Ultra-Wideband Platform Published as ISO and IEC Standard

Publication Enables Products Powered With UWB Technology to Exist and

Operate Worldwide

    SAN RAMON, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The WiMedia Alliance today
 announced that the Ecma International standard for ultra-wideband (UWB)
 technology, elaborated from the WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform, has been
 approved for release as an ISO/ IEC International Standard.
     The ECMA-368 standard, titled 'High Rate Ultra-Wideband PHY and MAC
 Standard', was approved as ISO/IEC 26907, which specifies a distributed
 medium access control (MAC) sublayer and a physical layer (PHY) for
 wireless networks. The PHY and MAC specified in this Ecma standard are
 compatible to high data rate communications between a diverse set of mobile
 and fixed electronic devices.
     In conjunction with this standard, the ECMA-369 standard, titled
 'MAC-PHY Interface for ECMA-368', was approved as ISO/IEC 26908 and
 specified the MAC- PHY interface for a high rate, ultra-wideband wireless
 transceiver.
     "ISO/IEC's approval of WiMedia-based ultra-wideband technology as an
 international standard, coupled with the recent UWB approval by the
 European Commission, enables consumers and business entities throughout
 Europe and other countries to benefit from the use of PC, CE and mobile
 devices powered with UWB technology," said Stephen Wood, president of the
 WiMedia Alliance. "We are very pleased with the overwhelming support these
 standards received across many regions, which indicates the importance of
 other governments to adopt technology that continues their efforts to
 increase higher proficient information societies and increase economic
 stability."
     In early 2005, members of both the WiMedia Alliance and Ecma submitted
 the WiMedia UWB platform specifications to Ecma for standards development.
 Created by WiMedia members from leading PC, CE, mobile device and
 semiconductor companies, these specifications set the groundwork for
 enabling short range multimedia file transfers at data rates up to 480Mbps
 that operate in the UWB spectrum of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The Ecma standards
 were established in December 2005, after which Ecma submitted the standards
 to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for fast track approval.
     During the ISO fast track process, these specifications were circulated
 to national administrations for review and voting process. With the
 publication of ISO/IEC 26907 and 26908 as international published
 standards, the UWB technology and specifications are then recognized and
 protected under international trade treaties, of which countries are
 required to allow products enabled with UWB technology to be sold within
 their borders.
     Going forward, the WiMedia Alliance and its members will actively work
 with the ISO and Ecma to expand specifications as UWB technology continues
 to evolve through a diverse range of PC, CE and mobile devices dedicated to
 establishing and maintaining a robust and affordable wireless personal area
 network (WPAN) for business users and consumers worldwide.
     The ISO/IEC and Ecma UWB standards are available at no cost from the
 following web sites:
 http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/ITTF.htm,
 www.ecma-international.org and www.wimedia.org.
     About ISO
     ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's
 largest developer of standards. Although ISO's principal activity is the
 development of technical standards, ISO standards also have important
 economic and social repercussions. ISO standards make a positive
 difference, not just to engineers and manufacturers for whom they solve
 basic problems in production and distribution, but to society as a whole.
 ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, on
 the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva,
 Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
     About Ecma International
     Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) has developed
 standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer
 Electronics (CE). Ecma is a non-profit industry association of technology
 developers, vendors and users. Experts from industry and other
 organizations work together at Ecma to develop standards. Ecma submits its
 work for approval as ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC JTC 1 and ETSI standards and is the
 inventor and main practitioner of "fast tracking" of specifications through
 the standardisation process in International Standards Organisations (ISOs)
 such as the ISO and the ICE. Publications can be downloaded free of charge
 from www.ecma-international.org.
     About The WiMedia Alliance
     The WiMedia Alliance is a not-for-profit open industry association that
 promotes and enables the rapid adoption, regulation, standardization and
 multi-vendor interoperability of ultra-wideband (UWB) worldwide. The basis
 for the industry's first UWB standards (published by Ecma International),
 WiMedia UWB is optimized for wireless personal-area networks delivering
 high-speed (480Mbps and beyond), low-power multimedia capabilities for the
 PC, CE, mobile and automotive market segments. Emphasizing peaceful
 coexistence with other wireless services, the WiMedia UWB common radio
 platform is designed to operate with application stacks developed by the
 1394 Trade Association Wireless Working Group, the Certified Wireless USB
 Promoter Group and the Bluetooth-SIG. WiMedia's board members include
 Alereon, HP, Intel, Kodak, Microsoft, Nokia, Philips, Samsung Electronics,
 Sony, STMicroelectronics, Staccato Communications, Texas Instruments and
 Wisair. For more information, please visit www.wimedia.org.
 
 

SOURCE WiMedia Alliance