Freescale Cuts The TV Cable

[Andre Kesteloot]

Just when you thought that all the QRM was coming from DSL, here comes a 
new source.
André N4ICK
*******************************************
 
Forbes.com

	


Consumer Electronics
Freescale Cuts The TV Cable
Arik Hesseldahl, 06.21.05, 9:35 AM ET

The world of consumer electronics is about to become a much-less-tangled 
mess of cords, cables and wires. In their place will be a new type of 
wireless data connection.

Freescale Semiconductor (nyse: FSL 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=FSL> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=FSL>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=FSL>), 
the former chipmaking unit of Motorola (nyse: MOT 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=MOT> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=MOT>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=MOT>), 
will announce today that it has developed a new set of chips aimed at 
allowing high-definition TV signals to be sent from a set-top box to a 
TV screen without the need of a connection cable or cord.

Freescale Chairman and Chief Executive Michel Mayer 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=395975> 
will announce the technology in a speech at a Freescale event in 
Orlando, Fla., today. He will also announce a partnership with Chinese 
consumer-electronics manufacturer Haier to develop a 37-inch liquid 
crystal display TV set using the technology.

The system will be sold with a digital media server that will include a 
hard drive for storing digital video, a DVD player and a TV tuner. The 
wireless connection between the set and the server will let consumers 
place the box anywhere within a range of about 60 feet from the TV. The 
set will debut in China before the end of this year and will hit the 
U.S. market in 2006.

The product announcement is among the first in the area of 
ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, which uses relatively short but 
high-bandwidth radio signals to connect devices in ways that previously 
required the physical connection of a cord. The technology promises to 
enable not only wireless TV sets, but stereo speakers, computer 
accessories and music players, as well as other items.

Freescale says its UWB technology can transfer data at rates of 110 
megabits per second at distances of about 20 meters, or about 65 feet.

UWB technology will eventually eliminate such things as USB cords 
connecting PCs to printers, music players, digital cameras and all 
manner of other devices, allowing for more flexibility and simplifying 
their use, according to Martin Rofheart, Freescale's director of UWB 
applications. He says products that will give existing USB devices the 
ability to connect wirelessly will start showing up later this year. 
Freescale has been working with a company called Icron Technologies, 
based in British Columbia, Canada, to develop a wireless USB technology. 
The two firms demonstrated a prototype device using the technology at a 
Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=MSFT> 
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people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=MSFT>) 
event in April.

"You would slip a UWB device into a USB port on your PC, and it would 
instantly become a wireless USB hub. Then you would connect another 
device to the USB port on some other device, press a button to associate 
them, and they connect wirelessly," Rofheart says. "There's no need for 
any change in the PC."

Some devices like stereo system speakers would forgo the button push, 
and be programmed for an automatic connection to a particular system as 
soon as they're powered up, Rofheart says.

But, as with most new technologies, there are competing ideas. Freescale 
and Motorola have been backing their particular implementation of the 
UWB technology. Meanwhile, chipmaker Intel (nasdaq: INTC 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=INTC> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=INTC>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=INTC>) 
has been promoting another type of UWB technology as part of the WiMedia 
Alliance, an industry consortium it backs with Texas Instruments (nyse: 
TXN 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=TXN> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=TXN>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=TXN>), 
Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=HPQ> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=HPQ>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=HPQ>), 
Nokia (nyse: NOK 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=NOK> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=NOK>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=NOK>), 
Sony (nyse: SNE 
<http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=SNE> 
- news <http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=SNE>- 
people 
<http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=SNE>) 
and Microsoft, among others.

Freescale's flavor of UWB is further along in its development, while the 
WiMedia Alliance's preferred method has more industry support. Last 
month, Intel demonstrated a wireless USB device at the spring Intel 
Developer's Forum, which it had produced with Alereon, a privately held 
wireless-chip startup based in Austin, Tex.
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