When it comes to the ultrawideband standards process, this much is clear: Xtreme Spectrum isn't going down without a fight.
The company, whose proposal for the 802.15.3a wireless networking standard will face off against the one from the Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA) at the upcoming IEEE meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., said last week that it will offer "reasonable and non-discriminatory zero licensing" (RAND-Z) access to its intellectual property (IP) relevant to the standard.
In other words, said Chris Fisher, vice president of marketing at Xtreme, should the direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) approach advocated by Xtreme be adopted for the standard, "the essential IP that's part of it would be available to anybody who wants it on a free basis. There would be no licensing fee and no ongoing royalty charges for it."
Concerns about IP licensing were one of the reasons the MBOA's proposal was not confirmed at the last two IEEE meetings, according to Fisher. The proposal, which is backed by Texas Instruments, Intel, Microsoft and major consumer electronics manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung, advocates a multiband, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) approach for the standard. While it garnered the majority of the vote at meetings in July and September, it has failed to capture the 75 percent needed for confirmation. As a result, Xtreme's proposal, which counts Motorola, ParthusCeva and Oki among its supporters, is back on the table.
"We think moving ... to the RAND-Z position as we move into Albuquerque will differentiate us from the MBOA proposal as we move into the next stage of down selection," said Fisher.
MBOA member companies have also pledged to file RAND-Z letters. "It's something we are working on and hope to have all our paperwork finished in time for Albuquerque, but that's still to be determined as to whether we hit that deadline," said Stephen Wood, strategic marketing manager at Intel's R&D division.
Wood noted that part of the delay in filing stems from the fact that there are 16 members of the MBOA. "It takes a lot of time to coordinate when you have a 1001 lawyers," he said. "We obviously ... have a little more of a logistical challenge."
He also pointed out that none of the other companies involved in the Xtreme proposal has filed a RAND-Z letter, and that it's actually a little unusual to file such assurances at this point in the process. "Frankly, any filings at this early stage are usually [full of caveats]," he said.
Another issue of concern to voters is whether a UWB system based on OFDM would comply with FCC regulations. Xtreme has argued that it would not, and appealed to the FCC to back up its position, but the agency declined to weigh in on the matter.
The MBOA maintains that regulatory compliance is not an issue. Before the September meeting in Singapore, several member companies announced that their UWB transmitters passed FCC compliance testing in an independent lab.
Other issues cited by "no" voters included concerns about complexity, power consumption and scalability. Wood said the MBOA would try to address voters' reservations at the meeting, and expressed confidence that the MBOA proposal would emerge from the head to head competition with the Xtreme/Motorola proposal for another confirmation vote.
However, he indicated that it's unlikely that anything will be resolved at this meeting. "The greatest probability is we'll not leave with a decision out of Albuquerque," he said.
Meanwhile, the uncertainly over the UWB standard doesn't appear to be deterring investors. MBOA member Wisair just closed a $15.5 million round led by Apax Partners. Other investors included Vertex Venture Capital, RAD Ventures, Bynet Ventures and Tamar Ventures.
In addition, U.K. fabless semiconductor startup Artimi announced that it has secured additional funding from private investors. The company, which is developing a single-chip reference design for UWB devices, did not disclose the amount raised in the round.
Wood noted that there will be just shy of 80 new voters at the Albuquerque meeting, underscoring the interest in the technology. "We'll be up over 200 voters," he said, "which is very, very large, especially for a technology that hasn't come to market yet."
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