WiMedia Alliance Completes First Interoperability Workshop

San Ramon, CA -- The WiMedia Alliance announced that its first formal interoperability workshop successfully demonstrated initial ultra-wideband (UWB) silicon interoperability between five different manufacturers, Alereon, Inc., Staccato Communications, Realtek Semiconductor, WiQuest Communications and Wisair. Recent product announcements, the results of this event and member interest in future events indicate that numerous vendors are quickly readying devices for market use, thereby standardizing the WiMedia UWB common radio platform. The event's success solidifies the Alliance's projection that consumers will be able to purchase WiMedia certified products during the second half of 2006.

WiMedia Alliance's UWB platform brings several areas of opportunity to the marketplace: enabling communication between chipsets built by different manufacturers and the competitive products that result; as well as the ability for multiple applications such as Next Generation Bluetooth, Certified Wireless USB, Wireless 1394 and wireless IP to operate within the same wireless personal area network (WPAN). Both WiMedia UWB benefits are critical to the wireless technology's success in the consumer market as they enable consumer choice and product differentiation through varying functionality with data rates up to 480Mbps.

"This WiMedia interoperability event marks the first, official recording of devices from different vendors 'talking' to each other. Alliance members have proven through product performance and upcoming event inquiries that we're ready to support a consumer-focused, UWB market," commented Brad Hosler, chairman of the WiMedia Alliance Certification and Interoperability Committee and Intel representative. "Whether implementing the radio platform in CE, PC, mobile or automotive consumer products, product manufacturers will have their choice of chipsets to build distinctive end products."

Held January 23 - 25 at the Intel UWB Integration Lab in Hillsboro, the WiMedia Alliance workshop provided a confidential environment for companies to assess interoperability during device development phases. The consequent accomplishment of five vendor chipsets interoperating validated that the WiMedia Alliance's physical (PHY) layer specification is well documented. The same WiMedia PHY specification is also published as part of the industry's first UWB standard ECMA-368 by Ecma International.

"Certified Wireless USB, built on the WiMedia UWB platform, is designed to usher today's more than 2 billion wired USB devices into the area of wireless serviceability," said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman of the USB Implementers Forum. "The recent interoperability workshop's results illustrated industry readiness for WiMedia certification, which supports our goal to help member companies ship devices based on Certified Wireless USB this year."

Members participating in this and future interoperability workshops, scheduled quarterly, also contribute to the construction and refinement of all test processes comprising the WiMedia Alliance Certification Program. Formal certification testing is expected to roll out first for the PHY at the end of Q1'06, followed by application building blocks by end of Q2'06 and consumer products by late Fall 2006.

SOURCE: The WiMedia Alliance