Jennic

Jennic Limited was a privately held UK-based fabless semiconductor company founded in 1996. It was acquired by Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors in 2010 and now operates as the NXP Low Power RF product line based in Sheffield, England. The company developed a range of wireless microcontrollers that support low-power wireless standards, particularly 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN and ZigBee, and also supplied wired communications products, e.g. ATM[1] and RapidIO[2] cores.

History

Founded by CEO Jim Lindop, Jennic's main investors included UK billionaire Eddie Healey.[3][4] In addition to its headquarters in Sheffield, UK, the company had offices in China, Japan, Taiwan, and the US. Customers included IBM, Texas Instruments, Johnson Controls and Honeywell.[5]

Originally focused on IP licensing and design services, Jennic repositioned to focus on fabless semiconductor design in 2004.[6] Jennic also received funding from the Department of Trade and Industry in 2005.[7]

In July 2010, Jennic was acquired by Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors for $12.2 million, plus an additional $7.8 million in consideration if certain performance targets were met.[8] Approximately 50 UK-based Jennic employees transferred to NXP,[9] and the organisation now operates as the NXP Low Power RF product line based in Sheffield.

In January 2020, NXP decided to close the site in Sheffield, terminating the contracts of several employees still working in that location.

Technology

Products developed by Jennic included JenNet, a wireless networking stack based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.[10] JenNet-IP included a 6LoWPAN protocol stack.[11] Jennic was the first chipset manufacturer to support this protocol for their 802.15.4 products.[12] In May 2011, NXP announced its intent to release JenNet-IP network layer software under an open source license.[13]

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References
  1. http://www.embedded.com/electronics-news/4132693/IBM-licenses-Jennic-ATM-technology
  2. http://www.embedded.com/electronics-news/4158855/Jennic-validates-Serial-RapidIO-IP-in-silicon
  3. "The market for mobile light switches" FT.com, 3 January 2007, Retrieved 26 May 2011
  4. "Rich List: Sofa tycoon Lord Kirkham sitting pretty" Sheffield Telegraph, 7 May 2011, Retrieved 26 May 2011
  5. "The market for mobile light switches" FT.com, 3 January 2007, Retrieved 26 May 2011
  6. "WTRS Executive Interview: Interview with Jim Lindop, CEO of Jennic Corporation" Archived 4 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine WTRS Newsletter, 18 July 2006, Retrieved 26 May 2011
  7. "Jennic receives £1.5 million DTI grant to fund further growth" D&R Headline News, 28 November 2005, Retrieved 22 October 2009
  8. "NXP buys Jennic, boosts short-range RF portfolio" EE Times, 26 July 2010
  9. "NXP acquires low power RF specialist Jennic" Archived 22 January 2013 at Archive.today EDN, 26 July 2010, Retrieved 26 May 2011
  10. "Jennic launches JenNet stack for scalable wireless sensor networks" EPN, 18 December 2007, Retrieved 26 May 2011
  11. Rongbo Zhu; Yan Ma (13 November 2011). Information Engineering and Applications: International Conference on Information Engineering and Applications (IEA 2011). Springer. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-4471-2386-6.
  12. Zach Shelby; Carsten Bormann (17 August 2011). 6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet. John Wiley & Sons. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-119-96534-3.
  13. "NXP open sources JenNet-IP for Internet of Things" Electronics Weekly, 19 May 2011, Retrieved 26 May 2011
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