Motorola has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of XtremeSpectrum, a pioneer of ultra-wideband (UWB) solutions for multimedia connectivity. XtremeSpectrum's UWB solutions have already been sampled to several leading consumer equipment manufacturers in 2003.
XtremeSpectrum announced it would develop UWB solutions in June 2002, after the Federal Communications Commission approved rules for the commercial use of this wireless technology. The radio is designed to achieve 100 megabits per second data rates while consuming less than 200 milliwatts of power and is designed to provide wireless connectivity technology for products such as set-top boxes, digital displays, camcorders, DVD players, digital video recorders, and digital cameras. XtremeSpectrum's solution is an ultra wideband impulse radio that is designed to simultaneously provide high data rates, low power, low cost and low complexity. The solution has built-in quality of service designed to enable wireless distribution of real-time, high-definition television and other forms of streaming multimedia.
Motorola plans to work closely with customers to embed the technology into an array of consumer products for demonstration by the end of this year.
Motorola and XtremeSpectrum have been active members of the standardization efforts for UWB. This announcement comes on the heels of XtremeSpectrum's filing a "Letter of Assurance for Essential Patents" with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) stating that if XtremeSpectrum's proposed contributions to the IEEE 802.15.3a standard are adopted as proposed, XtremeSpectrum would be willing to grant royalty-free licenses under XtremeSpectrum's essential patents to parties who would grant a similar royalty-free license under their patents to XtremeSpectrum and other licensees of such XtremeSpectrum patents. This may facilitate industry-wide adoption of this UWB technology if it is selected as part of the standard by IEEE. The IEEE Board of Standards meets next week in Albuquerque, New Mexico.