SAGEM sponsors West Bay's next-gen SDH/SONET IC

Groupe SAGEM SA, an international technology conglomerate, has sponsored the development of one of West Bay Semiconductor Inc.'s next-generation optical networking chips. SAGEM will deploy this SoC in compact and low-cost metro core and access equipment sold worldwide.

The chip, which targets next-generation SONET/SDH and multi-service provisioning platform equipment, features channelization, switching, and interface technologies, and also enables simultaneous, real-time processing of thousands of voice and data streams.

As part of the deal, West Bay receives a non-recurring engineering fee. Additional revenues are also expected from the sale of the new device to other equipment manufacturers over the product lifetime. West Bay retains full ownership of the IP.