UWB technology is the next generation of WPAN beyond Bluetooth. Whereas Bluetooth works in situations of close proximity between devices, say a few feet, and with relatively narrowband links of up to 3Mbps, UWB is designed to work over distances of up to 10 yards and deliver data rates of up to 100Mbps. It’s designed to make transmitting data between a smart phone and a desktop PC, for example, faster and more convenient.
The issue was, however, that there were two competing specs for an IEEE standard: the UWBF’s, which spreads it out across the entire frequency, a technique referred to as direct-sequence UWB, and another, called multi-band OFDM, which splits up a signal into 14 separate bands and uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technology to transmit them. The latter was proposed by the WiMedia Alliance, which included Intel and Microsoft among its proponents.
The IEEE abandoned the standardization effort altogether in January due to irreconcilable differences, which left the two technologies to fight it out in the market. Then last month the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) dealt what now looks to have beent he death blow to DS-UWB, opting to work only with the WiMedia spec going forward, such that products will eventually ship with Bluetooth and MB-OFDM on board.
In explaining its decision to leave the Forum, however, Freescale skirted the SIG move.
Freescale’s UWB focus today is on delivering Cable-Free USB solutions for consumer applications, the company said. The UWB Forum’s focus is on standards, regulatory and technology development. As a result of these diverging strategies, Freescale has withdrawn from the UWB Forum in order to exclusively focus on Cable-Free activities. We wish the Forum well, but Freescale is now focused on consumer applications for our Cable-Free USB.
To that end, Freescale will be formalizing its Cable-Free activity, first announced at CES 2006, and will continue to highlight customer and product design wins over the next quarter, the company said. We are well positioned to capture the wireless USB market with an early market lead and our unique ‘extension’ strategy for USB – a true extension of existing USB done wirelessly. As Wi-Fi is to Ethernet, we believe Cable-Free USB is to wired USB, and, as such, will encourage rapid customer adoption and leverage the 1 billion existing USB devices in the market today.
In other words, Freescale will now focus on getting Cable-Free USB as widely adopted in as short a period, as possible, while the WiMedia camp will do the same with its brand of unwired USB, known as Certified USB. Freescale will tout the fact that Cable-Free is an evolution of currently wired USB 2.0, arguing that the Certified variety requires a replacement of the existing equipment, whereas Cable-Free can be an upgrade. However, with Intel and Microsoft on the other side, it appears to have its work cut out.
