Realtek's Ultra-Wideband Chips Receive WiMedia Approval For Dual-Band Operation

Hsinchu, Taiwan And Irvine, CA - Realtek Semiconductor Corp. recently announced that its RTU7105 single-chip Wireless USB Device Controller and its RTU7012 single-chip UWB physical layer (PHY) device have each achieved WiMedia Alliance approval for dual-band operation, including both 3.168 to 4.752GHz (WiMedia Band Group 1) and 6.336 to 7.952GHz (WiMedia Band Group 3), as part of the first set of such approvals from the WiMedia Alliance.

The announcement extends the WiMedia certification program to include operation above 6GHz, significantly expanding the number of available channels and facilitating worldwide deployment of UWB devices. The 6.336 to 7.952GHz spectrum has been approved in the United States and in Europe for unrestricted UWB operation. In addition, the band from 7.392 to 7.952GHz has been approved in Japan and Korea, thus providing a common worldwide band.

Introduced in May 2007, the RTU7105 was the first ultra-wideband device supporting WiMedia-based dual-band operation. The RTU7012, the PHY-only counterpart of the RTU7105, includes a WiMedia-compliant MAC-PHY interface enabling dual-band operation when combined with any WiMedia-compliant medium access controller. Both the RTU7105 and RTU7012 demonstrated multi-vendor interoperability as part of the WiMedia required approval process, which also resulted in dual-band approval of chipsets from two other vendors.

"With proven multi-vendor interoperability with dual-band functionality, today's announcement marks another significant milestone for the ultra- wideband industry," said Ran Yan, senior vice president, wireless communications technologies at Realtek. "Realtek has pioneered many aspects of ultra-wideband technology and we are extremely pleased to be at the forefront of dual-band technology."

Availability The RTU7105 and RTU7012 are currently in mass production.

SOURCE: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.