Wavesat

About Wavesat

Founded in 1993, Wavesat was a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Montreal, Canada, that specialized in the design of mobile broadband chipsets. The company focused on providing advanced semiconductor solutions to mobile device and carrier equipment manufacturers. This business model allowed them to operate without the high costs of fabrication facilities, instead partnering with companies like IBM and Atmel for manufacturing.

Wavesat's core business revolved around developing silicon that enabled its clients to deploy a variety of broadband wireless technologies. The company was a notable player in the WiMAX market, producing one of the industry's first WiMAX chips, the DM256. Their product portfolio included standards-based integrated circuits, software, and development platforms that supported both base stations and subscriber units across licensed and license-exempt frequencies. A key offering was the Odyssey™ 4G multi-protocol architecture, which allowed customers to utilize WiMAX Wave2 and XG-PHS, with a clear migration path to future 4G technologies like LTE. This flexibility was a significant benefit for manufacturers, enabling them to reduce development time and accelerate their products' time-to-market.

The company's solutions were aimed at a market that included original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For instance, Wavesat's Mini-PCI reference designs provided OEMs and ODMs a way to quickly develop subscriber units with minimal investment. Over its history, Wavesat secured significant funding, raising a total of $14.8 million over two rounds, with a notable Series D round of $9.5 million in February 2009. On January 25, 2011, Wavesat was acquired by Cavium Networks for $10 million, marking the conclusion of its journey as an independent entity.