Intel bolsters WiMax bet, funds Motia
By Patrick Mannion
EE Times
Jun 21, 2004
MANHASSET, N.Y. — Aiming to add smart-antenna capability to WiMax equipment, the Intel Communications fund contributed to Motia Inc.'s third round of funding, bringing the total to $12 million.
The news follows the fund's announcement last week that it would partner with Proxim Corp. to co-develop a WiMax reference design for both basestations and customer-premises equipment (CPE), thereby building upon the significant momentum it has gathered for the WiMax broadband wireless interoperability standard since first endorsing it in January 2003.
Intel did not disclose the specific amount of its contribution.
Motia (Stamford, Conn.) is a fabless semiconductor company that specializes in the development of RF ICs that enable smart antennas using adaptive beam forming. Last December, the company emerged with a Javelin chip for 802.11b/g wireless local-area networks.
The chip performs spatial processing of four antennas in the RF domain and applies weights to each antenna based on phase and amplitude measurements, according to Jack Winter, chief scientist at Motia. This yields an improved signal-to-noise ratio of from 10 to 13 dB, said Winter. Now the CPE can even be placed inside a laptop, he said. |
