Intel calls for IEEE to drop UWB

Intel is calling for the IEEE to drop its Ultra Wide Band standard

Intel is calling for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to drop its Ultra Wide Band (UWB) wireless networking standard and adopt Intel's own Wi-Media standard.

As part of the campaign for adoption, the chip giant has taken its own standard to the more commercially friendly European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), whose members are manufacturers rather than engineers, which has just rubber-stamped the proposal. 

UWB can provide 500Mbps networking over short ranges at low power and is designed for consumer electronics devices.

ECMA has published two standards, ECMA-368 and 369, based directly on the WiMedia UWB proposals. In IEEE discussions these were blocked by rival proposals from Motorola-backed Freescale Semiconductor.

The debate will put increased focus on IEEE Task Group 3A, which was charged with creating the standard for the UWB high data rate wireless personal area network technology.

A split formed in early 2004 when the Multi-Band OFDM Alliance (MBOA), which later left the table, blaming Motorola for preventing MBOA from getting the 75 per cent vote needed to become the standard.

Motorola and Freescale formed the UWB Forum whose members prefer the technology approach called Direct Sequence-UWB. The two groups have been at odds ever since.

The IEEE has the most members of any technical professional organisation in the world, with more than 360,000 in around 175 countries. 

Last week it formally ratified the 802.16e mobile WiMax standard and the new standard for wireless broadband, allowing volume production to begin.

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