Wireless Blog

Mountain View, February 26, 2007 – LucidPort Technology today introduced the L800, the only peripheral controller based on Certified Wireless USB from the USB-IF to support both wired and wireless USB. The L800 chip harnesses WiMedia UWB technology to interoperate with other products based on UWB and Certified Wireless USB at transfer speeds reaching up to 480 Mbps. It supports compliant packet sizes, burst sizes, transfer sizes, and number of endpoints. The L800 manages the protocol requirements of many USB class devices, wired and wireless. It has specialized logic for encryption, as well as cable and numeric association. This makes the L800 ideal for use in printers, scanners, digital camcorders, external hard disks, and other peripherals. “Wireless USB peripherals still need a way to connect using wired USB.” said Reid Augustin, VP, Product Development at LucidPort. “Retro-fitting the new wireless features required on the wired USB port is not trivial”. The L800 eases this transition by using the same API (Application Programming Interface) to implement both the wired and wireless USB interfaces.

Development Tools
LucidPort provides a Reference Design Kit (RDK) which includes a PCI adapter board with the L800 and a UWB PHY module. These boards effectively convert a PC into a USB Peripheral with a rich development environment. Included sample drivers and peripheral side firmware can be used to configure the L800 as a standard USB-class device, like a hard disk or video camera. Custom peripherals can be crafted with LucidPort’s APIs. These APIs abstract USB operations to reads and writes. User guides, schematics, and BOM details are also shipped with the kit.

Pricing and Availability
The L800 samples in April, 2007 with a lead free 108-ball BGA package (11×11mm, 0.8mm pitch). The L800 is priced at $4.98 for 400,000 quantities.

About LucidPort Technology
LucidPort Technology, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company developing Certified Wireless USB controllers powered by Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology. LucidPort’s controllers add wireless functionality to peripherals like printers, scanners, cable modems, TV tuners, external hard drives, and many other peripherals and consumer devices. LucidPort’s technologies apply advanced hardware with integrated software to create flexible, high performance, and easy to use wireless products. LucidPort is headquartered at 335 Pioneer Way, Mountain View, CA 94041,

Design based on Certified Wireless USB specification available now

Austin, TX - February 5, 2007 – Alereon, Inc., the ultrawideband (UWB) technology leader for mobile WiMedia and solutions based on Certified Wireless USB, today announced the availability of the AL4512 4-port Wireless USB Device Wire Adapter (DWA) Hub Reference Design.

The AL4512 Hub Reference Design, based on NEC Electronics µPD720180 Wireless USB DWA and Alereon’s AL4000 WiMedia Physical Layer (PHY), provides four high speed USB connections for use with any existing USB peripheral, and is compatible with any Certified Wireless USB PC or host adapter.

“We are pleased to work with NEC Electronics to develop a series of reference designs based on our production qualified PHY,” said Eric Broockman, CEO of Alereon. “We are committed to delivering quality and excellent solutions while addressing real needs in the marketplace. We have extremely aggressive goals for the mobile device market in 2007, and working with global leaders, like NEC, is an important part of Alereon’s strategy in the Wireless USB space.”

Intended to connect with a Wireless USB host, the AL4512 Hub Reference Design features a compact design with a USB2.0 compliant interface and offers all the tools, software and documentation required to build a DWA. The DWA can connect to Wireless USB hosts at speeds up to 480Mbps and is ideal for OEM/ODM companies that want to take a product to market quickly and reliably.

“The small size and high performance of this hub shows the true value of Wireless USB technology for moving data and media quickly and efficiently between a host PC and peripheral devices,” said Katsuhiko Nakazawa, Assistant General Manager of PC Peripheral Systems Division of NEC Electronics.

Other host adapter solutions using Alereon’s PHY chipset, including SDIO, ExpressCard, USB and Cardbus, are available from a number of suppliers, including the AL4502 Cardbus Wireless USB based on the NEC Electronics µPD720170 Wireless USB host controller.

Additional information about the AL4512 4-port Wireless USB DWA Hub Reference Design can be found on Alereon’s Web site.
About Alereon, Inc.
Alereon, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company using revolutionary ultrawideband (UWB) radio technology to develop high-bandwidth, low-power, low-cost Wireless USB and WiMedia UWB chipsets that are ideal for today’s portable products, like digital cameras, mp3 players and cell phones. Our mission is to replace the complex tangle of wires that interconnect today’s electronic devices with wireless links. For more information, visit Aleron.

About NEC Electronics
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripheral, automotive and digital consumer markets, and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH. For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit Necel

The thirst for connectivity seemingly grows stronger every day as consumers and developers alike look to link even more devices together. And the method of choice is, increasingly, wireless communication. But there is a parallel development; removing the cables that currently link peripherals and hosts.
Both of these approaches are fuelling the development of new communications methods, including Certified Wireless USB. Using an Ultra Wideband (UWB) radio defined by the WiMedia Alliance, Certified Wireless USB will deliver speeds up to 480Mbit/s at 3m (degrading to 110Mbit/s at 10m). By broadcasting at low power over a wide spectrum (3.1 to 10.5GHz), Certified Wireless USB devices consume very little power and are said to coexist with other wireless technologies, such as WiFi (IEEE802.11) and Bluetooth.

Certified Wireless USB is a personal area network (PAN) and, as such, has been designed for high throughput, short range communication. It is not a networking technology: Certified Wireless USB continues the hub and spoke model used by wired USB in which a single host can handle up to 127 devices. A host centric model reduces complexity on the device side and enables significant cost savings.
As you might expect in a market driven primarily by time to market, reference designs are emerging to help companies hit those often elusive market windows.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Supporting Information
http://www.staccatocommunications.com

CAMPBELL, California Feb. 8 2007 Wisair a leading provider of Ultra Wideband (UWB) and Wireless USB chipset solutions, is demonstrating the use of Wireless USB in camera phones at 3GSM. The demo, based on Certified Wireless USB, uses the Wisair 542 chip embedded into a Nokia Nseries camera phone to wirelessly send images and video to a laptop computer.Photo depicts a camera phone transmitting images and video to a laptop computer wirelessly, using UWB technology.

 
Wisair will be presenting its demonstration in the WiMedia Alliance area, Stand 7C58 in Hall 7 at 3GSM. It will also have a private meeting room available. About Wisair Wisair is a leading provider of WiMedia Ultra Wideband (UWB) and Wireless USB chipset solutions for consumer electronics, PC peripherals, and mobile devices. Leveraging the management teams’ decades of wireless communications product development expertise, Wisair is the first company to deliver fully- functional WiMedia-based UWB chipsets and small form-factor reference designs that are available in a number of products that are being offered to the consumer market. Today, the fabless semiconductor company continues to focus on delivering low-cost, low-power, and high bit-rate wireless connectivity solutions. For more information, visit the company’s web site.

New Product Architecture Integrates Two Broadband Wireless Technologies Enabling a New Low Cost, High Capacity Last Mile and Wi-Fi Mesh Network Architecture

San Jose, CA, February 5, 2007 – Proxim Wireless Corporation, a global pioneer of end-to-end solutions in Wi-Fi® mesh, WiMAX, WLAN, and wireless backhaul and wholly owned subsidiary of Terabeam, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRBM), today announced MeshMAX™, a new multi-radio product line that incorporates WiMAX, Wi-Fi mesh, and Wi-Fi access. Proxim MeshMAX™ products are available in both the unlicensed and licensed frequency bands. Proxim Wireless is the first company to enable the convergence of Wi-Fi mesh, WiMAX, and Wi-Fi access in a single integrated device. MeshMAX™ provides significant benefits to service providers, municipalities, and customers planning to deploy Wi-Fi mesh and WiMAX. MeshMAX™ enables a new deployment architecture that increases the capacity of mesh networks, simplifies their deployment, and provides outdoor mobility for the 300 million-plus Wi-Fi clients.

“Proxim’s MeshMAX™ is the right product line at the right time,” said Daryl Schoolar, Senior Analyst, In-Stat. “The convergence of WiMAX and mesh is a natural evolution in broadband wireless, as it maximizes the strengths of both technologies. Proxim Wireless is well-positioned to deliver this integrated product family because of the company’s long history of providing enterprise-class wireless networking products and point-to-multipoint distribution systems.”

Proxim MeshMAX™ products are currently being evaluated by service providers in a number of countries including Chunghwa Telecom, one of the largest telecommunications operators in Taiwan. Commenting on the new MeshMAX™ product line, Dr. K.S. Huang, Chunghwa Telecom Labs, said, “Proxim’s MeshMAX™ successfully integrates WiMAX and Wi-Fi mesh in the same unit. The advantage of this integration is that it guarantees Quality of Service for optimal voice and video, which can allow us to quickly and cost effectively bring Internet connectivity and applications to rural areas.”

About Proxim MeshMAX™ Products

Service providers, municipalities, and customers planning to deploy Wi-Fi mesh and WiMAX benefit from both Wi-Fi mesh and WiMAX to provide their customers with the most extensive and complete broadband wireless coverage. Though both technologies are distinct – each with unique characteristics – they often are deployed in tandem using WiMAX for backhaul and Wi-Fi mesh to provide access to the growing base of Wi-Fi enabled devices and multi-mode Wi-Fi phones. Until now, the only solution was to install two separate units, one WiMAX and one Wi-Fi mesh. With MeshMAX™, these technologies are now integrated in a single compact outdoor enclosure. The MeshMAX™ product line supports licensed WiMAX frequencies in 3.3-3.6 GHz bands and unlicensed frequencies in 5.1-5.8 GHz bands for backhaul. For mesh interconnect and Wi-Fi access, MeshMAX™ supports unlicensed mesh frequencies of 5.1-5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz.

MeshMAX™ products’ unique architecture and compact form factor leads to low equipment cost, lower installation cost, lower OpEx, and a better return-on-investment. MeshMAX™ products minimize system latency and optimize Quality of Service (QoS) which is essential for services such as high speed broadband Internet access, video communication including security and surveillance, voice communication, and IPTV.

“Service providers, municipalities, and customers planning to deploy Wi-Fi mesh and WiMAX have been asking for a product that will simplify the process of deploying and managing both Wi-Fi mesh and WiMAX together, and our MeshMAX™ products deliver,” said Pankaj Manglik, President and Chief Operating Officer, Proxim Wireless. “Our integrated solution is cost-effective, easy to deploy, and provides the simplicity and efficiency of wireless access and distribution all in one small, ruggedized unit managed by ProximVision™, our network management platform.”

Pricing and Availability

Proxim MeshMAX™ products can be purchased with a combination of Wi-Fi Mesh, Wi-Fi, and/or WiMAX and are available immediately starting at US $999.

About Proxim Wireless

Proxim Wireless Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Terabeam, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRBM). Proxim Wireless is a global pioneer in developing and supplying scalable broadband wireless networking systems for enterprises, governments, and service providers. Proxim has provided over 1.5 million radios to over 200,000 end customers worldwide. From Wi-Fi to wireless Gigabit Ethernet – our WLAN, mesh, point-to-multipoint, and point-to-point products are available through our extensive global channel network, backed by world-class support. Proxim is a Principal Member of the WiMAX Forum and is ISO-9001 certified. Information about Proxim and its products and support can be found at http://www.proxim.com.