[opendtv] UWB startup Radiospire folds

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:09:22 -0400
I can't help but believe that part of the blame has to go to the attempt
to shoehorn COFDM into this role, which is fundamentally incompatible
with the concepts behind UWB. A lot of noise was created by this format
war, I think, slowing down progress by demonstrating inadequate
performance in tests.

Amazing how much hype and misinformation UWB generated, a few short
years ago. I can probably go back to the archives and repost some of
those gems.

Bert

---------------------------------
UWB startup Radiospire folds
Three wireless USB hopefuls fight on

Rick Merritt
(04/21/2009 3:18 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216900443

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Another ultrawideband startup bites the dust today as
Radiospire Networks Inc. confirms it is closing its doors. Three
remaining UWB startups remain committed to the technology despite a
string of bad news over the last nine months.

Radiospire managed to produce a first generation chip, AirHook. It
demonstrated Gbit/s performance, aimed at replacing HDMI cables for
digital TVs before investors pulled the plug.

"Our investors decided late last summer to pursue a merger and
acquisition exit, and the timing couldn't have been worse for us--no one
was buying anything in the fall," said Tan Rao, co-founder and the first
chief executive of the company. "We are winding the company down and
selling the assets now," he said.

Radiospire filed about 40 patents one of which has issued, a broad
patent on HDMI cable replacement. The company had planned a device using
60 GHz networking.

The startup was launched in 2005, after most of the companies focused on
wireless USB had been funded. So Radiospire made its focus HDMI cable
replacements for digital TVs, facing competitors such as Amimon using a
variant of Wi-Fi and SiBeam using 60 GHz technology.

No one has yet delivered good performance at a reasonable price for that
application, Rao claimed. "Moving from the orchestrated demo at CES to
the consumer's home with real products has been difficult for everyone,"
he said.

Rao said he purchased a Sharp wireless TV converter in Japan that used
Amimon chips and cost $1,000. "We were looking at $299 to $399 for an
aftermarket retail system which is still too high," he added.

"Having both price and quality is very difficult to do, but someone will
get there eventually," he said.

It's been a hard road for UWB startups. WiQuest folded in October.
Staccato Communications and Artimi merged to pool resources in November.
PulseLink slashed staff down to a bare bones operation late last year.
Tzero closed in February, and the WiMedia Alliance, the UWB industry
group, folded in March.

"The Wireless USB crowd is imploding," said Rao. "Those still in
existence are hunkering down, and I don't see a lot of traction. They
have a lot of competition from 802.11n which is doing a lot of what the
WiMedia Alliance promised," he said.

"I was pretty bullish on UWB's prospects for a long time, but no one
seems to agree with me," said Brian O'Rourke, a principal analyst at
InStat. "I am starting to think [UWB's] time may have passed," he said.

With the closure of Radiospire, Tzero and others "Basically UWB is dead
in consumer electronics, and it's not doing very well in PCs," he said.

A core of wireless USB proponents are soldiering on. They claim their
current or coming chips will see design wins in a variety of notebooks
in 2010 when the new Intel Calpella platform debuts.

Fujitsu, Dell, Hewlett Packard, NEC, Toshiba, and Lenovo all have
certified Wireless USB products covering 41 different models, said Jeff
Ravencraft, chair of the USB Implementers Forum.

Most notebook makers only support UWB on a few models as an option
customers can request on a build-to-order basis. One source said Dell is
refreshing its supply of UWB chips from defunct WiQuest with orders for
chips from Taiwan's Realtek.

"Several notebook OEMs who are still committed to including Wireless USB
in some Calpella models have not yet made final vendor selections, and
Staccato is aggressively pursuing these designs with our Ripcord2
solution," said Jeff Chang, vice president of marketing for Staccato.

"The problem has been with available supply of chips that meet all
requirements," he added.

Regulatory issues have largely been removed as companies such as
Staccato release products supporting low and high band groups. Laggard
countries such as Canada and China have now opened the door to use of
UWB products, he added.

Chang noted that all new technologies-including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-went
through periods where a large crop of startups were cut back to just two
or three that survived. Staccato raised $20 million in November when it
merged with Artimi.

For its part, Wisair plans to ship by the end of the year a chip for
notebooks that supports the upper bands and the native wireless USB host
controller interface aimed at the Calpella notebooks. It is shipping a
chip for peripherals today in quantities of hundreds of thousands, said
Asaf Avidan, Wisair's vice president of marketing.

Wisair raised $24 million about a year ago and has since cut about 15
percent of its staff.

Alereon, the other UWB survivor, has trimmed back to a staff of 45
people and has adequate financing at the moment. It expects to see
Toshiba ship a docking station using its chips in about a month, said a
company spokesman.

The USB-IF will release version 1.1 of the wireless USB spec by June,
Ravencraft said. It will include support for so-called upper bands at 6
GHz and above, greater power efficiency and new device association
models including the one used by Near Field Communications.

All materials on this site Copyright (c) 2009 TechInsights, a Division
of United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved.
 
 
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[opendtv] UWB startup Radiospire folds

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