WiMedia certification assures customers of interoperability with other WiMedia compliant platforms. Alereon's chipset has been sampling since June and is the only Wireless USB and WiMedia solution to meet regulatory requirements worldwide, including the US, Japan, Korea, Europe and draft regulations in China. Further, the AL5000 platform is capable of supporting frequencies from 3.1 to 10.6GHz, which covers band groups 1, 2, 3, 6, 4 and 5, providing customers with the frequency agility under software control to develop a single solution for all worldwide applications, or to develop specific systems for a single geography.

"This is yet another significant milestone as we continue to work with the WiMedia Alliance in driving the growth of the UWB and Certified Wireless USB market," said Eric Broockman, CEO of Alereon. "With the recent successful registration of both our AL5300/4100 chipset and AL5300/5100 worldwide chipset, in addition to the Wireless USB certification we received in April, we continue to be the only company that can provide solutions that are flexible enough to meet the regulatory requirements worldwide, without sacrificing performance. Further, our full high-band support future proofs our customers products by enabling customers to begin development now for the future high speed Bluetooth specification, which specifies the use of frequencies above 6Ghz."

The AL5000 family chipset integrates all the essential RF circuitry, including power amplifier, LNA and T/R switch in addition to the Media Access Controller (MAC) and BaseBand Processor (BBP), and includes the software necessary to develop a worldwide Wireless USB product. Covering the entire WiMedia spectrum from 3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz, the AL5300/5100 chipset was optimized for both PC host applications and embedded applications - such as PC aftermarket devices, handheld electronics, consumer electronics and mobile products, where space and power consumption are at a premium. Alereon recently demonstrated its worldwide solution in an 11mm x14 mm module at CEATEC, achieving applications level throughput over 200Mbps in Bandgroup 6, as well as in a 1/2 mini-card solution at the Intel Developers Forum.

Keywords: uwb technology, wimedia alliance, wireless usb, alereon, chipset, regulatory requirements, bbp, ultra wideband, usb market, band groups, baseband processor, rf circuitry, bluetooth specification, compliant platforms, frequency agility, Wireless Chipsets