TI to offer royalty-free Ultrawideband

Texas Instruments (TI) today fired the latest salvo in the growing war to determine the standard for the emerging Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) technology, Ultrawideband (UWB). The company said it will wave royalties for key patents used in its proposed version of UWB. The move is designed to make this version of UWB more attractive to consumer electronics makers and other potential partners. TI is part of a larger industry consortium called the MultiBand OFDM Alliance (MBOA), which includes other heavyweights such as Intel and Nokia. The MBOA is fighting within the IEEE to establish its UWB standard as the default for the wireless industry. The group faces a rival standard backed by Motorola and its partner, XtremeSpectrum. The two sides have deadlocked several meetings of the UWB task force in the IEEE, leading to a marketplace with two UWB standards. The ITU last month said it plans to push for Motorola's UWB standard.

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031208/dam008a_1.html