IBM and Taiwan's top chip design firm Mediatek Inc said on Monday they are jointly launching a research and development project to develop ultra-fast chipsets to tap into growth in the consumer market.

The project will integrate IBM's new millimeter wave (mmWave) radio chips and package technology with Mediatek's expertise in digital baseband and video processing chips, IBM said in a statement.

This collaborative effort will enable consumers to wirelessly transfer large multimedia data files around their home and/or offices in seconds, said T.C. Chen, a vice president at science and technology, IBM Research, which has been engaged in mmWave technology R&D for the last four years.

No financial terms were given.

This is a three-year joint development project, said Mehmet Soyuer, lead researcher in communication technologies at IBM's TJ Watson Research in Yorktown Heights, New York.

We have plans to commercialize products resulting from the joint development, and Mediatek will decide on the brand name.

Mediatek announced last month that it was buying Analog Devices Inc's (ADI) wireless chip business for $350 million in cash, in a move expected to expand its share in China's huge mobile handset market.

In Taipei, Mediatek shares closed down 2.8 percent at T$590 on Monday, in line with a 2.6 percent drop on Taiwan's main TAIEX share index.

(US$1=T$32.6)

New York Ibm