Also announced as official WiMedia PHY test bed for Bandgroup 1 and 3
Austin, TX – November 5, 2008 –Alereon, Inc., the Certified Wireless USB technology leader for Worldwide Ultra Wideband (UWB) WiMedia solutions, today announced that the WiMedia Alliance has officially certified Alereon's AL5000 Wireless USB chipset as one of the first UWB physical layer chipsets (PHYs) for operation in Bandgroup 6 (7.4 to 9.0GHz). The AL5000 Family has been shipping in volume production since the third quarter 2008. The chips from Alereon are among the first certifications to support the WiMedia Spectrum Extension Release (SER) announced in August.
"Upper bandgroup support is critical to the establishment of UWB as the worldwide standard for Personal Area Networks (PANs) in the PC, CE and mobile market segments," said Stephen Wood, WiMedia president. "Customers looking to use standard products today that are both in volume production and known to meet the WiMedia specifications are now assured these products can meet their requirements."
The SER specification is an extension to previous WiMedia specifications and provides support for worldwide operation on hopping channels above 6GHz to address mobile applications in particular (including Bluetooth®) on a global basis.
In addition, the Alliance also announced that Alereon was one of the initial chipsets qualified as an official PHY test bed for bandgroups 1 (3.1 to 4.8GHz) and 3 (6.3 to 7.9GHz). These test beds are precursors to the setup of independent test labs (ITLs) to perform WiMedia Certification testing. In turn, ITLs can offer more widely available Certification testing both globally and on demand.
"We are pleased to have been certified by the WiMedia Alliance for upper bandgroups and as a test bed" said Dr. David Shoemaker, vice president of engineering and operations at Alereon. "Our bandgroup 1, 3, 4 and 6 products have been in production for more than a year and this validates the fact that Alereon's products meet the stringent requirements customers need to bring their products to market today."
Alereon's AL5000 family includes the AL5300/AL5100 Worldwide Wireless USB Chipset and the AL5350/AL5100 Worldwide Wireless USB Chipset with a PCIe interface. Both are based on WiMedia's common radio platform and integrate all essential RF circuitry plus the BBP/MAC and software to develop a worldwide Wireless USB product. In addition, Alereon provides a full set of both host and device solutions including a half MiniCard, device MiniCard, ExpressCard, USB Adapter, hub and graphics adapter. Manufacturers standardizing on Alereon solutions can produce a single product or SKU that can be designed and sold worldwide with a simple software modification to meet local regulatory requirements.
