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Sequoia Communications announces Motorola's investment

FullSpectra(TM) Architecture from Sequoia Communications Sets New Standards in "Multi-Mode" RF Design

Sequoia Communications, the RF semiconductor company setting new benchmarks in multi-mode design and integration, today announced that Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT), a global communications leader, is investing in the company in an extension of the series D round that closed in December 2004. Sequoia Communications' RF systems are built on the FullSpectra architecture that will enable the company to develop multi-mode transceivers with significant advantages over any other solutions in cost, printed circuit board (PCB) size and power consumption.

The FullSpectra architecture features polar modulation, which is already the de facto standard transmit architecture for GSM. Thus, any multi-mode device supporting GSM will require polar in order to have a single transmit architecture for all modes. Achieving this common transmit architecture is critical to shortening the RF design cycle. New modes will require minimal additional circuitry, thus dramatically reducing design and validation time. Sequoia Communications' FullSpectra polar transmitter architecture will reduce the RF design cycle by more than 50 percent due to this common multi-mode platform.

"Our decision to invest in Sequoia Communications was driven by their unique RF transceiver architecture that can integrate any combination of modes in less than half the time of those using other architectures," said Warren Holtsberg, corporate vice president, equity investing, Motorola. "We believe the RF transceivers they develop based on this common architecture will shorten the RF design cycle and help set the standard for multi-mode handsets going forward."

Sequoia Communications, a company with polar modulation, is focused on WCDMA, one of the most challenging air interfaces to implement in polar. Adding GSM, EDGE and other modes to this WCDMA baseline is very straightforward. With this architecture, up to 70 percent of the RF circuitry is shared by every mode, enabling dramatic reduction in die size, PCB area, component count and cost. Additionally, the FullSpectra architecture is also capable of dramatically reducing power amplifier (PA) power and the number of PAs in a multi-mode device -- a major concern for handset manufacturers in today's market.

According to David Shepard, Sequoia Communications CEO, "Polar is the only suitable transmit architecture for multi-mode transceivers. With Sequoia Communications' unique approach to polar modulation, we can deliver the smallest and lowest power multi-mode transceivers in the industry." Mr. Shepard continued, "We can deliver new solutions to the market in half the time of our competition. Motorola's decision to invest in Sequoia Communications supports our vision to deliver advanced RF transceivers for multi-mode devices based on this patented architecture. We are extremely pleased Motorola decided to invest in our company and look forward to working with them to develop advanced multi-mode products for their future handsets."

Third Point Ventures, an early stage technology investor also participated in this round of funding.

Daniel Loeb, chairman of Third Point Ventures, stated "WCDMA handsets will greatly benefit from highly integrated transceiver technology. Sequoia is uniquely positioned to deliver next generation silicon for this rapidly growing market. Third Point Ventures is pleased to make this investment in Sequoia Communications alongside Motorola Ventures."

Sequoia Communications plans to develop an entire line of single-chip multi-mode transceivers based on the FullSpectra architecture. The company will sample its first product in Q2 2005.

About Sequoia Communications

Sequoia Communications enables wireless handset manufacturers to accelerate their time to market by shortening the RF design cycle of integrated multi-mode solutions. The company uniquely integrates different modes using a common architecture on a single chip enabling effective communications across multiple wireless standards including GSM/GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, GPS, WLAN and more. Single-chip RF transceivers developed using Sequoia Communications' innovative approach and common architecture will set new industry benchmarks in chip cost, component count, PCB size and power consumption. Founded in 2000, Sequoia Communications is headquartered in San Diego. For more information, please visit www.sequoiacommunications.com

About Motorola Ventures

Motorola Ventures (MV) is the global, strategic venture capital investment arm of Motorola, Inc. MV actively invests at all stages in developing companies of strategic value to Motorola in order to accelerate access to new technologies, new markets and new talent. For more information: www.motorola.com/ventures

About Third Point Ventures

Third Point Ventures is the venture capital arm of Third Point LLC, a private investment manager that oversees a family of investment funds targeting public and private emerging growth, value-oriented and special situation investments.