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Intel's latest acquisition went largely unnoticed, with few analysts picking up on a May report in Israeli newspaper Globes that the US giant had snapped up WiMAX modem firm Comsys Mobile.

This transaction, though not officially publicized by either firm, is interesting because it shows Intel showing revived interest in the handset modem business. This is a market where the world's largest chipmaker has failed to dent the dominance of suppliers like Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson, but at the 4G stage, the segment is seen as being more open to newcomers, so Intel may see the chance of a foothold. While its main mobile device activities have surrounded the applications processor, Atom, many believe it wants to challenge Qualcomm with an integrated offering spanning the processor, modem and RF. This has led to speculation that it will acquire Infineon's wireless business, but in the meantime, the smaller purchase of Comsys could give it some valuable expertise.

Comsys, after building its initial business in PC modems for Conexant, and in 2G modem IPR, refocused several years ago on WiMAX, producing chips and several handset reference designs with Taiwanese partners and specializing in multimode GSM/WiMAX chipsets. Intel's interest comes at a time when several WiMAX baseband specialists are seeking to use their early expertise in one OFDM-based '4G' technology to steal an early march in another, LTE.

Beceem, Sequans and Altair are among the players expanding into LTE, and hoping to take advantage of the fact that few baseband giants are yet ready for LTE. This could lead to slots for WiMAX or LTE modems in multimode handsets (as seen in Sequans' processor in the WiMAX/CDMA EVO, and in devices for the China Mobile TD-LTE show network in Shanghai). It could also lead to partnerships with, or even acquisition by, larger firms racing to gain OFDM expertise of their own (Qualcomm and STE are the main players to be close to market-ready with multimode LTE/3G platforms, others lag behind).

Comsys could bring Intel similar opportunities to infiltrate the territory of the modem giants. According to Will Strauss, president of semiconductor analyst firm Forward Concepts, Intel paid $30m for the Israeli firm, whose 80 staff will join Intel's own wireless R&D centers in Haifa and Petah Tikva, Israel. Strauss outlined the Comsys history in his newsletter - in 2G IPR, "its biggest licensee was Texas Instruments, which later purchased the Comsys cellphone operation. Comsys then changed direction and entered the WiMAX business.''

Intel may be trying, once again, to be more self-sufficient in mobile device silicon, but it still relies heavily on third party adjuncts to Atom, as Strauss outlines. One of the key features of the latest iteration of Atom, Moorestown, is that it boasts one-fiftieth of the power consumption of previous versions. This is largely down to Freescale's power management IC, says Strauss, as quoted in EETimes, and its audio DSP.

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