Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc. Tuesday said it has forged a computer processor that is roughly 35 times
faster than today’s models and that will cut the cost of making such devices as cell phones and DVD players.
The chipmaker told the Associated Press that the chip is made with a mixture of silicon and gallium arsenide, a more
expensive material that can transmit signals at greater speeds. Analysts have said the chip is a watershed moment, because it breaks
the cost-effectiveness barrier by being simultaneously inexpensive and sufficiently faster than current chip technologies. Motorola
has applied for 270 patents for the materials and production process.
Motorola could benefit from the cheery technology news, which comes in stark contrast to recent financial and operations
developments. The firm has felt the squeeze in the telecommunications industry, forcing it to cut jobs, pare down costs and divest
itself of non-core businesses. Indeed, Motorola announced 30,000 job cuts this year, which was marred by downturns in its cell phone
and semiconductor operations.
So hammered by the industry-wide spending slowdown is Motorola that it also divested itself of its networks services unit Tuesday,
selling it to Platinum Equity LLC, a private equity firm that lives to buy tech companies. Over the next
couple of months, Platinum will tuck in Motorola’s entire Multiservice Networks Division, and will change the operation’s name to
Vanguard Managed Solutions (VanguardMS). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Vanguard Managed Solutions, which will be based in Mansfield, Mass., will offer network design, implementation, integration and
secure network operations and management to customers.
“VanguardMS fits well with our strategy of building our presence in the network space,” Tom Gores, Platinum Equity president and
chief executive, said in a news release.
The play is the second divestiture of a division by the outfit in the last 30 days or so; it sold its Integrated Information Systems
Group for $825 million to defense contractor General Dynamics Corp. last month. The divestitures are an attempt to help the firm
focus on long-term strategies.