Radisys acquires Intel's modular comms biz

Embedded solutions provider Radisys Corp. has announced it is buying IntelCorp.'s modular communications platform business in a transaction including a $25 million purchase price along with $6.75 million of inventory and other considerations.

The business includes all of Intel's Compact PCI, Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) and Advanced Telecommunication Computing Architecture (ATCA) boards for embedded communications. The sale of the Intel group includes the largest remaining chunk of the chip maker's single-board computing business, a market it had been in since the Multibus I and II eras of the 1980s.

Radisys executives estimated that the Intel business could add at least $50 million in revenue per year after Intel products are integrated into Radisys' Promentum product line. A "significant" but undetermined number of Intel employees involved in development and test engineering, marketing and sales will be offered jobs at Radisys following the sale. Since Intel had worked on AMC cards as well as chassis management hardware and software, the products can be part of both ATCA and the smaller form-factor MicroTCA systems.

Still undetermined is the impact the sale will have on the PCI Industrial Computing Manufacturers Group's promotion of ATCA and MicroTCA. Intel had been a key proponent of the emerging PICMG standards, though one industry source said the standard could be aided by having a more distributed base of smaller companies acting as prime movers.

Grant Henderson, VP of product marketing at Radisys, said the acquisition was aided when Anthony Ambrose, who led the modular communications business at Intel, joined Radisys earlier this year to spearhead ATCA efforts. Radisys executives will not know for a few weeks how many Intel employees will be added, but the bulk of Intel's ATCA staff is based in the Portland, Ore., area and in Asia.

"We think we're already an ATCA leader due to being first on the market with 10Gbit ATCA cards, but the addition of the Intel line will be significant to our overall revenues and market presence," Henderson said.