Wolfson Microelectronics
Encyclopedia
Wolfson Microelectronics plc is a multinational
microelectronics
and fabless semiconductor
company headquartered in Edinburgh
, United Kingdom
. It specialises in signal processing
chips
for the consumer electronics
market and has engineering and sales offices throughout Asia-Pacific
, Europe
and the United States
.
in 2003 and be listed in the FTSE 250. Both Milne and Reid had connections with the University of Edinburgh
; Reid attained a First Class Honours degree in EEE, and Milne directed the Wolfson Microelectronics Institute at King's Buildings
from 1973 to 1985. In February, 2007, when Milne chose to step down, he was replaced in his CEO
role by Dave Shrigley, previously Vice-President at Intel Corporation
. His departure was one of a number of executive changes in late 2006, as Financial Director George Elliott also stood down.
In 2006, Milne was declared Entrepreneur of the Year by the CBI
, and Wolfson named Company of the Year. In November 2006 David Shrigley became the CEO of Wolfson, his first appointment at this level: he had previously worked for Intel in the Asia
-Pacific
region, and held directorships elsewhere.
In September 2008, Mike Hickey joined Wolfson as Chief Executive Officer Designate and became Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2009. Mr Hickey joined Wolfson from Motorola
Inc, where he held various senior positions in Motorola’s mobile device business. Most recently he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Multimedia product organisation, reporting directly to the Mobile Devices business president. Previously, he held senior positions at Alcatel Optronics and during an earlier period at Motorola, prior to which he worked for Digital Equipment Co. Ltd and Philips
. In July 2009, Andy Brannan joined Wolfson as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr Brannan previously held the position of VP of Nokia
's SOSCO business, and prior to that spent eight years as Executive VP of Sales & Customer Operations at Symbian Ltd.
product line, including the Zune 30
and Zune HD, as well as providing the codec
functionality for much of Apple Inc.'s iPod
series (with the exception of the iPod shuffle
and iPod classic
) and Sony
's PSP
. Wolfson chips have also found place in the Microsoft
Xbox
game console, Logitech
Squeezebox Duet and the PalmOne Treo
smartphone
, with the Apple connection continuing with the earlier versions of the iPhone
and iPod Touch
.
Wolfson audio products can also be found in the Samsung Wave S8500
and Samsung i9000 Galaxy S
smartphones, as well as a number of LG
phones including the LG-LB4400 music phone and the Android-powered LG Optimus GT540 smartphone.
In April 2010, Wolfson signed a licence agreement with Tensilica
to create a low power, high definition (HD) sound platform.
, Wolfson provided funding for an award, taking its name from the Scottish mathematician-physicist James Clerk Maxwell
(1831–1879). This award recognizes work with "exceptional impact on the development of electronics
and electrical engineering
or related fields". Recipients receive $
20,000 in addition to a gold medal, a bronze replica and a certificate, and is awarded up to two individuals chosen by a committee.
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
microelectronics
Microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...
and fabless semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
company headquartered in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It specialises in signal processing
Signal processing
Signal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...
chips
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
for the consumer electronics
Consumer electronics
Consumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...
market and has engineering and sales offices throughout Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
History
Started in 1984 by David Milne and Jim Reid, Wolfson grew under their stewardship to float on the London Stock ExchangeLondon Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in 2003 and be listed in the FTSE 250. Both Milne and Reid had connections with the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
; Reid attained a First Class Honours degree in EEE, and Milne directed the Wolfson Microelectronics Institute at King's Buildings
King's Buildings
The King's Buildings are a campus of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and contains most of the schools within the College of Science and Engineering, excepting only part of the School of Informatics and the Institute of Geography, which are located at the central George Square campus...
from 1973 to 1985. In February, 2007, when Milne chose to step down, he was replaced in his CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
role by Dave Shrigley, previously Vice-President at Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...
. His departure was one of a number of executive changes in late 2006, as Financial Director George Elliott also stood down.
In 2006, Milne was declared Entrepreneur of the Year by the CBI
Confederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry is a British not for profit organisation incorporated by Royal charter which promotes the interests of its members, some 200,000 British businesses, a figure which includes some 80% of FTSE 100 companies and around 50% of FTSE 350 companies.-Role:The CBI works...
, and Wolfson named Company of the Year. In November 2006 David Shrigley became the CEO of Wolfson, his first appointment at this level: he had previously worked for Intel in the Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
-Pacific
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim refers to places around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The term "Pacific Basin" includes the Pacific Rim and islands in the Pacific Ocean...
region, and held directorships elsewhere.
In September 2008, Mike Hickey joined Wolfson as Chief Executive Officer Designate and became Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2009. Mr Hickey joined Wolfson from Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
Inc, where he held various senior positions in Motorola’s mobile device business. Most recently he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Multimedia product organisation, reporting directly to the Mobile Devices business president. Previously, he held senior positions at Alcatel Optronics and during an earlier period at Motorola, prior to which he worked for Digital Equipment Co. Ltd and Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
. In July 2009, Andy Brannan joined Wolfson as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr Brannan previously held the position of VP of Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
's SOSCO business, and prior to that spent eight years as Executive VP of Sales & Customer Operations at Symbian Ltd.
Products
Wolfson products have found applications within the digital audio player market, such as in Microsoft's ZuneZune
Zune is a digital media brand owned by Microsoft which includes a line of portable media players, a digital media player software for Windows machines, a music subscription service known as a 'Zune Music Pass', music and video streaming for the Xbox 360 via the Zune Software, music, TV and movie...
product line, including the Zune 30
Zune 30
This article refers only to the Zune 30 model. For the main Zune article, click here.The Zune 30 was the first portable media player developed by Microsoft. It was released on November 14, 2006. It was simply named the Zune...
and Zune HD, as well as providing the codec
Audio codec
All codecs are devices or computer programs capable of coding or decoding a digital data stream or signal.The term audio codec has two meanings depending on the context:...
functionality for much of Apple Inc.'s iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
series (with the exception of the iPod shuffle
IPod shuffle
The iPod Shuffle is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first to use flash memory...
and iPod classic
IPod classic
The iPod Classic is a portable media player marketed by Apple Inc...
) and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's PSP
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
. Wolfson chips have also found place in the Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
game console, Logitech
Logitech
Logitech International S.A. is a global provider of personal peripherals for computers and other digital platforms headquartered in Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland. The company develops and markets products like peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, microphones, game controllers...
Squeezebox Duet and the PalmOne Treo
Treo
The Palm Treo is a line of smartphones originally developed by Handspring, which was bought by Palm, Inc. They are now manufactured and maintained by Palm, Inc. Treos have a number of integrated features such as the ability to check the calendar while talking on the phone, dial directly from a...
smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
, with the Apple connection continuing with the earlier versions of the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
.
Wolfson audio products can also be found in the Samsung Wave S8500
Samsung Wave S8500
The Samsung Wave GT-S8500 is the first touchscreen smartphone running the new bada operating system designed by Samsung, which was commercially released on June 1, 2010...
and Samsung i9000 Galaxy S
Samsung i9000 Galaxy S
The Samsung Galaxy S is an Android smartphone that was announced by Samsung in March 2010. It features a 1 GHz ARM "Hummingbird" processor, 8–16 GB internal Flash memory, a 4-inch 480×800 pixel Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 5-megapixel camera with a...
smartphones, as well as a number of LG
LG
LG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...
phones including the LG-LB4400 music phone and the Android-powered LG Optimus GT540 smartphone.
In April 2010, Wolfson signed a licence agreement with Tensilica
Tensilica
Tensilica is an IP core company based in Silicon Valley. Tensilica is best known for its customizable microprocessor cores, the Xtensa configurable processor...
to create a low power, high definition (HD) sound platform.
IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award
In a joint mission in 2006 with the IEEE and Royal Society of EdinburghRoyal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
, Wolfson provided funding for an award, taking its name from the Scottish mathematician-physicist James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879). This award recognizes work with "exceptional impact on the development of electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
or related fields". Recipients receive $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20,000 in addition to a gold medal, a bronze replica and a certificate, and is awarded up to two individuals chosen by a committee.
Recipients
The following people received the IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award:- 2007: Irwin M. JacobsIrwin M. JacobsIrwin Mark Jacobs , is an electrical engineer and the co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Salk Institute. In 2010, Jacobs was listed as number 828 on Forbes's annual list of the World's Top Billionaires.-Education:Jacobs earned his B.S...
and Andrew J. Viterbi - 2008: Tim Berners-LeeTim Berners-LeeSir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
- 2009: Alberto Sangiovanni-VincentelliAlberto Sangiovanni-VincentelliAlberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli is an academic researcher, teacher, entrepreneur, technical advisor and business man. He is a co-founder of the two largest EDA companies: Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys, Inc....
- 2010: Amar G. Bose
- 2011: Marcian Edward HoffMarcian HoffMarcian Edward "Ted" Hoff, Jr. , is one of the inventors of the microprocessor. Hoff joined Intel in 1967 as employee number 12, and is credited with coming up with the idea of using a "universal processor" rather than a variety of custom-designed circuits. His insight started the microprocessor...