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Freescale Semiconductor to Scale
Ultra-Wideband Solutions to 1 Gigabit Data Transfer
Rate
Aggressive roadmap reveals
breadth/depth of Direct Sequence-Ultra-Wideband solutions for consumer
electronic (CE) applications
AMSTERDAM,
Netherlands – June 7, 2004 – Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) and leading provider of
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) solutions, has detailed its current and next-generation UWB
product family roadmap at the Wireless Connectivity (WiCon) World Expo in
Amsterdam. Over the next year*, Freescale plans to deliver three advanced UWB
product families, including the industry’s first 1 Gbps UWB solution, to
address the wide variety of performance and functionality required by numerous
UWB applications.
Adding to the existing
XtremeSpectrum™ chipset, which achieves over 110 Mbps, Freescale
revealed that its planned UWB product families will be engineered to deliver 220
Mbps, 480 Mbps and 1 Gbps data transfer rates. Consistent with its current UWB
offerings, the planned
UWB families will be engineered to support
peer-to-peer as well as ad hoc networking for truly mobile wireless
connectivity. To address the demand for a low power, cost-effective UWB solution
for handheld applications such as mobile phones, media players, digital cameras
and camcorders, Freescale’s
planned
UWB product families will also be designed to
integrate sophisticated power management tools to help extend battery life, a
critical requirement for mobile
applications.
“Over the past two years,
we have been working closely with UWB customers to understand their needs and
requirements for high data rate wireless connectivity,” said Martin
Rofheart, director of UWB Operations at Freescale. “As we plan commercial
shipments of our current UWB solution, it’s clear that a variety of
speeds—from 100 Mbps up to 1 Gbps—as well as a variety of power
requirements and ranges are needed to serve the broad range of emerging
handheld, mobile and in-room video and audio applications. We believe, based on
customer input, the product families detailed today will best serve CE vendors
worldwide over the next three
years.”
Commenting on Freescale’s
roadmap and its significance to Motorola, John Barr, Business Development
Director of Motorola’s UWB Early Stage Acceleration Program, stated,
“As a leader in handset and set-top products, Motorola is focused on
identifying and implementing the best performance/lowest cost solutions for our
consumer and mobile electronics products. The DS-UWB silicon we have used from
Freescale clearly demonstrates the superior performance, low power consumption
and cost benefits this low complexity approach provides. These benefits, in
combination with its regulatory compliance, make DS-UWB the ideal choice for
Motorola consumer electronics products and will enable new, high data rate
applications to be conceived and developed by vendors such as
Motorola.”
The planned product families,
which are to be designed to comply with the Federal Communications Commission's
current Ultra-Wideband Report & Order, are scheduled to include driver
support for multiple operating systems. The mini-PCI and SDIO module form factor
are expected to enable integration into the smallest consumer electronics, while
providing a variety of interfaces including PCI, mini-PCI, PCI-Express and USB2,
and IEEE 1394. The Freescale Media Access Control (MAC) chip is compliant
with the IEEE 802.15.3 MAC protocol, while the Freescale PHY, which is based on
the 802.15.3a DS-UWB proposal, provides data transfer rates ranging from 110
Mbps to 1Gbps. This support helps
CE vendors to ensure interoperability among their
product lines.
To date, Ultra-Wideband has been
touted for consumer electronics products such as digital displays, DVD players,
digital video recorders and set-top boxes, as well as handheld applications such
as camcorders and digital cameras. New, high data rate applications are
expected to emerge over the next three years and beyond that will further drive
the need for products exceeding 1 Gbps data rates. For example, new media
players that allow storage of multiple MPEG-4 movies will require 1 Gbps UWB
solutions to upload/download the entire movie in just a few seconds. Portable
hard drives are another emerging application, where users will want to use their
hard drive at both the home and office. While transferring data from the
portable hard drive to the host computer, a data rate of 1 Gbps is needed in
order to keep other applications running during the continuous data
transfers.
Product
Availability
- The Freescale XtremeSpectrum UWB
chipset with over 110 Mbps data rate has been sampling to customers worldwide
and is expected to be commercially available Q3 2004.
- Freescale’s third generation, two-chip
UWB solution, with data rates greater then 220 Mbps is expected to begin
sampling Q4 2004.
- Freescale 480 Mbps and 1
Gbps UWB families are expected to begin sampling over the next year.
About Ultra-Wideband
Technology
Ultra-Wideband is a wireless
technology that transmits an extremely low power signal over a wide swath of
radio spectrum. Unlike conventional radio systems that operate within a
relatively narrow bandwidth, i.e. Bluetooth™ wireless technology,
IEEE® 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a. Ultra-Wideband operates across a wide range of
frequency spectrum by transmitting a series of very narrow and low power pulses.
The combination of broader spectrum, lower power and pulsed data means that
Ultra-Wideband causes less interference than conventional narrowband radio
solutions, and delivers wire-like performance in an indoor wireless environment.
This makes Ultra-Wideband technology ideal for consumer electronics applications
that are increasingly multimedia-rich in
content.
About Freescale
Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.,
(www.Freescale.com) a
subsidiary of Motorola, Inc., has a 50-year history in microelectronics.
Freescale Semiconductor produces semiconductors for the automotive, consumer,
industrial, networking and wireless markets worldwide. Based in Austin, Texas,
Freescale Semiconductor has design, manufacturing or sales operations in more
than 25 countries. Freescale Semiconductor’s 2003 sales were $4.9 billion
(USD).
# #
#
Media
Contacts:
North
America
Diane
Orr
Representing Freescale
Semiconductor
+1-408.377.0308
diane@orr-co.com
Asia
Pacific
Gloria
Shiu
Freescale
Semiconductor
+852 2661 8237
gloria.shiu@freescale.com
Europe,
Middle East and Africa
Regina
Cirmonova
Freescale
Semiconductor
+41-22-799-1258
regina.cirmonova@freescale.com
Latin
America
Ruth
Ruiz
Freescale
Semiconductor
+1 (480) 814-4897
ruth.ruiz@freescale.com
Freescale™
and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. All other
product or service names are the property of their respective owners. ©
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. 2004.
* Except for
historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions, contained in
the foregoing are forward-looking statements involving risk and uncertainties.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such
forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited to, the competitive
environment for our products, changes of rates of all related services, and
legislation that may affect the industry. For additional information regarding
these and other risks associated with Company’s business refer to the
Company’s reports with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
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