuning
1977 — Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS-II) employs first space-qualified cesium clock launched into space (built by Frequency and Time Systems)
1983 — Datum acquires Frequency and Time Systems
1986 — Symmetricom ships first network synchronization product
1995 — Datum acquires Irvine, CA-based Efratom
1993 — Silicon General changes its name to Symmetricom and launches Linfinity, a new subsidiary owning all the assets of its semiconductor business
1993 — Symmetricom acquires Navstar
1997 — Datum acquires Sigma Tau Corporation
1999 — Symmetricom sells Linfinity to Microsemi Corporation of Irvine, CA. to focus exclusively on the advanced timing business
1999 — Symmetricom acquires HP’s Communications Synchronization business
2000 — Symmetricom spins off Navstar’s miniature antenna technology in a management buyout that forms Sarantel, a Wellingborough, UK, based manufacturer of miniature low-proximity antennas used in cell phones, PDAs, GPS and other communication devices.
2001 — Symmetricom opens its first Asia Pacific office, in Hong Kong
2002 — Symmetricom acquires TrueTime and Datum
2002 — Symmetricom forms Timing, Test and Measurement unit, based in Santa Rosa, CA, consolidating TrueTime and Datum acquisitions
2003 — Symmetricom launches IP Network Timing product line within the Timing, Test and Measurement Division
2003 — Symmetricom introduces TimeProvider, the first carrier-class network synchronization solution for offices and nodes located at the telecom network’s edge
2005 — Symmetricom acquires Agilent Technologies frequency and time standards product line
2005 — Symmetricom becomes the first company to offer an IEEE 1588-based solution for time and frequency synchronization applications
2005 — Symmetricom acquired Agilent Technologies timing solutions product line
2006 — Symmetricom acquires Boulder, Colorado-based Timing Solutions Corporation, a leading supplier of precise timing systems to NIST and other government agencies
2006 — Symmetricom introduces TimePictra, a state-of-the-art carrier class management platform for controlling multiple types of vendor synchronization network elements on a local and global scale.
2007 — Symmetricom introduces world’s first commercially available miniature atomic clock, the rubidium SA.3Xm family
2007 — Symmetricom introduces TimeCreator 1000, the first DOCSIS® Timing Interface (DTI) Server to be qualified by Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®)
2009 — Symmetricom announces world’s first single-box all-digital phase noise and Allan Deviation test set
2011 — Symmetricom introduces world’s first commercially available chip scale atomic clock (CSAC SA 45s)
2011 — Symmetricom establishes the SyncWorld™ Ecosystem Program to enable interoperability and cooperation among technology vendors who deliver on service providers’ advanced network requirements
Symmetricom products provide a frequency and time reference which enables digital switching, routing and transmission systems to operate at a common, synchronized clock rate — thereby aligning time slots, which increases bandwidth utilization while minimizing signal degradation and reducing errors throughout a network. These products fall into two broad categories: synchronization products, embedded products.
Synchronization products leverage atomic clock and GPS technologies and provide for the generation, distribution, and management of communications synchronization infrastructure. They include:
Government and Enterprise Business Unit products generally fall into the following broad categories: