Irvine Sensors Corp.: The firm announced Thursday...

Irvine Sensors Corp.: The firm announced Thursday it is accepting orders for engineering samples of a chip designed to allow notebook computers and cellular phones to communicate with each other and with printers, modems or other peripherals.

The chips use infrared signals rather than cables or radio frequency transmissions. The company, based in Costa Mesa, said the new chip is the first to comply entirely with the Infrared Data Assn.’s standard.

Successful testing of the engineering samples by potential users could lead to production deliveries before Dec. 31.