Two UWB start-ups merge to weather the funding storm
Published: 21 November, 2008
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The UltraWideBand (UWB) sector has suffered a series of blows this year, with Intel and other heavyweight supporters of its most prominent standard, WiMedia, going cold on the short range technology. However, two start-ups, Staccato and Artimi, believe that UWB's day will come, and have merged to create a combined plan to survive both an investment freeze and a likely two-year wait for WiMedia to fulfil its performance potential.
The two companies have both been prominent in the early days of WiMedia, a standard once heavily supported by Texas Instruments and Intel, which targets high speed connections for PCs (it is the basis of Wireless USB) and home networks. However, early trials of WiMedia systems have failed to deliver performance promises of well over 100Mbps, and have been outshone by proprietary UWB alternatives like Pulse~Link's C-Wave.
Staccato and Artimi remain confident that WiMedia will achieve the speeds needed to give UWB a real edge on Wi-Fi and 60GHz platforms in the multimedia home network, even if another two years are needed to upgrade the systems and gain mass industry confidence again. Unfortunately, they have to survive those years amid a freeze in venture capital funding for semiconductor companies, which has already seen the demise of processor start-up Ambric. So, in a tactic likely to be emulated by several in the sector, they are pooling their investments, creating a $20m new round that only needs to tap current investors rather than looking for new sources of funding.
This deal gives the merged company funding until the end of 2010, managers said, and also provides them with a broader portfolio and market reach. "The money that would have been committed by marketing at Staccato, which recently leapt an important barrier for WiMedia, unveiling a single-chip solution that approaches target pricing of around $5 for mass adoption.
As part of the consolidation, the new entity will lay off 85 people from both sides of the fence, which represents about half the total workforce. But at least the companies have avoided the fate of fellow WiMedia start-up WiQuest, which closed its doors in September.
On the product front, Staccato has its single-chip CMOS RipCord2 product sampling, while Artimi has a MAC that requires a separate physical layer chip. The new company will continue to sell that device and back Artimi's work on an integrated MAC/PHY for launch early next year. This chip promises to hit hoped-for WiMedia speed targets of over 150Mbps. Going forward, the companies will combine their hardware and software products, including Artimi's Zero Install and Wireless USB platforms. They will retain the Staccato name.
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