Twelve Ultra Wide Band (UWB) platforms, supplied by chipmakers and system designers, were certified by the WiMedia Alliance this week.
The twelve companies have successfully completed both phases of the Alliance’s compliance and interoperability testing, paving the way for the introduction of WiMedia-based end-user devices in the personal computing, consumer electronics and mobile device markets. They include Alereon, Intel, Artimi, Realtek Semiconductor, Staccato Communications, Tzero Technologies, WiQuest Communications and Wisair.
- Alereon the Ultra Wideband (UWB) pioneer for WiMedia and Certified Wireless USB applications, today announced the WiMedia Alliance certification of Alereon’s AL5000 platform. It’s one of the first certified silicon products for WiMedia’s Ultra Wideband (UWB) standard.
- WiQuest’s portfolio of reference designs (pdf) includes a Wireless USB adapter, 4-port hub, mini card and half mini card. All use the WQST110/101 chipset and are based on the Certified Wireless USB specification from the USB Implementers Forum.
- San Diego-based Staccato Communications today announced that its Ripcord™ product family has earned official WiMedia Platform Certification.
It’s expected the technology will be used to connect settop boxes to televisions or camcorders to computers, substituting wired USB or Firewire cords for wireless connections. It can handle speeds up to 480 Mbps, using a broad swath of spectrum, from less than 3 GHz to 10 GHz.
The WiMedia Alliance is an open industry association that promotes standardization and multi-vendor interoperability of UWB products, like Certified Wireless USB.
Two incompatible UWB schemes appeared; DS (direct sequence) and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing). Supporters of each approach—the UWB Forum for DS-UWB and the WiMedia Alliance for OFDM-UWB—worked to get the IEEE to adopt their technologies as a standard, but to no avail. The IEEE failed to reach consensus on a single UWB standard.
When the IEEE was unable to come to an agreement on a single UWB standard, WiMedia was spun off as an independent organization in anticipation of developing a defacto standard. It has largely succeeded in doing that, although the proof will be in consumer acceptance.
“Wireless USB” from the WiMedia Alliance is incompatible with the Direct Sequence “Cable-Free USB”, which uses a combination of Freescale Semiconductor’s Direct Sequence Ultra-Wideband (DS-UWB) chipset and Icron Technologies’ ExtremeUSB.
AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson tested two wireless USB hubs, one from Belkin and one from Iogear. Each one costs $200 with an included dongle. He was underwhelmed.
Related UWB articles on DailyWireless include; Wireless USB Arrive, Wireless USB from Alereon, Wireless USB Gets a Standard, Motorola Buys Gbps Wireless HomeNet, Wireless HDMI, UWB at CES, UWB Goes Global, UltraWideband: All Together Now? and Cable-Free Vrs Wireless USB.
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