Samsung adopts XSI's chip set as UWB standards debate heats up
By Patrick Mannion -- EE Times -- September 9, 2003 (6:51 p.m. EST)
MANHASSET, N.Y. — In a sign that it may be hedging its bets, Samsung's Digital Multimedia R&D Center said it has integrated XtremeSpectrum Inc.'s (XSI) Trinity ultrawideband chip set into its multimedia platform.
The move comes only weeks after Samsung announced a UWB development partnership with Staccato Communications Inc. (San Diego). Rivals Staccato and XSI are working under pressure as tensions grow within the IEEE 802.15.3a to develop a high-speed, low-cost wireless interface.
Rival groups are also trading charges of hidden agendas and unwillingness to compromise as the IEEE prepares for its next meeting.
XSI's announcement comes just weeks after the Samsung-Staccato deal and marks a one-year relationship between Samsung and XSI. Samsung is using XtremeSpectrum's UWB evaluation kit and Trinity chip sets in its development lab to achieve wire-like connectivity quality between a variety of Samsung consumer products, including plasma and digital light processing televisions.
Still the only commercially available UWB chip set for high-rate, consumer-oriented data communications, the Trinity chip set is scheduled to in production by the fourth quarter of this year.
Product availability of a proven technology is one of many cards XSI holds as it pushes its direct-sequence CDMA technology as the physical layer of choice before the IEEE 802.15.3a group. The group is working to define a short-range, high-rate air interface for consumer applications.
Staccato and Samsung predicted product availability after the standard is approved.
The next step in the standards process takes place Sept. 14-19 in Singapore when the group gathers for the second time. So far, the group has whittled down 21 proposals to two: One led by Intel and Texas Instruments, under an umbrella group called the Multiband-OFDM Alliance that includes 16 companies in total; and a second proposal backed by the team of XSI, Motorola and ParthusCeva.
Though progress has been rapid to date, the outcome of the standards debate remains unclear as participants prepare for the Singapore meeting, sources close the to deliberations told EE Times. Controversy has been brewing in recent days over the legality — under IEEE bylaws — of a private meeting between Intel and other Alliance members held in early summer in Denver with other members of the .15.3a group. Motorola, XSI and ParthusCeva were not invited.
This has prompted a dispute among members that has generated allegations of a strategy of secrecy and obfuscation on the part of the Alliance, and Intel in particular. The allegations have clouded what should have essentially been an open technical discussion in the lead-up to the Singapore meeting.
Some, though not all, of those technical discussions revolve around the XSI/Motorola/PartusCeva camp's argument that the Alliance's frequency-hopping proposal cannot be legal under Federal Communications Commission UWB regulations and still meet the 802.15.3a's data-rate requirements.
From Intel's point of view, however, the Denver meeting broke no IEEE disclosure rules, and XSI and partners were not invited because of what Intel and its partners perceive as an unwillingness to compromise.
IEEE standards deliberations generally aim for industry compromises. Intel said that if a compromise isn't reached soon it would be willing to split off from the 802.15.3a group and instead pursue a proprietary approach to UWB in order to speed deployment.
Stephen Wood, strategic marketing manager with Intel's R&D division, said the issue has been overblown and that Intel would in no way attempt to undermine the IEEE process. "We were advised early on by Bob Heile [chairman of the .15.3a group] that the only way in which we were going to whittle down the 21 original proposals in any reasonable amount of time was to work off-line [outside of the formal meetings]. That's what the meeting in Denver was all about."
It was that meeting that led to the formation of the Multiband-OFDM Alliance in early July, he added.
Woods said accusations obsfucation gave Intel more credit than it deserved. "It's unlikely we'd be able to control the flow of information from all members of the MBOA. It's contrary to our best interest to do so," he said.
"However, it's in our best interest to follow IEEE guidelines and wait until at least 24 hours prior to the next meeting before releasing full details on the proposal — we don't want to give people [the oppositon] too much time to analyze the data as it reduces our competitive advantage."
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