Tech Roundup: Sonics Continues Patent Infringement Lawsuit, Peppermob’s New App Gives Access to Sales on the Go, and More

Milpitas-based Peppermob announced this week that its Peppermob Field application is now available in the Apple iTunes store. Peppermob Field was designed to empower field sales people, and provides an easy way for sales people to connect to their sales applications on a mobile device. PepperMob Field provides instant access to Salesforce CRM, documents, account news, LinkedIn and more from the field on a mobile device. Sales people may easily manage, update and stay on top of deals on the go, online or offline. With secure mobile capability, salespeople may be more productive and able to close deals faster.

Milpitas-based Sonics Inc. announced this week that it is moving forward with the patent infringement lawsuit it filed against Arteris on Nov. 1. A Sonics spokesperson said in a scathing press release this week that, “Because of Sonics’ vast U.S. portfolio, we believe it will be increasingly difficult for Arteris to avoid infringement of Sonics' patents in their future on-chip network and memory scheduling products,” adding that Sonics has 45 distinct patents issued with 22 additional U.S. applications in process —which appear to be more than seven times the number of  issued patents and pending applications held by Arteris in the U.S.

Zilog, which has headquarters in both Milpitas and Switzerland, announced the release of “Zaura” this week—a wireless, MCU-based platform for wireless connectivity and control for lighting systems in offices, schools, factories and other facilities. Company spokespersons say, lighting is a major energy consumer worldwide, and it has been an economical and environmental goal to reduce and eliminate wasted energy. The ZAURA technology dims lights based on ambient light, and turns off lights when a space is not occupied. Zilog developed the technology along with IXYS Corporation, of which it is a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Milpitas-based , the world's largest independent mobile video service, unveiled its monthly Global Video Insights Report earlier this week, which captures trends for the month of October. According to the report, the iPhone remains the most popular mobile device worldwide, and Steve Jobs and Muammar Gaddafi were the most-watched and most-searched subjects of the month on mobile video devices.

"The addition of Steve Jobs and Muammar Gaddafi [to the list] demonstrates that mobile video is a barometer for current events," said Nickhil Jakatdar, Co-founder and CEO of Vuclip. "Consumers use Vuclip to catch breaking news as it happens, consuming and sharing thousands of raw news clips."

Vuclip delivers more than 16 million videos to viewers daily, in more than 200 countries. To view the complete list of October mobile video trends, click here.

Milpitas-based LSI Corporation announced plans this week to demonstrate the industry’s first 12Gb/s SAS expander IC. The 12Gb/s SAS solution with 6Gb/s SAS drives in a PCI Express 2.0 system has reportedly achieved a 65 percent increase in throughput and a 58 percent increase in IOPS (I/O operations per second) performance compared to the end-to-end 6Gb/s SAS storage solution. According to a press release, the company planned to demonstrate the products at the LSI Accelerating Innovation Summit and Technology Showcase in Milpitas.