All-CMOS solution cuts wireless USB costs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 6, 2005

Ultrawideband (UWB) wireless solutions and Wireless USB specialist Staccato Communications has released its Ripcord product family, complete with a UWB development kit.

Ultrawideband (UWB) wireless solutions and Wireless USB specialist Staccato Communications has released its Ripcord product family, complete with a UWB development kit.

The 100 x 150mm Ripcord DVK will be shown publicly for the first time in the wireless USB community at the Intel Developer Forum this week in Tokyo.

The Ripcord DVK incorporates the world's first complete single-chip all-CMOS MBOA-compliant PHY module, MBOA MAC, WiMedia Convergence Architecture (WiMCA), integrated 32bit ARM9 RISC processor, and interfaces including SDIO 1.1, and USB 2.0 host and device.

The DVK includes software and drivers for wireless USB and also supports wireless IP.

The DVK is extensible to support possible future plug-ins such as wireless 1394 and higher-speed Bluetooth.

Staccato's implementation of the MBOA MAC provides rapid device discovery, fast-stream establishment, high quality of service (QoS) and efficient use of spare capacity by aperiodic traffic in a secure decentralised architecture.

Staccato's silicon is implemented in Fujitsu's 110nm generic CMOS process and then further integrated into a 10 x 10mm LTCC module inclusive of all additional components to complete the system with the exception of the antenna.

This form factor provides for low-cost and high-volume commercially viable products with minimal design-in effort and minimal risk.

Staccato's highly integrated modules integrate the crystal, filters, passive components, transmit/receive switch and matching circuits enabling from the onset, a sub-$10 per node implementation for wireless USB and wireless IP connectivity at 480Mbit/s.

"This is truly a significant milestone", said Rick Kornfeld, President and CEO, Staccato Communications.

"By being the first to succeed at integrating the ultrawideband RF and high-speed digital baseband into a very small, single-chip all-CMOS solution, we are enabling a true high-volume consumer product".

"This finally demonstrates real commercial viability for UWB and dramatically improves time-to-market for our customers".